[PixyJunket]

It seems a lot of fun stuff has been happening with Westone Bit Entertainment with the release of the Monster World Collection on Wii, XBLA and PSN.

Ryuichi Nishizawa (the co-founder of Westone and a key figure for the Wonder Boy and Monster World series) has done a couple of interviews with fan sites. There's some ridiculously fascinating information revealed here, such as the nature of Hudson's ports and how the new English versions of Wonder Boy in Monster Land and Monster World IV came to be.

The first is at Hardcore Gaming 101 where I was asked to contribute some questions. /blush
http://hg101.kontek.net/wonderboy/wo...-interview.htm

Another is here at Outcast (an English version is a little down in the page).
http://www.outcast.it/intervista-monster-world/

Nishizawa has also created an official Monster World Fan Page on Facebook and has been releasing some rare documentation on Monster World IV's development, including artwork for a planned second playable character named Eusha! I recommend everyone subscribe to the page and leave some nice comments.

MW FAN on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/MW-FAN/465366220145115

Perhaps most interesting at the moment though, is that early this morning, Nishzawa tweeted a photo of a disk to Yosuke Okunari (the guy at Sega primarily responsible for the new Vintage Collections) stating that the source code to their final arcade game, Aquario of Clockwork (which was never released), was finally located. He will be procuring the proper computer equipment needed to read its contents next week.



Of course, this is very exciting but there is nothing more to assume here at the moment. Although I think the hope is that the source code is in good enough shape and if the game is in a complete state, that it may be preserved on Wii, XBLA and PSN as well (maybe in another three pack with Aurail and Riot City, hmm).

[Why would you do that?]

Not a Wonderboy/Monster World fan (haven't played them), but it's always nice when a lost game is found.
Hopefully, it'll be released in some form.

[gunstarhero]

Awesome find!

[legendnthamaking]

Never played Monster World series and I have some cash on PSN. Are they worth the money and where should I start?

[Corleth the Fey]

Never played Monster World series and I have some cash on PSN. Are they worth the money and where should I start?

Wonder Boy in Monster Land.

[CO_Andy]

Kickstart another Monster World?

shutandtakemymoney.jpg

Can't go wrong with either Wonderboy in Monster World or Monster World IV for newbies.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Clockwork of Aquario's soundtrack has been released for digital download, for those interested. Really-great interviews recently.

[ReXXXSoprano]

I have no idea what to say to this news.

Let us hope Aquario of Clockwork can be retrieved and MWIV gets a remake with Eusha in it.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Nishizawa's really focused on this MW fan revival, isn't he! I hope he succeeds. Monster World's one of these classic old-school franchises that could really use more fans everywhere.

[wondermega]

Lucky Wander Boy is becoming reality..

[Tain]

I'm 99.9% sure that I like Westone's arcade releases way more than their console ones, which are still pretty good.

So, yeah, I really want to see this game. Wow.

Awesome that Nishizawa likes MAME, too.

[discoalucard]

For another neat interview (actually from a magazine from back in 2007), here's one with the other half of the Westone founders, Michihito Ichizuka:

http://endofdeeplayer.blogspot.com/2...onder-boy.html

He reveals that Westone (technically Escape back then) was literally started in a janitor's closet. They worked rent-free as long as they took up custodial duties in the building. THAT is dedication.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

It sure was. Cool that Tecmo (Tehkan) let Ishizuka use that space to work with his partner on Wonder Boy. Game development was a lot more open and less-restrictive then than it is today.

[Dreamcast2]

Sega's Yousuke Okunari is awesome for being such a strong proponent of rereleasing classic titles.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

With their realignment towards digital releases, these remastered SEGA classics just make a lot of business sense at the moment. I'm glad that they're putting a lot of effort into creating definitive collections of these games.

[Monsterland]

That's really exciting to news. Hopefully this revival is popular enough for them to make a new addition to the series.

[PixyJunket]

For another neat interview (actually from a magazine from back in 2007), here's one with the other half of the Westone founders, Michihito Ichizuka: http://endofdeeplayer.blogspot.com/2...onder-boy.html He reveals that Westone (technically Escape back then) was literally started in a janitor's closet. They worked rent-free as long as they took up custodial duties in the building. THAT is dedication.

Wow. This is an inedible interview.

There are so many aspects of it that make me smile. Great find.

[PixyJunket]

One more bit of fun from the last few days (which I meant to put in the OP but oops).

Jin Watanabe tweeted an unreleased song from Monster World IV, which seemingly would have been used in a typical Wonder Boy/Monster World tropical stage.

Listen (and download) here:
http://soundcloud.com/doublebytes/wo...uthern-islands

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Not half-bad for an unused track. Watanabe never got as much recognition as Sakamoto, though Sakamoto's still the better musician anyhow.

[PixyJunket]

Okay, Nishizawa is asking for fans of 2D games to speak up.

If you have a Twitter account, retweet this and reply back.

https://twitter.com/WonderBoyWild/st...87963199455232

[OnPoint]

I did my part, retweeted and replied

[ReXXXSoprano]

Yep. Just retweeted and replied myself. Hopefully this comes to fruition.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Retweeted and replied. He might want to spread this message to the Facebook page, too.

[Bisboch]

Hi,
I'm the guy who did the interview for that Outcast site. An yes, of course, I'm a MW fanatic since my childhood, so I'm doing my part like you all in order to help in triggering a Monster World renaissance!

I really think a Monster World V (or, more aptly, a Monster World Zero) would be a perfect subject for a Kickstarter rush. I really think Westone could easily fund the game this way, if they play their cards right.

Still, since I'm obsessed with Westone, this could be merely wishful thinking - after all, 18 years have passed since the last Monster World was published. I haven't seen many Japanese developers trying to use Kickstarter, after all.

What do you think? How do you imagine a new Monster World after all these years? What do Westone need to make a great comeback?

B

PS PixyJunket, thanks for always holding the MW flag high on neogaf:)

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Knowing how passionate Nishizawa and Ishizuka are for their darling creations, I'd imagine they'd try to Kickstart both Monster World V and, coupled along with that, a doctored version of Clockwork of Aquario for a digital platform. That makes the most sense to me—and, for those who donate a particular amount of funding, the possible Westone-centric rewards could be terrific.

[Dwayne]

A wonderboy figurine would be awesome.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

I want the Shara figurine. I want to put it in a glass box for posterity's sake. I want it all!

[@MUWANdo]

Man, I was thinking about tracking down Nishizawa for an interview myself, but I needn't bother now. Nice work! He seems like such a cool, approachable guy, too.

I remember reading an interview with Sakamoto about the Aquarius soundtrack, too, but I've never seen the game itself, so some sort of re-release would be neat.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Shit! I just tried to find that interview, but Geocities is dead now. Fuck.

Yeah: I'd love to play the game someday.

[@MUWANdo]

Found 'em!

Here's a translation of the original loctest logs:

