Wonder Boy in Monster World screenshot

Release year: 1991

Wonder Boy in Monster World

Category: ActionAdventureFantasyPlatformerRPG

"Monster World was once a peaceful region." That's the whole setup the Genesis/Mega Drive gives you. Nick Gibson of Sega-16 wrote that there's no story here beyond "save the world from monsters", then scored the game 9 out of 10 anyway.

What it has instead is company. The fairy queen Eleanora lends you Priscilla, who bops monsters with her wand for no damage and drops hearts when you're nearly dead. Rescue the dwarf boy Hotta and he punches through temple walls into rooms you'd have walked past. Childam sends Shabo, a flying grim reaper; Begonia sends Rotto, a dragon hatchling. Each one goes home when you leave its region, and none of them helps in a boss fight.

Which leaves Shion alone for the strange part. The Almighty Demon King, in Gibson's words, is "a dorky rabbit/elephant/dragon hybrid", and he's nowhere near the last thing Wonder Boy in Monster World asks you to fight. A story that starts with monsters in a fairy village doesn't finish anywhere near one.

The whole thing runs online in your browser. Behind the ivy in Purapril, the Aqua Capital, a hidden door leads to a man who won't speak to anyone not holding a Charmstone. A shop in the same town sells them for 500,000 gold.

Start
Menu
Joystick
Movement
A
Magic / Item
B
Attack
C
Jump
Save / Restart / Load

Animated Screenshots

Wonder Boy in Monster World title screen on SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive
Wonder Boy in Monster World — Shion crossing the Poseidon Sea on jellyfish
Wonder Boy in Monster World — Shion by the statues in Alsedo, the fairy village
Wonder Boy in Monster World — Shion on the musical note platforms in Alsedo Cave

Where to go next when nothing points you there

Monster World is one connected map with no quest log, and whatever is blocking you is almost always an item you don't have yet. The Ocarina opens the three sealed doors in Alsedo Cave. The Trident, dropped by Gragg & Glagg in the Lilypad Temple, lets Shion swim instead of bobbing helplessly on the surface. The Amulet makes the Poseidon Shrine appear where there was nothing, and the Oasis Boots that Poseidon leaves you stop the Maugham Desert sand from eating a quarter of a heart every second.

Then it's keys. The Sun Key is down a well in the desert, behind a wall you have to swim under. The Moon Key waits at the top of the pyramid's rope, the Star Key sits past the Sphinx, and the three of them together open the road to the Begonia Cliffs. In Begonia itself, past those cliffs, the Elder Dragon hands over the Bracelet and sends you to Ice World for the Old Axe. The Ice Bomber drops that axe, the Tyrant Dragon drops the Fire-Urn, and the blacksmith in Begonia forges both into the Legend Sword.

Equip that sword, then go back to the Bell Tower at Purapril Castle, stand under the star crest and press . That's the way into Nightmare Castle. And if you're stuck at the very beginning: the castle entrance beside Shion's house is not the way in. The guards there turn Shion away until he has already reached Purapril the long way round, through the Waterway that Eleanora opens up from a tree in Alsedo once the Myconid is dead.

Inputs the game mentions once and never again

What are the three Ocarina melodies?

Sonia lost her Ocarina in the cave outside Alsedo. She teaches Shion the melodies that open its three sealed doors, then lets him keep the instrument, and the status screen has no page to write the notes down on. Stand on the musical-note platforms and play:

  • First door: KLKLKSpaceK
  • Second door: LKSpaceKSpaceLK
  • Third door: LSpaceSpaceLKLK

Behind the second door is a chest with a Life Heart in it. Shion starts the game on three hearts, and the ghosts waiting later in the Lilypad Jungle take a whole heart per hit, so a fourth one this early is worth the detour.

The spear spin nobody finds

With a spear equipped, hold and tap K over and over. Shion spins the shaft in front of him, knocking projectiles out of the air and damaging anything that drifts into it. Nothing in the game tells you this exists, and it's the reason the big fish in the Poseidon Sea is farmable at all.

The same goes underwater. Tapping Space with the Trident equipped makes Shion swim properly instead of bobbing on the surface. And to leave a shop or a house you press , not the door you walked in through.

All 11 Life Hearts

Shion starts on three hearts and tops out at fourteen. The eleven Life Hearts that get him there are spread from the first cave to the last, and roughly half are behind something you would never open by accident. Turn up at the spaceship holding four or five of them and every mistake in there costs a much bigger share of a much smaller health bar.

  • Alsedo Cave, in the chest behind the second Ocarina door.
  • Lilypad Temple, in a side passage gated by a switch. Hotta has to be walking with you, and it's one of the easiest hearts in the game to walk past.
  • The sea left of Alsedo, toward the right side of it, once the Trident lets you dive.
  • The cave between Alsedo and Purapril. The secret door is in the second puddle of water from the right, and it doesn't open onto the chest, so follow the path from there.
  • Poseidon Shrine, underwater, near the start.
  • Ice Castle, toward the end, on the left side.
  • The cave right of Lilypad, in the small path left of the falling boulder. Pygmy form only.
  • Maugham Pyramid, through the small opening left of the spiked-ceiling room: shrink, climb down the ladder and walk left straight through the wall.
  • Begonia Volcano, under the lava at the far left of the first path with a fire snake coming out of it.
  • The clouds above Purapril, before you go into the last castle.
  • Nightmare Castle, down the path left of the Legend Armor. The secret door on the bottom trolley track shrinks Shion; that's the way in.

Three of these sit behind walls only a shrunken Shion can walk through, and a fourth is inside a volcano he can't enter at full size at all. That's not a detour you bolt on at the end. Get the Pygmy gear when the game first offers it, and the hearts come along with the route.

