Let's Play Wonder Boy in Monster Land: Round 9

Round 9: the Floating City of Tonnovia. I just noticed that I got an extra LIFE HEART between levels. Nice!

I may have skipped out a shot or two where I fell in the lava. Why would they build a town here?

I skip over the shield shop for now. But that’s a bar!

Looks like yet another town built next to a cavern. Buying the ale gets you a clue that you should be looking for hidden rooms when you get to the cavern. Buying the mead lets you know to look out for hidden doors in the icy castle. But I don’t see how anyone’s going to build an icy castle in this environment.

Boing! I love springs. The armour store is still open, despite their entire customer base (me) already having the best armour. Wierd. I wonder what they’re selling.

Double helmets. And an impatient shopkeeper.

He’s closed up! I only went in there once!

I have again omitted the shot of me getting hit, which also included me turning up the hidden bag of cash I got that 15G from. Say, that puts me over 120G. I just need to do something, hang on a tick.

Since I killed him already, this guy drops a GOLDEN MIRROR instead of cash. Whatevs, I don’t need it right now anyway.

I spend 120G on the Knight Shield. It isn’t much better than what I have, but now the next shop will be selling the Legendary Shield.

Shiny.

Something weird happened on the way back. See how the PYTHON moves between the third and fourth shots? That’s not supposed to happen. They don’t move, and they die in one hit. But this one, for some reason, was thrown back instead of being killed by my first swing. And then when I hit it again, it didn’t even drop anything (200 points aside), because I’d already killed it twice.

I get hit again. God. Let’s cavern!

Alright, a BAT! BATs are always good for a free heart.

What.

The way forward is to go downward. It’s a good idea to jump down these holes, because you fall faster. If I’d been falling (Wonder Boy with his arms out) the BAT might’ve swooped me while I was trapped hopelessly in the air.

I promptly get hit by the MADMAN anyway, and the BAT drops a GOLD NECKLACE. At least these early-game enemies are only doing minimal damage.

I stick around to kill the MADMAN and get some cash (good haul, actually). The BATs respawn, but drop nothing this time. And I lose some more health. Great.

I forget to jump over the edge, so here I am in a slow fall. Luckily there are no enemies in the next room. Unluckily I also fall into the room after that, where something is spawning.

BATs! Man, that was a close one! I don’t bother sticking around to have these guys not drop hearts for me, and I also don’t bother landing in the next room.

I press up on this conspicuous platform, and find a door. But first, what’s my status?

You might notice that I actually took this shot earlier in the stage, when I had more health and less money. Anyway, I’ve got Excallibur [sic]. That’s pretty nice. Right, back to the game:

The KING DEMON is surrounded by a burning ring of fire. It expands and contracts. This might’ve been a good place to use the LIGHTNING FLASH!es I wasted on MEDUSA. Oh well.

One way to fight him is to rush in and hit him when the ring gets small. But each time the ring goes out, it goes out further than the last, so that can be pretty slow. How about I dash inside the ring and get some hits while it’s big?

Oh right, I’m not very good at this game. Whoops. Luckily, the fireballs only take off a quarter heart.

Also luckily, I’m temporarily invincible and can ignore the fireballs and get some hits in.

This goes on for a while. Then:

My invincibility wears off! Just as I was about to finish him off, too.

I finish the job. I wonder what my new sword is?

The Sword of Legend. I’m pretty sure I had one of those already.

I am not having a good time with BATs today.

Outside the lava cave, the floor is made of ice bricks. I guess the GOBLIN is ice-elemental, so he’s ok, and I’m wearing shoes, so everything is fine.

This little stairway gets me up to the clouds.

But there doesn’t seem to be anything up there. I’m falling down in the fifth shot because there’s an invisible blockage in the sky that stops you jumping to the next cloud.

I also don’t manage to jump to the roof of this building. So I go inside instead.

It’s the MEGA-GOBLIN! I’m off to my usual poor start. It’s possible that if I had a better shield it would have blocked that, but since I got hit in the face rather than the shield I kinda doubt it. Also, that took off three quarters of a heart! I think this is the first enemy (aside from the lava) to do more than one quarter since I got the Legendary Armor. I better be careful.

Aww crud.

Fortunately, since I’ve just been hit the shot goes straight through me, and my second blow connects.

My third and fourth do not.

I try to close in and my invincibility wears off. This is getting sort of pathetic.

That’s more like it!

The MEGA-GOBLIN, unhappy with this turn of events, takes evasive action and then hits me again.

Now he’s on the ropes! Once that hit connects, it’ll all be over.

Oh come on! Instead of dying, he takes away the last of my health. (Not sure how I missed this back in 2011, but I think what actually happened here is the hourglass ticked over, costing me my last heart). My recovery potion kicks in automatically, and I’m back at full strength, but now I’ll have to get another. Weak.

One last missed shot.

There we go.

Let’s just leave this embarrassment behind us, ok? Join me next time, for the Ice Castle! Hopefully in less than a month this time.

Alrighty, the extras: