Monster World IV

From Sega Retro

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MonsterWorldIV Title.png

Monster World IV
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console, PlayStation 3
Publisher: Sega
Developer:
Genre: Action

















Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Mega Drive
JP 		¥8,8008,800 G-5519
Wii Virtual Console
JP ▼ 		600pts600[2]
CERO: A
Wii Virtual Console
US ▼ 		900pts900[3]
ESRB: Everyone
Wii Virtual Console
EU ▼ 		900pts900[4]
PEGI: 7+
Wii Virtual Console
DE ▼ 		900pts900[4]
USK: 0

Monster World IV (モンスターワールドIV) is an action game in the Wonder Boy franchise, and was released for the Sega Mega Drive exclusively in Japan in 1994. Despite its name, it is actually the sixth game in the series, however Japanese continuity discounts the original Wonder Boy and Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair as being part of this series due to their different gameplay styles.

For many years, this was the last game in the franchise until a remake of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap and a brand-new title, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, were eventually announced and released in 2017 and 2018 respectively. It is still considered the last game to be released under Sega's helm though, as future installments were not handled by Sega.

Gameplay

Monster World IV is a departure from previous games, with the player now controlling a young girl named Asha, instead of "Wonder Boy" or Shion from Wonder Boy in Monster World. Asha is more acrobatic than previous protagonists in that she has extra sword moves, and has the ability to run by double-tapping Left or Right. Throughout the game, she will gain assistance from an amorphous blue creature known as a Pepelogoo, who Asha can use like a parachute when jumping, gain a second jump or to throw at distant switches or obstacles to solve puzzles. Progression is far more linear than in previous games as the player advances through levels in a stage-by-stage type of progression with the Kingdom of Rapadagna serving as a hub rather than a Metroidvania-style world to explore.

The game is only tangentially related to previous games in the series, specifically Wonder Boy in Monster World - the game takes place in Monster World, the helper characters from the last game appearing as spirits and a book in a library references Shion's adventure. It features no references to the events of Wonder Boy in Monster Land or Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap.

History

The large amount of text may suggest why the game was not released outside of Japan, however a fan translation by translation groups Demiforce and DeJap surfaced in 2002. Monster World IV was also playable via the GameTap service (which was available in the west), though the game was not translated.

Monster World IV has also been released as part of the Wii's Virtual Console service and as part of Sega Vintage Collection: Monster World for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 with an official English translation by M2, which marks the game's first English release. Its copyright notations in the game's Operations Manual indicates that it was to be released a year prior to its 2012 release.

Production credits

  • Director: R.Nishizawa
  • Program: H.Tohyama
  • Art Director: M.Ohzora
  • Music: Jin W.
  • CG Design: K.Kohyama, M.Morioka, T.Sekiyama, K.Saitoh
  • Special Thanks: Mie, YUI
  • Manual Writer: Y.Hirata
  • Modeler: H.Nakajima
  • Photographer: N.Suzuki
  • Supervisor: M.Ishizuka
  • Produced by: Sega
Westone
Source:
In-game credits (JP)

Magazine articles

Main article: Monster World IV/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1994-04: "April 1994" (1994-03-08)
Logo-pdf.svg

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
73 №1994-04, p19[15]
88 №, p82[16]
80 №1994-05, p51
86 №34, p36
Sega Mega Drive
 82
Based on
4 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
1700 igr dlya Sega (RU)
70
[17]
1700 igr dlya Sega (RU)
40
[18]
Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J
73
[19]
Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU)
70
[20]
GameFan (US) NTSC-J
89
[21]
Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J
80
[22]
Igry Sega Luchshiye iz luchshikh. Vypusk 1 (RU)
75
[23]
Joypad (FR) NTSC-J
86
[24]
MAN!AC (DE) NTSC-J
78
[25]
Mega Force (FR) NTSC-J
88
[26]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J
88
[27]
Tricks 16 bit (RU)
68
[28]
Video Games (DE) NTSC-J
82
[29]
Sega Mega Drive
 76
Based on
13 reviews

Monster World IV

Mega Drive, JP
MonsterWorldIV MD JP Box.jpg
Cover
MonsterWorldIV MD JP CartTop.jpg
Monster World IV MD JP cart.jpg
Cart
MonsterWorldIV MD JP Manual.pdf
Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System Hash Size Build Date Source Comments
Sega Mega Drive
✔
CRC32 36a3aaa4
MD5 4bbdae4e4c1e0ae2de3c49dc34f61d5c
SHA-1 46ba5e8775a2223fe5056f54555d9caa7d04f4e1
2MB 1994-04 Cartridge (JP)
Sega Mega Drive
✔
CRC32 af050c46
MD5 2640c0b879dd52db3e328c14c36095f0
SHA-1 6c90e14b6dd1ce6fc33f74dc624edc2e00fc5038
2MB 2011-07-25 Virtual Console WAD file

