Nostalgic Game Design Focus - Wonderboy in Monsterland
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What do you get when you combine elements of 'Super Mario Brothers' with 'The Legend of Zelda'?
This adventure-platformer!
Welcome. This is 'Nostalgic Game Design Focus' a series where I get to think back and comment upon games that I had played when I was much younger - mostly from a game-design perspective.
Title: Wonderboy in Monsterland
Developers: Westone Bit Entertainment & Sega
Publishers: Sega
Designer: Ryuichi Nishizawa
Programmers:Ryuichi Nishizawa, Michishito Ishizuka
Composer: Shinichi Sakamoto
Artists: Hiromi Suzuko, Rie Ishizuka
Released: 1988
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Now... there are a number of classics that I never really got to play...
- 'Super Mario Brothers'
- 'Sonic the Hedgehog'
- 'The Legend of Zelda'
- 'Wonder Boy' (The first game in the series)
- 'Megaman'
- 'Metroid'
- 'Ultima'
Aside from the first two, I remained blissfully unaware... and in my blissful ignorance as a child I 'initially' greatly hoped that one of those titles would find its way to my Atari.
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Well... I gradually learnt better - and so when 'Wonderboy in Monsterland' arrived, I had long since gotten over that phase of "but its not (either of those games)".
And that was a good thing - because this turned out to be one of those games that I 'really' had a blast with.
And so I managed to live on without 'Mario' and 'Sonic' in my life.
That 'would' be something though - if Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft and other publishers also worked on each others' platforms.
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Story and Objective
This game occurs a good decade or so (OK - eleven years) after the events of 'Wonder Boy' - where the kid protagonist 'Tom-Tom' defeated an evil king to bring an period of peace and prosperity to Wonder Land.
However now a new threat has arisen in the form of a fire-breathing 'MEKA dragon'. It and its minions conquered the peaceful 'wonder land' and renamed it 'Monster Land'.
And so, when your land's been conquered by a fire-breathing nasty, who are you gonna call?
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No, not 'Mario'. He has his hands full with the Mushroom Kingdom.
No - you gotta call 'Tom-Tom' of course!
Now a teenager, its down to 'Tom-Tom' to fight his way through to the end of the game.
The people of monster land are willing to help...
...for a price, of course.
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Player Abilities and Gameplay
In this game you get to play as 'Tom-Tom' who is now a teenager, and for some reason initially wearing what looks suspiciously akin to an oversized nappy, throughout a linear series of levels.
Joystick controls motions
'Left' and 'right' for movement,
'Up' for jump, also for knocking on doors.
'Fire' for attack, if one has a sword equipped.
'Down' to use a special item.
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In this game a lot of the abilities of the player are either influenced by or dependent upon items gained in the game.
Swords - At the very beginning you have no attack ability (and this is fortunately for but a very brief time before being given a sword and sent upon a quest Zelda-style) but that is quickly remedied, and regular attacks involve thrusting motions as the character sticks its sword forward in a stabbing motion.
There will be a number of opportunities to earn better swords along the way - and each one makes killing a more efficient proposition - and also slightly lengthens the sword strike distance. These are tricky to find, often as rewards for defeating boss monsters.
Shields - Similarly you have no shield at the start of the game - and this is remedied a little later on. Shields are very important for blocking ranged attacks. When blocking an attack 'Tom-Tom' is pushed a distance depending on the quality of the shield (which 'can' pose a problem for platforming). However shields will not protect against enemies that bump into you. These may be purchased from shops.
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Armours - It is truly fortunate that 'Tom-Tom' is able to hide his ridiculous nappy under armour, once obtained. The function of armour is two-fold - both reducing damage taken as well as reducing the degree to which you are thrown back when you take damage. Obtainable from shops.
Boots - Strangely enough, the type of footwear that one chooses in this game greatly affects how high one is able to jump. If one were to leave aside reality then one could simply enjoy the fact that better boots make one jump higher, increasing mobility - which is important both for combat situations as well as accessing otherwise unreachable areas. Obtainable form shops.
Medicine - This is a game where dying can be a death sentence, especially towards the end. I'll explain this soon but medicine allows part of your life to regenerate the moment that you woulde have died.
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Special Items
Bombs - These are thrown in a short arc and roll upon the ground, blowing up on contact with the enemy, or on their own once their time is up.
Tornados - These are tornado spouts that are thrown forward. When they hit an enemy they rebound back slightly and proceed - so its possible to hit an enemy twice. It travelles upon the ground and dissipates after a couple of seconds.
Fireballs - These travel straight for the most dangerous enemy at a slow but steady pace. It can be avoided but will do a fiar bit of damage if a hit is scored.
Lightning - The screen flashes and every enemy upon the screen takes a single hit. This is the easiest to use by far, at all stages of the game, but I personally like to save them for the end boss.
Yes, all special items have a limited number of uses.
Unfortunately the game was not designed to allow a toggle between items. If you want to move from your bombs to your lightning then you will need to use all your bombs to maybe get to them (and this not accounting for maybe needing to use/ waste other items also). It is unfortunate as this could have been fixed with 'spacebar' easily.
