Wonder Boy: Monster Land  (ワンダーボーイ モンスターランド)

Score:
by tommy1983

I grew up with Wonder Boy in Monster Land on SMS, and probably didn't realize until many years later that this arcade version was the original. The two versions are pretty similar though, even though there are small differences. The arcade version's graphics is slightly better, and it also has more music, more enemies ... more of everything. While I consider myself to be good at the SMS-version, I consider myself to be really bad at this one. But it's also a lot harder. A LOT harder! Near impossible, actually. It seems their goal was to get people to spend as much money on it as possible, as that's the only reason I can see for them to make it so hard. I got to play this game on an arcade machine in Korea a few years ago (having only played it on emulators before), and even though I used all my coins, I was never able to beat the gorilla-like creature at level 5. It must take like 50 hits or something to beat him! And it only gets worse from there. The trick is apparently to get the bosses trapped in a corner, but that's easier said than done. Also as the game moves on, all enemies seem to move faster and faster. So you better use every trick possible in order to advance in this game. While items like bombs and tornadoes are pretty useless in the SMS-version, they are worth their weight in gold here, since the game is so hard.

So, even though I like this game very much, I have to say it's a bit too hard. But perhaps I would get better at it if I had played it as much as I have played the SMS-version. The way it is now though, I feel as if there's too many enemies that take too many hits, move too fast (once you get to the later stages), and take too much of your life if you touch them. If you overlook those things, it's a great game though.

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JAPAN
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