External links

  • Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Mega Drive
  • Nintendo catalogue pages: US, UK
  • Monster World IV on PlayStation.com: JP, US, KR
  • Monster World IV on PlayStation Store: JP, US, UK, AU, KR, TW

References

  1. ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/vc/software/06.html (Wayback Machine: 2018-03-05 22:42)
  2. ↑ http://vc.sega.jp:80/vc_mw4/ (Wayback Machine: 2008-01-16 16:03)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://www.nintendo.com:80/games/detail/gsmvneZxvTfVVnbyPsOMhGTMKoWxdkAF (Wayback Machine: 2012-05-13 10:49)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 http://www.nintendolife.com/games/megadrive/monster_world_iv (Wayback Machine: 2017-07-05 02:07)
  5. ↑ https://archive.is/w52g6
  6. ↑ https://archive.is/GtZnl
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 http://www.jp.playstation.com:80/software/title/jp0177npjb00092_00mnstrwrld4psnjp1.html (Wayback Machine: 2012-09-15 02:33)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 http://blogs.sega.com/2012/05/18/vintage-collection-3-on-the-way-to-xbla-and-psn/ (Wayback Machine: 2017-06-29 13:39)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 PlayStation Store (ko-kr; HP0177-NPHB00254_00-MNSTRWRLD4PSNAS1) (Wayback Machine: 2018-03-31 16:28)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 PlayStation Store (fr-fr; EP0177-NPEB00416_00-MNSTRWRLD4PSNEU1) (Wayback Machine: 2018-03-31 16:33)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 PlayStation Store (de-de; EP0177-NPEB00416_00-MNSTRWRLD4PSNEU1) (Wayback Machine: 2018-12-04 01:04)
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 PlayStation Store (en-gb; EP0177-NPEB00416_00-MNSTRWRLD4PSNEU1) (Wayback Machine: 2018-03-31 16:29)
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 PlayStation Store (en-au; EP0177-NPEB00416_00-MNSTRWRLD4PSNEU1) (Wayback Machine: 2018-03-31 16:30)
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 PlayStation Store (en-tw; HP0177-NPHB00254_00-MNSTRWRLD4PSNAS1) (Wayback Machine: 2018-03-31 16:29)
  15. ↑ File:BeepMD_JP_1994-04.pdf, page 21
  16. ↑ File:SSM_JP_19950901_1995-09.pdf, page 84
  17. ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 186
  18. ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 340
  19. ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "April 1994" (JP; 1994-03-08), page 21
  20. ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 105
  21. ↑ GameFan, "Volume 2, Issue 7: June 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 26
  22. ↑ Hippon Super, "May 1994" (JP; 1994-04-03), page 51
  23. ↑ Igry Sega Luchshiye iz luchshikh. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 2000-12-07), page 140
  24. ↑ Joypad, "Septembre 1994" (FR; 1994-0x-xx), page 36
  25. ↑ MAN!AC, "07/94" (DE; 1994-06-08), page 40
  26. ↑ Mega Force, "Septembre 1994" (FR; 1994-0x-xx), page 90
  27. ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 84
  28. ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 225
  29. ↑ Video Games, "6/94" (DE; 1994-05-25), page 99


Monster World IV

MonsterWorldIV Title.png

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Games in the Wonder Boy series
Wonder Boy (1986) | Wonder Boy in Monster Land (1987) | Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (1988) | Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (1989) | Wonder Boy in Monster World (1991) | Monster World IV (1994) | Monster World Complete Collection (2007) | Sega Vintage Collection: Monster World (2012) | Arcade Archives Wonder Boy (2014) | Wonder Boy Returns (2016) | Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (2017) | Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (2018) | Wonder Boy Returns Remix (2019) | Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World (2021) | Wonder Boy Collection (2022) | Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection (2022)
Wonder Boy related media
Music
 Monster World Complete Collection Original Sound Track (2007) | Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap Original Soundtrack Sampler (2018) | Wonder Boy Collection - Best Of Soundtrack (2023)
Book
 Wonder Boy V Monster World III Koushiki Guide Book (1991)
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