Wonder Boy in Monsterland

This is a fun conversion of the classic arcade game. Gameplay is spot on with the arcade original and many - if not all of the secrets are here too. The graphics are not the best but they are functional at least, and the music is very faithful. The last level seems to be a very cut down rehash however, and it's here that it's faithfulness to the arcade game diverges. On the plus side it makes the end level less frustrating and less of a coin guzzler the original arcade machine turned it into.

The first thing that strikes you when you start out on your adventure is just how good the music is. And it never disappoints from the word go. The C64 easily has the best music of any version of this game.

The graphics are good too, well drawn backgrounds, good looking sharp enemy sprites.

There's a lot depth here, some great boss fights, plenty of adventuring to do.

But it's not a classic on this platform because of one thing:- The framerate. Never have I seen it hamper a game so badly as here. Any battle you get into is made more difficult by it since it heavily affects the controls, and it's something you can't stop noticing because it's just so bad. Some of the baddies you will battle move at something like 10fps, making them artificially difficult. The C64 could easily have ran this game at 50fps, so I guess it was just a lack of skill on the coders part.

Another minus is the rather odd addition of a time limit which you must replenish regularly or suffer a pointless death.

The Engrish translation provides some hilarity. "12 gold get" indeed.

6/10. Play the Master System version.

Played a few levels while doing a comparison with the Amiga version. Really enjoyed the humorous side of this game as well as the good playability.

An underrated gem of a game. A completely different direction from the first Wonderboy game, which could have been a big risk rather than playing it safely with a connect-the-dots sequel. Probably my favourite and most played C64 game. A rare 10 from me.

Was one of my fave arcades back in the day (about 87), shows how old I am... It had a lot of depth for an arcade game.

Until today I never knew this exisited on the C64 haveing only owned the Amiga version. I think this is a cracking conversion and eventhough the GFX are a little ropey all the plability and atmosphere has survived in this conversion. Making it better than 90% of Amiga platform games (im looking at you Zool)

A really great little game. Try it now. 9/10

P. S I agree about Zzap, bunch of twats.

This game surely deserves a 90%! The reviewers of Zzap must have been drunk! Everything is great in this game. The best 8-bit conversion and almost as good as the Amiga version!

Got this for christmas -89.
Zelda goes platform, I like it! For some reason, there was something wrong with the copy I received - the bosses (some of them at least) couldn't hurt you.

If you have the time and patience, you could find a lot to commend about this game. There's a fair amount of depth in there, lurking behind the arcade platform exterior. As I have no patience, I shall pass on this one, but it's not a bad little game at all.

Downsides are that the scrolling is quite jerky and the combat moves are a tad indistinct.

A little RPG adventure in a platformer... I love this game. The gameplay is great in this conversion. I enjoyed this C64 version without knowing the arcade original one. The graphics and the bad scrolling would have been done better, it's the only bad aspect of the game that would have been polished as a C64 deserves.

I remember back in the day when my vile mate had this for the c-64 and I had the Amiga version and he used to say the c-64 version was better than the Amiga version I had, what a tit he was the Amiga version was much better, thats my vile mate for u

Really bad graphics, unaccurate scroll but decent animations and very good playability.. And sometimes that's the main thing.
Sprites are too little and our is horrible.. What a shame. Multiloading.

I really loved this game, it was long, it had great music lots of secrets and more.
I spent countless hours playing it.
Even found a a invulnerability secret potion that lasted forever on the top of a house somewhere. That's the only reason I managed to beat the game.

I loved this game, so many hours of fun provided

One of the best Arcade Games ever made... However, C64 port has bad graphics...

If I fancy a game on the 64 I always have a go of this a superb little game and the best of the wonderboy series 10/10

Never played this, but it does look good! I'll try it soon.

Accurate conversion of the arcade game, good fun!

One of my fav. Arcade games. The graphics arn't the best but they work well for 64. Anyway the graphics at the arcade wern't even that great either. Still it plays just like the arcade and is just as enjoyable.

The graphic is ugly as hell, specially the pyramide stage. But the game itself makes a lot of fun. Sad that there it's no better conversation from this game. It had the stuff from an alltime classics but so it is wasted potential.

Mayehm, Radcliff and now Wonderboy. That 'Monsterland' seems to be highly over populated.

I love Wonderboy. The monsterland version was a great action-adventure, with lots of pick-ups and extra weapons, coins and monsters. The graphics are neigh at the coin-op and it was very playable, but a little bit slow. Its very very entertaining and a great conversion of the coin-op! Me and the C64 loved it. 10/10

Probably the greatest arcade game ever. You really feel like you are on an adventure, with rpg-like elements. C64 version is better than sucky Amiga version. Only really good home version is for SMS. The arcade is far superior to all home versions

I was fooled by Zzap! 64 bad review (68%) so I didn't buy this one back then and it's a shame, 'cause I would have enjoyed it a lot. Great conversion and very nice game in its own right. Jolly catchy tunes, all the shops, adventure overtones, platform/cute beat 'em up action... I love it!

The arcade version of this game is the best. Me and friend was playing this game every day like crazy. I don't like the c64er version compared to original arcade version. Because of the trick to get 68 gold. Hehe my arcade record is over 4 millons. Try to beat this...

I had this game on the Sega megadrive and it was great.
I remember this game in the arcade... Strange huh?
An adventure game in the arcade.

Although it didn't quite hit the dizzy heights of grandeur that the original did for me back then, I still spent hours of exploration on this game, enthralled by its chivalric atmosphere. Although I never completed it without cheating, I just finished watching my younger brother do so very convincingly. The final fight with the dragon is awesome when he sheds the skin! Nice melodic in game music as well.

Multi-load wonderboy. Great game actually, good graphics, nice sound and good game-play. (but the FLT crack didn't allow you to catch the big hearts at some levels... Poor!)

Very Entertaining, and a conversation of the Arcade.
So much multiple loading times though between the small worlds. But its playable and Im glad this game came to the C64. 9/10

Excellent conversion of a classic arcade game.

One of the greatest platformer arcades I've ever played on my C64. Incredible music and hours of fun.

Look at www.c64games.de or www.toggle64.de, you'll find the complete version there. Great game, by the way!

It's a good game. But I have problems with my emulator (CCS64). I need to insert a disc that isn't there.

Great game, good tunes by James Smart... But the game have a problem whit more emulator :-(