Even though the soundtrack was released as a download, not many people know about the actual content of the game. I've uploaded the notes taken during location testing in 1993 since I don't think they're available on the internet. Tokeijikake no Aquario (Westone, canceled in 1993) Note: The content of the game varies depending on the date of the location test. At least three versions have been confirmed. *June 14, 1993 These notes contain information about a location test held by a video arcade operator. It was immediately upon passing through the shop (the Spo-Lan in Shinjuku Nishiguchi) where I found Tokeijikake no Aquario (henceforth abbreviated Aquario). My first impressions of the game were simply that it was "pretty and cute". I imagine this feedback must had been quite difficulty for Westone to accept, as they were pretty aware that they weren't making much of an impression as a game company at that point. Aquario was a Super Mario Bros.-type side-scrolling action game. The controls originally consisted of three action buttons ("throw", "jump" and "invincibility"). Enemies are attacked first by jumping over them, rendering them unconscious. When the player moves towards an unconscious enemy, he automatically picks it up. At this point the player can throw the enemy by pressing the throw button. Enemies that are thrown flies off in a single horizontal line and are defeated by flying off-screen or being bashed to a wall. Thrown enemies can be used to knock other enemies unconscious as well. Moreover, by holding the joystick upwards, enemies can be thrown to the top of the screen as well. Pressing the invincibility button makes the player invincible to enemies for a brief period. In the upper portion of the screen, there's an invincibility gauge underneath the score display and when it reaches zero, the player's invincibility will wear off. The gauge can be replenished by picking up items. The key to the exit of each stage is kept by a sub-boss. By defeating the sub-boss, the player can obtain the key and use it to enter the boss' lair. Each boss can be defeated by jumping over him repeatedly or by throwing his henchmen to him. The boss of the first stage in this version was a crab. The game featured a 2-hit points per life system similar to Ghosts 'n Goblins and Midnight Wanderers, in which getting hit once would make the player's clothes look tattered, and then getting hit a second time would make him lose a life. The player's clothes can be restored by picking up a health power-up. * Impressions of the June 14 version. This version was really difficulty. I couldn't defeat the crab boss after several plays. It was a pretty difficult experience for novice players, since enemies move quickly and a lot of fake-outs are used by them. The invincibility button was difficult to use as well. Because it was difficulty to predict what kind of dangers would face in these kinds of action games, getting through them was simply a matter of "pressing the button on time". There were also unfair trap placement as well, such as the snapping trap in Stage 1. The game was still unfinished at the time, as there were bugs such as glitched text display during the playing instructions at the start of the game. However, the colorful graphics really caught my attention. *August 15, 1993 Another location test for Aquario was held, this time in the comic book shop near the Spo-Lan in Shinjuku Nishiguchi. The content of the game were greatly altered since the last location test, to the point that the game was almost completed. Impressions of the August 15 revision. The number of action buttons was reduced to only two (punch and jump). This time, invincibility is only provided by a power-up item for a limited period (similar to the Starman in Super Mario Bros.). The invincibility gauge was replaced with a 1UP gauge that gives player an extra life when filled and it seems enemies are now defeated by knocking them unconscious with a punch, moving onto the unconscious enemy, and then throwing them. It was also possible to defeat enemies by simply punching an unconscious enemy further until he disappears . Since players were irritated that they were unable to defeat enemies quickly in the June 14 version, the resulting changes in this version made the game easier to play in longer periods. Perhaps because of this, the game was still deemed unsafe to release to the market yet. *August 29, 1993 Once again location testing was held in the Spo-Land store in Shinjuku Nishiguchi. I was wondering at this point why it wasn't already released yet (how unfortunate). Changes made in the August 29 revision. The differences are very minor this time. However, there seems to be a 2-Players competitive mode this time (there wasn't one in the August 15 version). I have no idea how it worked because I never saw it in action. From what I remember, a few graphical details were changed, but I didn't have much difficulty. Even though I wanted the game to come out already, I had a bad premonition at the time. It was the last day I ever saw the game. I heard stories that another location test was conducted in the Spring of '94, but I'm not sure what changes were done at that point. Because of this, I now associated location tests with the process of a game company coming up with the decision of having to cancel a game. I thought to myself I shouldn't get too involved with location tests. However, I must consider myself fortunate to have the chance to had played this game due to my fascination with the company's Monster World series. Published on November 19, 2006, authored by [Root].