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Limited-Use Power-Ups
Helmet - A very important protective item, helmets halve the damage that 'Tom-Tom' would otherwise have taken. It will break after absorbing enough damage however.
Gauntlets - Doubling one's attack power sounds nice - and that is what these gauntlets do. For a limited number of strikes your attacks land with much omore power. They will break following enough use.
Winged Boots - While jumping, keeping up pressed arrests one's fall, resulting in gliding and an effective ability to jump much further. In some stages this is very handy - but beware as the effect can and will wear off following enough use.
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Of Life and Death
When you begin the game 'Tom-Tom' has 5 'hearts' of life (yes it does remind me of Zelda).
When you make contact with enemies or traps or projectiles or the like - you lose hearts depending on how powerful the attack was and how good your armour is.
Another thing that takes life off of you is time. On the left-hand side of the screen is an hourglass where time flows from top to bottom. Should the hour-glass ever fully deplete then it flips over - and you lose a single heart.
Hearts may be regained in a variety of ways. Bars along the way tend to offer a choice between beer (+1/2 heart) and cocktails (+1 heart). Hospitals offer cures (+2 hearts). Plus little and big hearts can be collected along the way to restore health - and the timer.
The timer itself can be reset through collecting timer icons that appear.
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Hearts Gain
Collecting points in-game serves a purpose beyond attempting the high score.
Gaining a certain amount of points adds to your maximum number of hearts.
The first one gained is at the budget 30,000 points mark but every subsequent heart is at the more expensive 100,000 points mark beyond.
Death
What is truly punishing in the game is death. Yes you have extra lives but you lose all your extra items as well as your coins and shield.
Which usually means that you are set to die a lot more now.
Yay... Thank goodness for 'recovery medicine' that helps to prevent that.
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Enemies and Boss Fights
'Wonderboy in Monsterland' features a diverse set of enemies and bosses.
A few bosses may be avoided but often at the expense of a useful item.
Each of them also have their abilities, characteristics and behavior patterns that set them apart from each other.
Some float in the air, others walk upon the ground and others jump all around. Their attack patterns tend to vary on the basis of distance - and some are more 'patient' than others (the hourglass still flows).
Some of them are a little more predictable than others - and the first boss, while not particularly difficult, is placed rather silly, in my opinion.
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Loot! Once you defeat a boss it explodes into a bunch of coins and either a key or a weapon.
An annoying feature of the game is that the character gets transported back to the main screen the moment that the key is collected - and so its very possible to miss valuable coins if not careful.
In my opinion it would have made more sense to go the way of Rainbow Islands where a player has a few seconds to themselves (simply hang the timer for the post-boss duration, making it flash a different color or something). 5 seconds would have been enough (or maybe even just give the player all uncollected coins/ items).
It just doesn't add anything to the game to play in the way that it does. Furthermore, the bosses could have benefited from slightly more complicated behavior patterns - in exchange of 'wind-up' animations that provide a little bit of precious warning when things are otherwise going to get unfair. An example is when a boss fires projectiles.
Now, the regular guys, they have even simpler mechanics but they are not a lot less functional than bosses in some cases - just less tough.
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Of Atmosphere
'Wonderboy in Monsterland' is one of those games that is fairly rich in its colour palette. Different levels will explore most of the colour spectrum between them and each one has its own dedicated slant.
The music is very serviceable for this game and strikes a balance between richness and variety. Since you will be switching between different music samples often enough, it doesn't ever get too repetitive - and the driving force of the hourglass further ensures this.
The levels are quite spacious and at times it will seem like certain levels could have been more populated with enemies - or that sections of level felt a little empty (perhaps due to a lack of richness in the backdrop - which could be put down to diskette space limitations - as usual). However on the whole things felt pretty good and the play-through was generally quite satisfying.
Furthermore the minimalist RPG elements of this game help to give the impression that what one is doing is meaningful. There is that little sense of purpose - of 'saving wonder land' that drives you as a player to get further.
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In Conclusion
My final verdict on this game is that while it certainly is not a perfect game, and had clear points for improvement, it still did a pretty good job of taking the platforming genre and doing something a little innovative with it.
It produced a charming game that is fairly easy to get into.
It turns out to be a pretty good example of how a 2D platformer can incorporate rpg elements such as character equipment, shops and dialogue in a way that does not detract from the overall experience.
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As per usual I shall be letting 'The Joy of Sticks' give us his take on the game. I really like his videos because he tends to go in with very little prior practice - just enough to mostly avoid certain unfair pitfalls like failing to jump over a key to get all the coins dropped by a boss.
That, and he does seem to be very laid back as well as sincere and well-informed in his sharings!
In revisiting this nostalgia-inducing game, I hope to leave the rut that has been haunting me behind. Its 2018 and there are plenty of other games that I've played on Atari that I'd love to share my thoughts on.
Do you have any feedback or comments? I look forward to your comments down below.
Also, if you found this post interesting and would like to share this with your followers and friends then a resteem is always appreciated.
Sincerely,
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