Welcome!

Greetings, everyone! It's been nearly a year since the last news post here from me, but I decided it was time to become more active here for a number of reasons. The BIG one at the moment is that the Wonder Boy series of games will be turning 40 next year on April 21st, 2026, which is a milestone anniversary. So, before sharing my request, I'd like to give you all a bit of context!

A Legendary Franchise Returns!

For those who have been out of the loop, the Wonder Boy IP was once (mostly) dormant for over two decades after the series conclusion in 1994 with the sixth and ex-final entry, Monster World IV. In 2014, the company that made the games, Westone went bankrupt unfortunately and the IP went to LAT. Series creator, Ryuichi Nishizawa fortunately has a friend at LAT who is a higher up that has made the creation of new titles easier. Sega also holds partial rights to the series with the "Monster World" name. However, the series revived in 2016 with "Wonder Boy Returns".

Since the revival, we've seen SEVEN separate releases (three remakes, two new games and two collections), making it one of the most active series to have been revived in recent memory. With Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World and Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection serving as 35th anniversary games, there is no doubt in my mind that a new entry is being worked on for the 40th anniversary next year and beyond.

In Masahiro Sakurai's "Year of Legend" video via his YouTube channel, he listed the Wonder Boy series as a legendary one and mentioned its strong appeal, but also mentioned a majority of the games discussed appear in Smash while others haven't yet. We hope this means it's possible for it to show up somehow in the next Super Smash Bros.! If so, it'll finally be part of an official crossover for the first time!

The 40th Anniversary Game?

From what I know, not only is the 40th anniversary of the series in 2026, but the 10th anniversary of the series revival and the 35th anniversary of Wonder Boy in Monster World (Monster World 3) is, too! The developers have also spoken about wanting to remake this entry in several interviews online and within the Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection art book. The time seems of the essence!

What Can We Do?

Earlier in this blog, it was mentioned that there was a request. I can imagine you are asking to yourself what it could be. Well, it's quite simple actually. All I request is that fans who are content creators to aid us and assist in helping Wonder Boy's community grow. Bring in new people by any means necessary so long as it doesn't offend or harm anyone.

Fan art as well as general content creation is one of the most powerful ways to do this as well as keeping open communication with members of its fandom. At the current point in time, I have a discord server that has been available for years now and Mr.Nishizawa is there with us! If you'd like to join, by all means do so. We also have a twitter where some key operations take place. We'll welcome you with open arms!

Thank You!

While I'm not the most experienced or detailed artist out there, I've been doing what I could anyway to assist Wonder Boy and its community for nearly 12 years now with the creation of fan art, fan games and other media such as interviews with officials. I appreciate all the support you have given thus far and I hope we can continue to support another as we near another benchmark in this legendary franchise's history. Thank you!

-XBuster