Monster World IV

Monster World IV (often referred to as Wonder Boy VI, although it was never localized) is widely held by English-speaking fans as one of the Sega Genesis' finest titles, despite the language barrier. As a late entry in the Genesis' lineup it really shows the power of the system: brightly-colored visuals, multiple simultaneous layers of parallax, tight controls and quality sound effects all illustrate the Genesis' true potential.

In 2001 DeJap Translations and Neo Demiforce released a translation patch for use with emulators and copiers. Afterward a bugfix patch of the English translation was released by Michele Di Somma. This guide assumes you are playing a translated version, but parts where knowing Japanese is almost mandatory (such as the pyramid color puzzles) will be covered in full.

The game is currently available via GameTap (although in Japanese) and was also released on the PlayStation 2 in Japan as part of Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 29: Monster World Complete Collection. It was finally officially released in English in 2012 for the Wii and PlayStation 3 as a standalone release and on the Xbox 360 as part of the Sega Vintage Collection: Monster World compilation.