...and here's the Sakamoto interview:

To commemorate the release of the Tokeijikake no Aquario official soundtrack, here's an interview with composer Shin-ichi Sakamoto (of Westone Bit Entertainment). The Making of the Aquario Soundtrack A mysterious 3-players simultaneous game that ended up being unreleased. Harry (the interviewer): Let's start by asking what kind of game Aquario was going to be like? Sakamoto: It was going to be similar to Monster Lair. It was going to be a forced side-scrolling game, but with a bit of a cooperative multiplayer mode. It was originally going to be a 2-players game, but then we decided to add a third player as well. The three characters consisted of a boy (named Hack Rondo), a girl (Elle Moon), and a robot (Gash). The method of attack was by stomping on enemies and then grabbing them to throw them out. Oh, I think you could even catch enemies thrown by other players as well or something like that. You could even head butt thrown enemies thrown at you. (laughs) H: Can you explain the "clockwork" (Tokeijikake) part of the title? I'm really anxious to hear... S: What is it you mean? ... Well, originally I think there was going to be a clockwork motor that also served as our time limit system... (laughs) I really wish I could tell you more, but I don't remember that much. Ah, wait, I remember the game was originally going to be called "Ghost Hunter" (laughs). H: It's been 13 years (as of this interview) since the game was canceled and no source code or board has ever been found, although it might still be out there. Did it ever went through a limited release during the location testing phase? S:It seems it went through such a phase, but I believe not many played it. For the download soundtrack, the original character designer Mina M. drew an all-new illustration for the cover jacket. From down to up, we can see the game's heroes, Hack Rondo, Gash, and Elle Moon. Above them is a goldfish equipped with a clockwork spring, who appears to be the "Aquario" of the title... An unexpected connection with Manabu Namiki. H: But there were people who played through the location test version and spoke highly of the game. In fact, composer Manabu Namiki has told stories of playing the game during location testing. S: Are you serious? Ah, now that you mention it, I was talking to Mr. Namiki today about unrelated matters and now that I remember, I discreetly gave him the music data from Aquario around that time. I can tell you that I converted the GS sound source file made with "Recomposer" into ISH files, they were in PC-VAN format I think, and then I delivered the files online. At least that's what I recall (laughs). H: That sounds like another interesting story. (laughs) It seems the sound data originally produced in GS sound source after all. If that's the case, could there be a MIDI version of the soundtrack as well? S: No, I didn't find any MIDI tracks in the leftover data I extracted from "Recomposer".... At least that's what I think. (laughs) However, I did find a floppy disk today labeled the "Aquario Sound Master File". However, I've tried to access the disk, but I can't read it since it's for a PC-9801 with a three-mode floppy disk drive. I got a feeling that there's something of value inside. (laughs) H: Well, this firm has companies such as Project EGG that specialized in releasing numerous old video games on PC and right now they have numerous PC-98 games available. Please allow us to help you in preserving the disk's data. (laughs) On a related note, had you ever been acquainted with Mr. Namiki before that moment? S: No, I never talked to him prior to our recent exchange. However, Namiki was an old classmate of a member of Westone's sound team who did the music for Riot City and Monster World IV (Jin Watanabe perhaps? - ed), so I knew about him very well due to his connection with our company. He used to come to our company to play as well. The Final Purpose of Aquario S: The sound staff of Westone were an incredibly wonderful group to be with. There were two other guys besides myself and the aforementioned classmate of Namiki. H: I see. People sometimes have the impression that you, Mr. Sakamoto, was composer working for Westone. S: That's not true at all. The others were probably more talented than me. No, I'm serious. (laughs) I always questioned my decision whether I should have ever transferred from my studies of engineering to this industry. But everyone else in the division wanted to make music in the first place and they intentionally chose the game music industry. I feel completely embarrassed since I studied something completely different, but ended up making music on CD-DA. I had unlimited potential for my skills, but I ultimately never did anything with it (laughs), so I ended up having no use for my studies (laughs). In the end, the quality of my work depends very severely on what kind of equipment I have. Even though I made a few game soundtracks with CD-DA, I never fully understood how the format