The Sphinx quiz: all ten questions

Inside the Maugham Pyramid the Sphinx blocks the way to the Star Key and lays out the terms itself: "I'm gonna ask you some questions - 5, to be exact". It draws those five from a pool of ten. Four correct answers open the door. Five correct, and it also hands over a Thunder Magic item, which matters later, because Nightmare Castle contains the one fight in the whole game where magic is genuinely required.

  • What's the first type of magic you acquired? Fire Storm
  • What's the name of the queen in the elf village? Eleanora
  • Which of these monsters did you battle first? Myconid
  • After defeating Gragg & Glagg, what did you receive? Trident
  • Which of these items is not sold at the Wanderer weapon shop? Trident
  • What's the name of the dwarf village? Lilypad
  • Which key do you need to enter the Pyramid? Sun Key
  • How much does a Charmstone cost? 500000 GOLD
  • What item helped you to traverse Maugham Desert? Oasis Boots
  • Which of these stores does not sell weapons? Felissimo, the shop whose keeper greets Shion with "We have a medicine for sale"

The one that catches people out is the Wanderer question, because two of its three options really are on that shop's shelves: Excalibur at 2,500 gold and the Steel Shield at 2,000. The Trident isn't sold anywhere at any price. Gragg & Glagg drop it, and that's the only copy in Monster World.

Pygmy form and the four pieces that unlock it

The transformation chamber sits in a house on the right side of Begonia, and it refuses to work until Shion is carrying the whole set. The game scatters those four items across regions you visit hours apart:

  • Pygmy Sword: on sale in Purapril.
  • Pygmy Armor: Poseidon Sea, in a chest above the waterline that you can only reach by swimming there with the Trident.
  • Pygmy Shield: Maugham Pyramid, behind one of the outer doors.
  • Pygmy Boots: Ice Castle, in a chest with a big blue enemy standing over it.

None of it functions at normal size. The Pygmy gear is equipment only while Shion is small, which feels like a lot of inventory for a costume, right up until you realize that the small door on the cliff right of the transformation house is the entrance to Begonia Volcano. The Tyrant Dragon at the bottom of it holds the Fire-Urn. Without the Fire-Urn there is no Legend Sword, and without the Legend Sword the Bell Tower stays a bell tower.

Shrinking also walks Shion through walls that don't look like doors. The Maugham Pyramid hides a Pygmy-only area holding a Life Heart and a Charmstone, and a room of six chests with another Charmstone among them: fall down the left path from the middle door, then find the door in the floor about two thirds of the way right. Nightmare Castle keeps its own shrinking door on the bottom trolley track.

Boss patterns

Nearly every boss here has one safe angle and punishes everything else. Myconid, at the end of Alsedo Cave, likes to jump over Shion: let him, stab him on the way past, and above all keep killing the little monsters he spits out, because those are what actually finish you. The Knight in the Purapril Waterway loses to sheer patience. Duck, swing, inch forward, repeat, and he never gets a turn. Gragg & Glagg have to be dismantled one at a time, the right-hand one first, while their boulders keep coming down the room. The Ice Bomber is fought from above: get onto the platforms over his head and hit it, and if you get trapped underneath him while he's throwing ice, expect to earn your way out. The Tyrant Dragon burns anything standing in front of him, so keep a shield up, work from the platforms above and drop below him each time he jumps. Bring Rotto, an Elixir and a Hi-Potion into that volcano.

The Almighty Demon King keeps growing heads

Only the head takes damage. Kill it and it drops off, a new one grows in its place, and the one you just removed turns into a rabbit thing that shoots fire across the arena. Kill the second and it becomes a rock that rolls around the floor looking for you. So by the third head you're jumping at a target while two discarded heads work the room from either side. Thunder magic, if you've kept any, is the quickest way to buy yourself room.

Why can't you hurt Biomeka?

Because the first form is armored and nothing in your inventory touches it. That part of the fight is scripted: survive, and when Shion is nearly dead the Prince of Darkworld appears, teases him, rips the armor and the gun off Biomeka, heals him and dies doing it. What follows is a two-stage fight that finishes with a conveyor belt hauling you away from the eye you're trying to hit while a saw rides it in your direction.

Before any of that, the spaceship makes Shion refight the old bosses behind the side ladders, and the central ladder stays shut until all four are dead. With the Legend Sword it's fast: Myconid goes down in one hit, Gragg and Glagg in two each, the Ice Bomber in about five, the Tyrant Dragon in about six.

How to actually afford a Charmstone

One Charmstone buys a permanent heart from the man behind the ivy, up to the same ceiling of fourteen. Hand him two at once and he gives magic instead: three Fire Storms, two Thunders, three Quakes, two Shields and two Powers, none of which can push a spell past twelve uses. Put another way, that 500,000 gold price tag is what the game charges for a heart you would otherwise have to dig out from under lava.

The best money in Monster World swims. Once Shion has the Trident, head into the Poseidon Sea past the long strip of land with no water, drop in and swim one screen west so you end up underneath it. The big fish living there drops either a large bag worth 400 to 700 gold or a large heart that refills Shion's health. Hold and tap K to spin the Trident, which shreds the small fish it spits at you while damaging the big one. Swim off the screen, come back, and it has respawned.

Do that enough times and the loop opens up: buy a Charmstone, farm again, buy another, then trade them in pairs at the hidden house and walk straight back out for more. It's repetitive by design, and it goes down more easily online in a browser tab, where the emulator's own Save button covers you and one bad swim costs seconds instead of an hour. And if the farming leaves you broke, innkeepers don't mind. They take whatever Shion is carrying, right down to nothing: "I'll accept whatever you can afford".