Wonderboy III, IV, V...

Chris-M's "platform games" topic has got me thinking about my favourite platform games, the Wonderboy series.

I don't like the original game or the first sequel particularly, but Wonderboy III: The Dragon's Trap, Wonderboy in Monsterland and Monsterworld 4 were fantastic platform/rpg hybrids.

Does anyone else like these games? Any thoughts on the potential of making a similar 2d platform/rpg for the PC?

Do me a good 2d platformer everyday, fps can die! :P

Do notice that I'd like genuine pixeled 2d gfx then, not 3d-used-as-2d..

I remember screaming to get one more coin to play Monsterland ( and Double Dragon ). I really like this kind of games.
You must be fair young... Have you ever played Viking Child? Have you ever heard of Titus? There many platform games for PC and there are also abandonware.
If you wand to give it a try you must remember that you will have to spend to mach time for graphics as usual. Don't make my mistake. What I mean I wroted to many times codes for particular things and I always stucked to the graphics. Right now I believe that to start making a game I need a good plan of what the game will be and graphics. I must really stop codind boxies and circles......

AAA.... Also don't forget to play Prehistorik 1 & 2.

I pumped incredible money into monsterland

I'll take that as a compliment but I'm a few days away from 30.

Actually, guys, when I wrote Wonderboy in Monsterland I actually meant Wonderboy in Monster World. I don't actually like the Wonderboy arcade games!

That used to be one of my favorite game on the NEC pcengine years ago : "Adventure Island"

http://pcengine.free.fr/adventure%20islandnf.html

part of the WonderBoy series ...

i miss Hucards !

Yeah, it's the PCEngine version of Wonderboy III: The Dragon's Trap. Fantastic game, but I prefer the sprites in the Master System version - they're cuter and I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.

I`m about to start on a pixelled 2D game. What`s the general opinion about pixelled games? I myself far prefer them over all this 3D as 2D crap but am I in the minority. Today people seem to have no appreciation for this type of art. Is it only the oldskool players who like the original pixel style? Lots of people seem to think that there game won`t sell nowadays unless it has a rendered antialiased look but after replaying games like Yoshis Island on the SNES recently those games just look clunky to me where as Yoshi looks full of life and imagination. Do others agree?

Jason.

I like the look and have no problems with it, as do many other retro fans. Question is will we buy these sort of games? Modern "console/FPS" gamers (teenagers) won't be interest and the casual game market (women 30-60) don't play those sort of games. Also if the portals won't put them up because they are too old-style you have to sell it yourself, which isn't easy...

I think that pixel art is ok when you're aiming for a retro style but hand-drawn high resolution 2d looks much better.

Well to me high resolution 2D looks more realistic but that doesn`t make it better in my eyes. Would a game like Cave Story have been so popular if it contained rendered 2D visuals? Or would Super Mario World be as great as it is without its stylish pixel look. You only need to take a look at some of the recent PSP remakes of once great 2D games like Megaman and Ghouls and Ghosts to see how they have lost what made them great in the first play because they now have 3D-esque visuals.

Jason.

yes I agree, but it's what the consumer wants so ...

2d gameplay with 3d characters.. dunno, maybe I'd like that as well, I demand however a giant shitload o' polies for all characters so there won't be any blurred textures, straight blocky lines and no need for bumpmapping (every bumpy object on a character (clothes, hairs, face-details, shoestrings etc.) should really be an object). Is that feasable?

I used to always love platform games. They seem to have gone out of fashion bigtime, except where moving into the 3d world. 2d platformers seem sparse, maybe because there were SO many of them that people ran out of inspiration.

Sonic is really fun. I like sonic more than mario. Also Zool was good, .. well, really, lots of Amiga platformers were good. Too many to list.

Hey, I bought Adventure Island for the old Gameboy (monocrome).

That was a long time ago. I'm getting old... :(

But the game was fun! :)

Well to me high resolution 2D looks more realistic but that doesn`t make it better in my eyes. Would a game like Cave Story have been so popular if it contained rendered 2D visuals? Or would Super Mario World be as great as it is without its stylish pixel look. You only need to take a look at some of the recent PSP remakes of once great 2D games like Megaman and Ghouls and Ghosts to see how they have lost what made them great in the first play because they now have 3D-esque visuals.

But high resolution hand-drawn art is different to pre-rendered stuff, QuickSilva, and surely realism is just a stylistic choice?

I used to love Wonderboy 3. :) I didn't actually finish it though, was really tough as far as I remember. Im a bit apprehensive about playing it again though as I don't want to potentially ruin the memories I have of it!

Eternal Daughter to an extent is similar and has been made really well ( http://www.derekyu.com )

Funnily enough, Wonderboy 3 is one of the few games that hasn't dated badly. It's just as fun to play as it ever was. Same goes for Wonderboy in Monsterworld and Mosterworld 4 (if you can find the english translation).

Thanks for the link, I've never seen Eternal Daughter before. I'll have to give it a try sometime. Popful Mail was another neat game from way back - a blatant Wonderboy in Monster World clone, but still fun.

But how many great 2D platformers have there been with high resolution hand drawn art? Part of the draw is that the pixel graphics require the player to use their imagination to fill in the blanks. I believe this is what made the games from the past so fun to play in the first place. Part of the fun of playing games is to escape realism is it not? I have nothing against modern games but I just feel that something is being lost nowadays.

Jason.

No, pixel art was used in the past due to technical limitations. It is only an artistic choice now because there are other options.

I can't think of any 2d platform games that use high-res hand-drawn art - but that's because no-one develops 2d platform games for PCs or modern consoles. You seem to be equating high resolution art with pre-rendered, realistic stuff when, in fact, the two are not necessarily the same.

I am aware of the differences between high res art and pre rendered art I was just saying that because of the extra time needed to create decent high res art by hand most companies seem to use prerendered instead which speeds up the creation of it.

Anyway, I think some of the coolest games came about because of the limitations of past consoles\computers. I just don`t like the way that most PC users frown upon pixel art like it is something that should be left in the past when it has clearly be used to great success in the past.

Jason.

Sorry, sorry. I misunderstood.

I also agree that pixel art can be used effectively, but it's often used by people to try to hide a lack of artistic talent. I reckon that the developers of most of the old games we know and love wouldn't have used pixel art if the hardware they developed for was capable of more and if they had access to a talented artist.

Sorry if I sounded a little snappy, it`s been one of those days ;)

Jason.