Same Game Different Titles

   It all started when Sega published and Westone formally know as Escape developed the arcade game Wonder boy. The main character Tom Tom runs through a side scrolling game trying to save his girl friend from the big bad monster. The interesting thing about this game
series is that it would contain the Wonder Boy series as well as the sub-series Monster World. This would make some wacky game titles like Wonder Boy V: Monster World III.
   
   To make things even more confusing Westone had licensing’s with both Sega and Hudson Soft. Sega was able to keep the Wonder Boy series and characters. Where Hudson Soft was giving the license to everything else. In the end Hudson Soft ended up making new characters and a new name of the game Adventure Island. The interesting thing about Adventure Island is that it was more successful then Wonder Boys was for Sega. However, Adventure Island was released to non-Sega platforms. As well as have the same levels and same story line as Wonder Boy did. 

   Wonder boy first came out in the arcades in 1986. The arcade game consists of eight different side-scrolling levels. With the main character Tom Tom chasing after his girl Friend. He used axes and skateboards to help him get through the eight different stages. Sega ended up releasing two Wonder Boys in the same year for the arcade. One was for the SG-1000, which was only available in Japan. The second was to the Sega Mark III, only this version had additions to it in order to make it appeal better then the one that was released to SG-1000. In reality though the Sega Mark III version was more true to the original version that came out in the arcades.

   In 1987 Wonder Boy: Monster Land was released in Japan only.This changed the whole out look of what Wonder Boy originally was. Wonder Boy turned from a side scrolling game into an action RPG type game. More changes to the game were the fact of using currency to by new weapons, as well as, having a health gauge. This version also added magic spells and supporting characters that would provide you with more information. The sequel was later ported to the Sega Mark III as Super Wonder Boy: Monster World. However, it was released in North America and Europe as Wonder Boy in Monster Land. Soon Activision came out with a home computer version titled Super Wonder Boy in Monster Land. This is how the whole series of Monster Land came to be. 

   In 1988 Sega released the final game for the arcades Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair. This version of Wonder Boy had a different feel to the game as well. Like in the first game it started out as a side scrolling game. However, it changed its playability to the player fighting their way to the boss while riding on a dragon. This is also the only Wonder Boy game that comes with a two-player co-op mode. It also stands as the only Wonder Boy game that was ported to a home entertainment system unaltered. 

   Around the same time Westone was making a sequel to Monster World for the Sega Mark III. However, by time Westone was done making the sequel Sega stop production to the Mark III in Japan. However, the Sega Master System was still being sold over seas. So Westone released the English-Version to the still being sold Sega Master System. This was under the new title of Wonder Boy III: The Dragons Trap. This was interesting to do because technically in Japan this would have been the fourth Wonder Boy released. But, because their were only two Wonder Boy games out for the Sega Master System. This new game became the third installment for  the series. This game was eventually released later in Japan for the Game Gear.

   This brings us back to the game of Wonder Boy V: Monster World III. Turns out this would be the last game under the Wonder Boy name to be internationally released. This game was at first made for the Mega Drive, but then later release to the American counterpart the Genesis. This made it the first Wonder Boy game to be released on both platforms.

   Now with all of this being said how do we get to the Adventure Island games, which look identical to Wonder Boy? That’s a good question. Hudson Soft published Adventure Island. They were given the rights to do so by the developers Escape that later became know as Westone. Adventure Island first started out as a port from Sega’s Arcade game Wonder Boy. First coming out in Japan in 1986 for MSX and for the family computer. However, in 1988 it came out for the Nintendo Entertainment System. 

   However, unlike its counterpart of Wonder Boy, Adventure Island stayed true to the original Wonder Boy in its sequels. Hudson Soft also had the rights to port all the Wonder Boy games, with the exception to Wonder Boy III, Monster Lair, to the turbo grafx 16.However, the turbografx16 version of Wonder Boy III: The Dragons Trap ended up being changed to Adventure Island in Japan.

   There ended up being two sequels to Adventure Island. These became know as Adventure Island II and Adventure Island III. There was also a forth game that came out for the Famicom that was released only in Japan. Adventure Island also inspired an anime show made by
TMS Entertainment. The show aired in Japan only from October 1986 to September of 1987 lasting for a total of 51 shows and a theatrical film. Both the film and the anime show inspired another game that was released in Japan of Takahashi Meijin no Bug-tte Honey.

   All information was found on Wikipedia.org, which doesn’t cite their sources or references. I just tried my best to put this information all together and into my own words as much as possible. Search Wonder Boy (video game) and Adventure Island (video game) to get the same information and more detail as to how these two games came to be.

I really liked this article, lots of fun facts in here.

When I first stumbled across Wonder Boy about a year ago on my Wii (I think it was a Virtual Console game), I instantly knew what it was a rip off of.  Turns out, Adventure Island was the rip off lol.  Both are great games (since they're basically the same) but I do like the music on Adventure Island better (since they do have different music).

This reminds me of Super Mario Bros 2 being a copy of Doki Doki Panic.

lol doki doki panic lol what on earth

I've actually never owned a master system EDIT: or the other sytems that wonder boy is on such as C64, but have played adventure island on nes, so I had no idea of the rip-off. I've noticed a lot of retro games following this suite of copying ideas from other games, so this adds to them haha.

tRIUNE : At least this one had the rights to do it, there's a lit of rip offs out there that don't have the rights.  Great Giana Sisters is probably the best example of this, a complete Super Mario Bros rip off for the C64.

There is a game for NES that is a duplicate. Kewi Krazy is the same thing as New Zealand Story. Only absolutely nothing is changed like Super Mario Bros 2 and Adventure Island did.

rcarter2 : Some games have different names in different countries, you sure that's not the case with that game?

I never heard of Great Giana Sisters - just checked it out in the RGR. That's kinda funny how it is a complete rip off of Super Mario Bros.

Wow this happened a lot back in those days though. Still seems weird that they would do that though. I think it is funny to find to exact same games just different titles and such.

Nice Article.

Davideo7 Forgot that little detail. Yes. North America was the only country that it was released as Kiwi Kraze. But it was published in to America by the same publisher who distributed it everywhere else (which was Taito)

rcarter2 : I wonder what other games had different names in different countries, I know there's a few I just can't remember which ones on the top of my head.

Davideo7 : the resident evil games were released in japan as biohazard i believe.

thenumberone : Ohh that's right.  Now that I think of it, there's a lot with different names in Japan.

Pokemon = Pocket Monsters
Mega Man = Rockman

That's actually kinda annoying, I wish they'd maintain consistency lol.

Davideo7 :
Siren: bloodcurse is another,in japan its siren: new translation.
Is it only japan that does that,because it seems that way.im curious why now,google time.
All i found was there was a lousy game called biohard in the us already,so they had a company contest to find a new name.
I will find out why for the other games,its annoying me now,lol.

Yes, like Sinno no Sukkiri, Everybody's Golf, and Hot Shots for the PSP/PS1. They're all the same game.

There are numerous games like this, mostly what I think of is the different titles between Europe and USA because I know already of course the Japanese titles are different . I can think of a few off the top of my head:

Contra = Probector

Castlevania - Dracula X = "Vampire's Kiss"

Castlevania - Bloodlines = "The New Generation"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles = T.M. "Hero" Turtles

I know I've noticed a lot more, but I don't know off hand.