Wonder Boy in Monster World, known in Japan as Wonder Boy V: Monster World III, is a side-scrolling action role-playing game originally developed by Westone and published by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991. It is the fifth game in the Wonder Boy series and the third game in the Monster World sub-series, following Wonder Boy in Monster Land (Super Wonder Boy: Monster World on the Japanese Sega Mark III) and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (Monster World II: Dragon no Wana on the Japanese Game Gear).
Versions for other platforms were also made. In 1993, Sega released a Master System version of the game specifically for the European market, while in 1994, Hudson Soft remade the game for the TurboDuo under the title of The Dynastic Hero (超英雄伝説ダイナスティックヒーロー, Chō Eiyū Densetsu Dainasutikku Hīrō), featuring an all-new theme and cast of characters. In 2007, the Turbo Duo and Mega Drive versions were re-released on the Wii Virtual Console download service.
Wonder Boy In Monster World puts you in control of Shion in his quest to save Monster World from the evil BioMeka. It controls like your standard platform game: run, jump, crouch, and kill enemies. The game is filled with Adventure elements such as talking to townsfolk, collecting money to buy items, extending your life bar by collecting hearts, and equipping a large variety of armor, weapons and magic.
Shion travels through the many interconnected regions of Monster World, all the while collecting increasingly powerful equipment in the form of many different swords, spears, shields, suits of armor, and boots.
The Genesis version of the game introduced a one slot save feature to save progress at inns throughout the game world. In the original Japanese version Shion returned to the inn last saved at upon death (and was charged its fee accordingly), so returning to an inn in order to save is a simple matter of allowing Shion to be killed. In the English-language Mega Drive versions this was changed to a "Game Over" screen; this made it often tedious to return to the inns early in the game when Return magic hadn't been obtained yet. The Master System version uses a password system.
