For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Maxim's Wonder Boy In Monster Land (Master System) maps.
Wonder Land has been taken over by the MEKA Dragon! Having proven his heroics eleven years earlier, when he had saved his girlfriend in the original Wonder Boy game, Wonder Boy is called upon to save Wonder Land which is now referred to as "Monster Land".
Despite being released for the arcade first, this Master System game requires a bit more strategy than a typical quarter-muncher. It's not simply a matter of mindlessly fighting and jumping in a straight path to an end point. You'll have to find shops, which later become unlabelled and then even hidden - to buy and utilize armor, shields, magic weapons, and other items.
While made up of episodic stages, it's not as strictly linear as the original game but also not an open world like its sequel. However, you will still find Maxim's maps handy, especially for the last stage, which is - and here's a word I use a lot here - labyrinthine!
Similar to how Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood's ending becomes the opening of Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night, here we also see the final area of Wonder Boy In Monster Land appearing at the start of the sequel, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (also mapped by Maxim) - which has been remade as Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (without the "III") for Windows, PS4, Switch and Xbox One. Then there is a spiritual successor to the Wonder Boy series, in December 2018's Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom, also for these current platforms, so there's definitely still interest in this kind of platforming gameplay.
So to recognize the effort put into mapping this wonder of a game, Maxim's Wonder Boy In Monster Land (Master System) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for December 2018.
