Wonder Boy in Monster Land

Wonder Boy in Monster Land was released by Sega for the arcades in 1987 and for the Master System in 1988; Activision released the game for the Amiga, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, and Atari ST in 1989, these version were developed by Images Software in the UK (now called Climax Studios). In Japan, the original arcade game was titled Wonder Boy: Monster Land (ワンダーボーイ モンスターランド Wandā Bōi Monsutā Rando), while the later Sega Mark III home version was titled Super Wonder Boy: Monster World (スーパーワンダーボーイ モンスターワールド). In Europe, Activision's home computer versions were titled Super Wonder Boy in Monster Land on their packaging cover (although all the versions, except the CPC version, omit the word "Super" from the in-game title).

There were also some rebranded versions: Hudson Soft made the first port of the game, Bikkuriman World (ビックリマンワールド) for the PC Engine, retooled with a license for the Bikkuriman series. NMK retooled the game for the Family Computer to resemble the Chinese novel Journey to the West and released this as Saiyūki World (西遊記ワールド). Tectoy localized the Master System port for Brazil with a Turma da Mônica license, as Mônica no Castelo do Dragão.

The game has been cloned, hacked and re-marketed a number of times over the years with varying degrees of legality. Jaleco released a modified port of the game to the Famicom, changing the graphics and character sprites so that it resembled the Chinese novel Journey to the West. They titled the game Saiyūki World, changed its protagonist to Sun Wukong, and changed the setting to Ancient China; they released the game on November 11, 1988. This game would have a sequel called Saiyūki World 2 in Japan and Whomp 'Em in North America. Similarly, Hudson Soft ported a version of Wonder Boy: Monster Land titled Bikkuriman World, where they changed the graphics and characters to those from the Bikkuriman anime franchise. They released the game for the PC Engine on October 30, 1987. Tectoy, Sega's distributor in Brazil, used the game's license and code to produce Mônica no Castelo do Dragão for the Master System in 1989. Here, the characters were replaced with known figures from the Brazilian comic book series Monica's Gang (Turma da Mônica), and Monica was re-cast as the game's main character. The game is considered the only legal remake of any game in the Wonder Boy series.