works. H: A genuine chip musician (laughs). With that in mind, was Aquario Mr. Sakamoto's final substantial work? S:When I was working on Aquario, I always felt it was going to be our final arcade game. The marketplace started shifting towards home consoles by that point and if we had continued making arcade games, I don't we would had been around for much longer. H: The master tape for Aquario is dated August 14, 1993. That was during the fighting game boom, so it was definitely a severe marketplace to release a game like Aquario at that point. S: That's right. The location test was conducted in Shinjuku and Ueno in 1993. Even though I truly wanted the company to release it, we had to cancel it because the game's reception was not good. The master tape that was used to record the soundtrack. Sakamoto recorded the music from the actual PCB after having the bad premonition that he wouldn't be able to listen to the game's music in the future. He has held on to the tape since then. Sakamoto's style of House and Acid Jazz music H: Speaking of the musical aspect. The game's soundtrack has a House-like taste that doesn't feel anything like you did at the time, but at this very moment there seems to a trend towards clubtrack approach towards game music. I think the soundtrack of Aquario would've been noticed, even if the actual game itself would've made little impact. S: The moment I've first listened to acid jazz and house music, my reaction was "wow, how interesting". J-Wave (a radio station in Japan) used to play house music back then at night. It was a very peculiar feel that you didn't hear often in game music back then, so I wanted the capture the feel in a chiptune, even though I don't think it sounds like house music to me (laughs). H: I meant it a good way. I think it sounds a lot like house music, but it has a Sakamoto-like feel it. It has a mood very close to Yuzo Koshiro's work on Streets of Rage. That game came out earlier in 1991. S: I knew of Koshiro, since he was in charge of the music for Hudson's Super Adventure Island, but at that time I wasn't aware he also did Streets of Rage. If you say it sounds like house, then it probably is (laughs). It's not possible to do much in such ennui mood. Usually if I use a sequencer and synthesizer I might capture such a style, but you're not suppose to do such a thing if you don't want to drown the game's sound. H: So you put on the brake just in case? I see... S: The truth is that I'm not very good with rhythm. I have composed without drums for years and most of my music didn't have much rhythm to them, so I didn't know how to give it one. However, even in such a genre, since the same rhythm is used continually, shouldn't it be easy to learn? (laughs) H: Perhaps you could do it without worrying about the rhythm. (laughs) S:The data size becomes small as well. Another theme, Escaping FM sound module. S: Another theme in Aquario was what could be called an "Escaping FM sound module". I've worked with using an FM sound module since my days at Tecmo, so I was already tired of it by the time I was working on Aquario. That's because when you're using FM, analog sounds won't come out since various parameters of the sound source chip are rewritten while outputting the sounds and noises that usually don't come out because of VCF tampering is emitted. Because of that, CPU interruption is processed on a rate of 1/240 seconds instead of 1/60. H: It's easy to understand how much sound drivers have evolved from listening to it. The pitchbending (the undulation of sound) is rather peculiar compared to other works that were released until that point. S: The pitchbend was easy to do. Our driver could achieve the pitchbend for a while back then by using a part of the LFO (vibrato). However, nowadays we use MIDI data and I think we put in the pitchbend information into the data. H: I noticed that in tracks like "Blast'em up (Boss!!)", sounds effects such as screaming is played during the music. S: That's right, you could say there are sound effect-like noises in the music, I worked hard with pleasure to put them it. H: I imagine the ability to produced sound effect-like music has improved to perfection. S: Nope, not at all. In such driver the same function is used for music and sound effects, so they share the same structure. The sound effect can be called from the sequence data. Therefore you have sound effects that make you go "that sounds awful" if you use for everything. That's why it was a changeable driver. H: That sounds like too good of an equipment for something used for an unreleased game. S: The circuit board is similar to the one used in Aurail, but I didn't think it would have made much sense if we didn't improve the drivers, so that's why I made such elaborations. Speaking of which, the CPU can sometimes make really good sounds when you overclock it. I remember trying to get such results by experimenting with sounds by overclocking the data (laughs) and I got lots of sounds that wouldn't had been possible