Game Groups > Wonder Boy series

Wonder Boy is a series of predominantly platform games developed by Westone. Most of the games in the series feature a recurrent protagonist, the titular boy with a caveman-like appearance known as Tom-Tom. The plots often involve his girlfriend Tanya being kidnapped, and rescuing her becomes the main goal of the game.

While the first Wonder Boy (1986) was a fairly straightforward side-scrolling game, its sequel Wonder Boy in Monster Land (1987) defined most of the series' characteristic gameplay elements, focusing on expansive platforming with light role-playing elements such as a monetary system, weapon and equipment management, and occasional conversations with NPCs. It also shifted the game's setting from tropical environments to medieval fantasy.

As per their agreement with Sega, Westone retained the rights to their games but not to the trademark characters. As a result, various ports by Hudson Soft were released under different titles and also changed the names of the characters. Eventually some of these ports, dubbed Adventure Island, led to development of new independent titles in their own series.

Related Links

• History of: The Wonder Boy Series - A feature article on the fansite Sega-16, which provides an overview of the series' history, as well as a complete chronology of the games' numerous releases (Jul. 01st, 2004)
• The Legend of Wonder Boy - An IGN retrospective about the history of the Wonder Boy series and the companies who have been involved with the character's exploits over the years (Nov. 14th, 2008).