Wonder Boy Review by: Totts - 9.1/10
WonderboyTom Tom is our little barbaric looking Hero who keeps us company on this all-important jump ´ n ´ run from SEGA presented by Activision on the C64. Tom Tom takes us on a perilous journey which is marks the liberation of his maid from the clutches of evil.
With beautifully colored and slightly childish graphics, wonder boy is a game for every age group. It is initially very easily and is in itself very harmless. Tom Tom jumps over precipices and stones and fights all possible vermin facing him in the way with his stone mallets (which must first be collected). However, the arduous journey eating away at his power that is displayed in form of a constantly disappearing bar. You should therefore take diligently the often emerging fruits, which give you energy, because only by doing so do you have a chance to succeed. A skateboard to accelerate and some small Angels make our hero Tom Tom invulnerable for some time to provide for additional help and too make things easier on the fourth round of the first area when fighting the evil monsters or face defeat. Unfortunately this monster flees with his prey, and it is again necessary to track him down to defeat him by visiting eight other areas with four rounds, making a total of 36 rounds which must be handled, to get his lover back in his arms.
From the second area onward you have to contend with mobile platforms, common enemies that often appear, make wonder boy an extremely difficult game. If I said this game appeared harmless at the begging, forget it, what promotes itself to be an innocent game becomes a blood thirsty quest to reunite oneself with ones maiden. The loss of the hammer, when one dies, is particularly painful, because without it some enemies are absolutely unfair to beat. Even the smallest touch with an opponent causes immediate death to occur, and you must try your luck once again from the last reset point that there are always four per ‘hole’. The somewhat slow control complicates the game even more.
Game play wise, wonder boy presents you with many opportunities to improve your game play, given of the length of this game you have to become extremely skilful and be ever vigilant to defeat the ever encroaching enemies. Whether on foot or by skateboard, you always have numerous abysses, monsters and combinations of both to contend with. The final boss at the end of each area is nearly identical, and here is a tip, only their head, which can withstand ever more increasing hits and is always different, presents you with the only weak point to target.
The backgrounds when drawn reoccur again and again nicely, but perhaps things may get a little repetitive after the twentieth round. I find the sound adequate for a game of this generation on such a ‘simple’ but ground breaking system of its time.
If too difficult and too monotonous a wonder boy game compared to its other versions and yet it best represents the coin-op that it is, an ultra tough game designed for one purpose to eat coins and a game that is going to appeal strongly to experience and above all dedicated gamers like myself who enjoy a true challenge from a game.
The versions for the C64, Sega Master System are in fact excellent examples of the game of both systems, being most playful and jubilant.
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