Category:Wonder Boy

The Wonder Boy series has a complicated history. It began with the arcade game Wonder Boy.

Wonder Boy enjoyed good success, but after engine licensing problems with Hudson each went their own way: Hudson went on to develop the Adventure Island series for Nintendo consoles while Sega kept the Wonder Boy trademark and hired Westone to design what would become Wonder Boy in Monster Land (Monster World: Super Wonder Boy in Japan). The name was only used to market the game under a recognized brand; this game shared no connection whatsoever with Wonder Boy's theme or gameplay.

After establishing this new name the Japanese versions dropped the Wonder Boy name altogether and instead became the Monster World series. However English releases continued branding the titles as Wonder Boy games. Sega of Japan later revived the Wonder Boy name for Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (which is not part of the Monster World series). The only game in the Monster World series not released under the Wonder Boy brand name is Monster World IV, which was never available outside Japan.