this way. I did it often during development. I do create a lot of sound drivers though, in case I make a mistake in the data sequencing. If a mistake is called by an affected address, then a terrible obnoxious noise is caused. I really don't know why I do such things (laughs), when I want to reproduce and analyze such sounds, I emitted them through all sound channels, and in the end it becomes impossible to use them... Such things happens like that. As for the tone, during the final days in which I used FM sound module, I approached it for their voice synthesis function, but then I stopped since it didn't sound very well. I experimented with the voice coder a lot, but it gave out nothing but bugs. (laughs) It was around that time I've started being involved in console games. I began with Monster World III. It was a very new to me at the time. I connected the MIDI terminal from a PC to a Mega Drive and then composed music firsthand with a "Recomposer". H: That's such a terrible story. There are people who want to do such things, but they don't turn out so well. Going back to Aquario, the master tape suddenly begins from the Round 5 BGM. Why...? S: Unlike when I worked on Aurail, Aquario was mostly made before I worked on the music. The music was not added until the last moment. I think that tune was the first one I've composed for the game. I felt it was easier to make a music for the final stage (Note that the track title is "Clockwork Aquario", the English translation of the game's title). The Groove of Aquario H: Finally, which track would you say is your most favorite? S:My most favorite is definitely "Cooney Droop (Round 2 BGM)". I definitely think of myself when I listen to it. The first half is made so that the euphoria does not occur as much as possible all the way through until reaching the high point of the tune. I pointed this out to Namiki today, but I often change the arrangement by the first chorus and the second chorus. I've wrote down all the details just in the case for the production of the CD, so that the person recording it wouldn't leave anything out (laughs). Yes, that's how I felt it. In the old days I would copy and paste a lot, ending up with two identical choruses, so I would think about adding a few twists as well. My next favorite would be "The Land of Pureness (ending)". Maybe I was influenced by Toshinobu Kubota (Japanese singer/songwriter). By this point, I began understand what a groove was for the first time. Even though I devoted myself to it like any other tune, it somehow felt different as well. After many trials and errors, I finally understood what it was. Although modern sequencers usually have a quantization feature that lets you know how much groove it's giving out. Aquario was the first soundtrack I made which featured some groove. A sixteenth note for example, usually becomes the same length like all other when processed by a sequencer. However, the groove is delayed when the beginning is a bit too long. I didn't know what I was doing back then, but now it feels natural. H: The sequencers sold back then in Japan weren't good for determining the groove. S: That's right. It eats lots of memory as well. Although the data can be easily optimized only if the sixteenth note continues for a long time. H: I learned about such things from Sega's Fantasy Zone and it managed to stay with me since. S: Fantasy Zone was good. That was System 16, which was close in terms of structure to the System 18 hardware used for Aquario. There's another tune I want to comment on... "Frisky Brisky (Round 1 BGM)". This brought out the Julianna (a Japanese discothèque) in me. Because of the circumstances of PCM, it wasn't possible to employ an orchestra hit, even though I've never went to Julianna's (laughs). At any rate, it seems as if two or more rhythms can be heard at the same time while the tune is played, the reality is that PCM only has one channel. Therefore, the sound of a cowbell and the sound of a snare for instance, are not only separately recorded, they're recorded together as well, giving the impression of two sound channels playing when it's really just one. H: The PCM chip must have a bad tone quality then. S: Yes, the sampling rate is too low, so the high-hat system was not good. I had no other choice but FM. I already did PCM rhythm with Aurail, but that could only be used for voices, but I had to use it by force. H:I think it's possible to improve the sounds by just taking advantage of the bass like PCM does. It seems Aquario focuses a bit on bass. S: Yes it does. It's a problem of balance. It was necessary to reduce the volume of the other parts in order to make the bass stand out. When it was put on a video arcade, people thought the sounds were too low and tried to increase the volume of the board. I've assumed increase the bass would've solve such problems. I remember making the same mistake while working on Senjyo during my days in Tehkan (laughs). H: I see, so it was revenge after ten years. (laughs)

