Wonder Boy in Monster Land is probably my all-time favourite video game, and it has been with me practically my whole life. I played it a lot as a kid, and I still play it from time to time, even though I now know all secrets, and would probably be able to finish it blindfolded. But it has taken me some hundred hours with it to get there.

The reason why I wanted it so much as a kid, was because my friend had it for his Commodore 64, and I knew there was a Master System-version of it as well. So one time when I was in the toy store where they sold Master System-games, I convinced my parents to buy it to me, even though it was the most expensive game they had. I remember not being so good at it at first, but I eventually got better and better. Discovering all it's secrets was fun - hidden coins, hidden doors ... And being able to buy better equipment - boots, shields and armours. Developing strategies for how to spend my gold - which equipment should be bought in which shop? Personally my strategy was, besides buying better equipment, to buy as many fire balls as I could, to use them on the dragon (final boss). Having to discover all these things by myself made me even more connected to the game, and one secret I didn't actually discover until I started playing the game on emulators - was where the boss with the legendary sword is.

And the final stage is, of course, a story of its own. I spent so much time on that level the music used to give me nightmares, and I was sure I was never going to find my way through that dreadful labyrinth castle. It's funny how I have memorized the way, so that I know it by heart now, even though I don't play the game as often. But back then it was a nightmare. Especially the jumping-up-on-the-moving-blocks part. One mistake and it was back to the beginning! And then the dragon. Woooh.. The dragon! He was hard. It wasn't until I developed my collect-fireballs strategy that I was able to beat him. And of course learning the way in the castle by heart, so I could select the ruby instead of the bell.

I guess it's hard to explain why you fall in love, and it's hard to explain why I fell in love with this game. It's one of those truly classic games from the late 80s, and I am willing to say the Master System version is as good as the arcade version. The music is fantastic, the graphics looks perfect for an 8-bit fan like me, and the game has mysteries, secrets, dragons and witches. It's a magic world this game throws us into, and the story is a classic one - an evil dragon has taken over the country and it's up to a young boy to get to him and kill him. A bit simple maybe, but it doesn't get much more classic than that. And "classic" is also the word I would use to describe this game.

This story may seem silly, but fact is fact, that's what happened:
When I was younger, and the Master System was the video game of the moment, I had serious discussions with a school friend who always told me that he knew the best games and also had the best games. The financial conditions of our families were different, I was poorer and his family, richer. Accustomed to traveling abroad, one time he once came to school bragging about having bought the best game of his life, "Wonder Boy in Monster Land".
Of course I had already won the "Mônica no Castelo do Dragão", which I argued to be the best game I had played for Master System. We engage in a discussion where each defended his game, not knowing that we were talking about the same game. Understand that at that time, we had no knowledge that games could be modified and released in different countries.
Well, it was common to have birthday parties with fellow students at their home, and i ended up going to his house and saw that the "Wonder Boy in Monster Land" was the same as "Mônica no Castelo do Dragão" and the discussion has turned out to who copied whom.
Years later I discovered that I had already lost the argument, because the Brazilian version was a copy of the U.S..

If you ignore the silly story, this is one of the best games on the master system. There's so much to this game. one of the few games that wasn't about button mashing. the last level of this game was a pure puzzle. you really needed to study this game, looking back on it now it was just a good game