Wonder Boy Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
258Developed and published by Activision in 1987.
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Wonder Boy is the titular character in this arcade game from Sega. WB is on a mission to rescue his girlfriend from the clutches of the evil dark king, armed with little more than a loin-cloth and a infinite supply of stone hammers.
The game is broken down into multiple areas where the player navigates from left to right across a horizontally scrolling play-field. The objective is to reach the goal at the end without dying, which is easier said than done.
The first thing that most people who have played Wonder Boy will remember is the gradually diminishing energy bar, which must be kept topped up by collecting the many food items that appear. Failure to eat enough food will result in the energy bar running out, at which point a life is lost.
To confound matters, WB must deal with an array of hostile creatures that block his path. At the start of the game, WB is unarmed and must avoid enemies, but a stone hammer power-up can be collected by breaking open one of the bonus eggs that can be found in each level.
As well as the hammer, WB can also collect a skateboard and helmet. The skateboard enables him to travel faster, although it's impossible to stop moving; on later difficulty levels this item becomes more of a hindrance than a help. The helmet protects WB from coming into contact with an enemy or obstacle, but the skateboard is lost instantly.
At the end of the fourth area WB must fight the dark king. The only way to damage the king is to hit him in the head with stone hammers, which isn't easy. Simply touching the king will kill you, as will being hit by one of the fireballs that he casts.
Beating the fourth area will result in the game reverting to the first area, although the game becomes progressively tougher as more enemies appear and even platforms can appear in different locations.
While I'm no expert on the arcade original, the C64 port seems to be quite faithful. The arcade version reportedly has seven areas, whereas the C64 has four, but there is plenty of value to be had here.
The graphics are decent, with plenty of big, chunky, colourful sprites and the recognisable Wonder Boy music is recreated reasonably well.
My chief complaint with the game is the fiddly controls. The single fire button means that you end up spamming hammers unnecessarily. The fourth stage boss fight can be very difficult too as he can only be damaged by hitting his head and this requires you to perform a high jump whilst running away and turning mid-air to face in the correct direction; this required some fairly nimble finger gymnastics on my part and was quite frustrating.
I wouldn't say that Wonder Boy was my favourite arcade game of all time, but what you have on offer here should provide a few hours entertainment. If you like rock solid arcade challenges, Wonder Boy should be high on your list of games to check out.
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