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Wow. One hell of an informative interview (of which there should be more from EGG Music), and an interesting report on location-tested game variants. The game sounds like it was going to be a co-op beat 'em' up platformer for System 18 (which already had a 3-player beat 'em' up called Alien Storm, too).

[@MUWANdo]

Just saw the poll on the Facebook page... kinda surprised that Monster Land has the most votes, and that MWIII is the least popular of the four games.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

It's the one MW that most Japanese gans remember the most, and it's surely the most glamorized of them all.

[@MUWANdo]

I don't know what you mean by "glamorized", and I know it's the most highly-regarded game of the series in Japan, but it still surprises me. I mean, I figured it'd be too old-school for most peoples' tastes, and given that most people seem to think MWIV is a step down from MWIII I thought it would be doing better than it is. I expected it to go MWII > MWIII > MWIV > ML, but what do I know...

Doesn't bother me either way, I like 'em all.

[Frogacuda]

I have Nishizawa on my facebook friends and I still completely missed this. I love Westone and I'm a game history buff so this is of interest to me whether or not the game is actually good.

[@MUWANdo]

He posted a few pics of the data from that disc on Twitter just now (can't link to 'em ATM, sorry). Let's hope it's useful.

[Frogacuda]

I don't know what you mean by "glamorized", and I know it's the most highly-regarded game of the series in Japan, but it still surprises me. I mean, I figured it'd be too old-school for most peoples' tastes, and given that most people seem to think MWIV is a step down from MWIII I thought it would be doing better than it is. I expected it to go MWII > MWIII > MWIV > ML, but what do I know... Doesn't bother me either way, I like 'em all.

Who thinks MW4 is a step down from III? MWIII is the weakest game in the series, and the only one not directed by Nishizawa. It's still a great game, but I get why it wouldn't rate as well.

[CadetMahoney]

MW3 is the one where you become mouse man, lizard man etc. right?

[tsumineko]

Huh, thanks to that twitter account, I found out it's pronounced "We-stone", not "West One" I always imagined. My childhood...

[Firebrand]

One more bit of fun from the last few days (which I meant to put in the OP but oops). Jin Watanabe tweeted an unreleased song from Monster World IV, which seemingly would have been used in a typical Wonder Boy/Monster World tropical stage. Listen (and download) here: http://soundcloud.com/doublebytes/wo...uthern-islands

I like the callbacks to pre-MW Wonder Boy.

Thanks for posting the interviews, reading now. MW2 is one of my favorite games ever, really should get around to playing both the GG version of it as well as MW4 (put it on Steam darnit!).

MW3 is the one where you become mouse man, lizard man etc. right?

MW2 (WB3: The Dragon's Trap)

Huh, thanks to that twitter account, I found out it's pronounced "We-stone", not "West One" I always imagined. My childhood...

I've always wondered, and now I know for sure. I can finally move on with my life!

EDIT:

Is there any chance for a new Monster World or Wonder Boy installment in the future? Yes, I'd like to make one if I have the opportunity. I have ideas for both Wonder Boy and Monster World already in my head. Of course, I want to make both in 3D. I want to start from creating an image of the world, but where to find a good 3D artist?

! Sega, or whoever, throw money at this man. This instance.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

MW3 is the one where you become mouse man, lizard man etc. right?

MW1 is Monster Land; there are two MWIIs (Dragon's Lair, a co-op Monster Land; Dragon's Trap, the one with transformations); MWIII for the Mega Drive; and then MWIV. Needlessly-confusing, sure, but that's one of the most distinctive aspects of the series: how confusing it is to put into sequence!

[djtiesto]

O.o at the Sakamoto interview! Now I have to run and hear the Aquario soundtrack (and hoping the full game eventually comes to light one day!). It should be pretty obvious what part of the whole interview I liked the best :)

[Frogacuda]

MW3 is the one where you become mouse man, lizard man etc. right?

No, that's MWII (which is Wonder Boy III in the US)

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Aquario now sounds very interesting, regardless of the actual quality in execution. Nishizawa we trust!

[discoalucard]

O.o at the Sakamoto interview! Now I have to run and hear the Aquario soundtrack (and hoping the full game eventually comes to light one day!). It should be pretty obvious what part of the whole interview I liked the best :)

I ended up buying it, partially out of curiosity, partially to support the project in a roundabout way. It's not an amazing soundtrack, but it's decent. Has sort of a tropical/dance beat to it, closer to Monster Lair than any of the Monster World games. It's pricey (works out to be a bit under $25 with the exchange rate) and the Project Egg store isn't exactly the most straightforward to navigate - there's an English option, but it kept removing the item rom my shopping cart, and it took me awhile to figure out how to DL the tracks after paying (it does support Paypal).

Anyway, Nishizawa's tweets are here:

https://twitter.com/WonderBoyWild/st...29849753583616

https://twitter.com/WonderBoyWild/st...27633881825280

A few days ago there were some conversation between him, Yousuke Okunari (producer of the Sega Ages/Vintage Collection series) and the head of M2 (the emulator developer) expressing enthusiasm for the project, but also noted that there's no development budget set in stone just yet, and as one of the tweets noted, Nishizawa isn't sure that the source code is 100% complete. But it would be really fantastic if this came to fruition - lost games like this aren't dug up every day.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Aquario seems to be Monster's Lair on steroids and the '90s, from what I've gathered. Westone will probably have to figure out how to approach Okunari with Monster World V, Clockwork of Aquario, or even both.

[discoalucard]

Well, one of Okunari's tweets said he'd be interested in it, but ultimately I'm sure it would depend on how well the Vintage Collections do before they can devote any resources to it.

Plus, they'd need to build some hype up around the game. There's barely anything even in Japanese about the game, other than the Sakamoto interview and those location test notes. The only screenshot is that one photo from nearly twenty years ago. That's why I asked Nishizawa if he had any screens or artwork from it. Maybe if they can get it up and running then something more solid assets from it can be released. I'd certainly have faith in it - Monster World IV is a gorgeous game, and something with that similar art style on System 18 has the potential to look incredible.

[Bisboch]

I agree with Discoalucard about the AQUARIO soundtrack, which I, too, bought some time ago. I like to imagine it as very functional to the game's pacing, otherwise Sakamoto's house music choice for this one sounds rather weird. It's not bad at all - Sakamoto is one of the true musical geniuses of the mid 80's mid '90s era - it's just that it does not sound "sakamotian" at all. The most interesting parts are the three remixed tracks at the end of the album (by Shogun, USK, Blasterhead), mostly because they better know how to make chip-house sound.

I also agree about the difficulty in building hype around AQUARIO. Honestly, I'd put it in some kind of Vintage Collection. I loved the idea of matching it with Aurail and Riot City, suggested by PixyJunket into a Westone Collection. But, maybe, it would be commercially wiser to present it as a "deluxe extra" for a Wonder Boy Collection. You know, the obvious combo Wonder Boy - MWII - Monster Lair. Plus Acquario as a bonus.

Such a pity that Ishizuka, Sakamoto and Nishizawa came to a parting of the ways.

[@MUWANdo]

Who thinks MW4 is a step down from III? MWIII is the weakest game in the series, and the only one not directed by Nishizawa. It's still a great game, but I get why it wouldn't rate as well.

When the Vintage Collection went up there were lots of comments on this forum from people who thought MW4 was lacking in comparison to MW3, due to the lack of exploration, RPG elements, etc.

Anyway, my main reason for thinking it'd rate higher on that poll was that I figured more North Americans would be familiar with MW3 than MW2, what with it being released on a console they actually owned and all. MW2 hasn't aged all that well, either.

[PixyJunket]

PS PixyJunket, thanks for always holding the MW flag high on neogaf:)

Oh, well you're very welcome. :)

Who thinks MW4 is a step down from III? MWIII is the weakest game in the series, and the only one not directed by Nishizawa. It's still a great game, but I get why it wouldn't rate as well.

Absolutely. MWIII is glaringly vanilla compared to the other three games.

It is probably more popular to outside fans though, since it is likely considered more accessible.