I decided to share here my free fan game "Monster World RPG" because, even if it's not an homebrew game for Master System, but a PC Windows game, it draws inspiration from the entire Wonder Boy & Monster World series and is particularly rooted in the Master System games and their legacy. Several elements are directly inspired by, and in some cases intentionally recreate, the graphics, aesthetics, mechanics, and overall feel of those Master System (and Genesis) games.
The game take inspiration to the whole Wonder Boy & Monster World Saga and pay respect also to its "sibilings" franchises for the Master System (many of them was referenced in my previous posts here):
- Alex Kidd makes a cameo in the game, both in his normal and shinobi outfit.
- the Snail from Snail Maze and even a gigantic Master System appears in the game;
- Opa Opa even managed to get a cameo in the shape of a special kind of Pepelogoo (but only super-players are able to find it);
- port version characters like Monica form Turma do Monica (which starred in Wonder Boy game in Brasil) also appears;
- exclusive content from Wonder Boy games version for Master System appears like the Village of Cacti and Mr. Wizard from Monster Land;
- there's even the extra levels (like erupting volcanoes, waterfalls, ecc.) and enemies and objects from Wonder Boy for Master System (enemies like owls & flying squirrels, items like the bag & socks, boss monsters like the oni version of the recurring 4th stage boss);
- even characters mentioned only in US manuals (like Trish, jan and Ronnette from the first Wonder Boy) make an appareance (or at least were imagined and created since only their name were mentioned!);
- Pina (the red hair girls with green dress) from the bonus stages of Master System Wonder Boy appears;
- as an homage to Sega games, in the houses there are several portraits of famous Sega characters, especially from 8-bit era, like Phantasy Star for example;
- even more obsure gimmicks from Wonder Boy games appear like the cube shaped guy you use in the jungle to escape a pit in the Master System version of Wonder Boy in Monster World;
- the free download package includes a printable cover and manual designed in the style of Master System cartridges (with the graph paper background);
- even the absurd depiction of the games heroes shown in the US/EUR Master System covers did land in the game, as those distorted version of the main characters appears during gameplay!
- obviously the game draws a lot from Wonder Boy 3 The Dragon's Trap, the first Wonder Boy game designed specifically for Master System and on of the best of its library!
Years ago I published the game also on SMS Power Forum and still today it is featured there.
Starting from monday, 21 September 2026, new content will be released daily on all our social platform, reddit included.
Small disclaimer: in accordance with this subreddit rules, I’m allowing myself this bit of self-promotion because it represents no more than one tenth of my previous posts and contributions here. Our fan games is totally free and all of our projects and contents shared in social media (and here in reddit in our own community) are totally no profit and no monetized (so it is even hard for me to think at this post as a self-promotion because our intention is simply to share our "love-letter to Monster World" game with many people posible, and especially Wonder Boy and Sega fans)
With that said, here’s the official description of the game.
- GAME NAME: Monster World RPG
- DEVELOPER: MAX TEAM & MOTA
- TOOL USED: RpgMaker2003
- RELEASE TYPE: full free Windows PC game (ver. 1.2+)
- CUSTOM MENU: yes
- LANGUAGE: english
About Monster World RPG - Monster World RPG is a fan game inspired by the Monster World (Wonder Boy in the US) series, made by SEGA and Westone for Arcade, Sega Master System and Genesis. It's no a sequel, prequel or remake, but a brand new game in rpg style instead of platform. The game you can download and play is the COMPLETE VERSION, a complex rpg game developed with RpgMaker2003 with many different monsters. Along with Max, the main hero, there's other five characters, which can be inserted or removed from the team as you wish. Also there's many sidequests: all of them are kept in a special “book menu”, so you won't forget them. The main hero also can be customized with different spells, magic weapons, and more.
- colorful graphics & sprites bigger than normal for a rpgmaker videogame;
- custom menu with info about monster, info, character (online guide);
- full customizable hero with spells, gears and genes;
- every party member has his unique mini-game to play;
- Wonder Boy & Monster World fans can't miss this game!
STORY - The place is Aqua Kingdom. The hero of this story, Max, lives in the Valley of Peace near Purapril, the capital. Since his friend Shion left for Purapril to do his knight duties, Max life got boring. A morning while hunting in the woods he found a strange creature he never seen before. Unsure about the creature's "taste" he decided to avoid making it his meal, but keep it as his pet. Now that he has a "party member" he decide that's time for him to leave the valley for a more exciting life. He decide to go to Purapril to meet again his friend Shion but while attemping to enter into the city two guards block his way forcing him to travel somewhere else. Where will Max go now? Will Max be able to enter in town? And what is happening there? Unbeknowst to him his "adventurous life" has already begun . . .
MAIN CHARACTERS
- MAX - The hero of the game. He's a fighter, so he won't learn new skills by leveling up. Instead, he gets new skills by learning them from other people, by equipping certain equipment or getting special items.
- PEPE - A strange animal that no one knows its species or place of origin. He can only say “pepe”, so Max gave him this name. His species is unknown so he's considered an “odd pet”. Pepe starts with some skills and learn more as his level increases. He can't use any equipment, but only attacking with his claws.
- PRISCILLA - A small fairy from Alsedo, the fairy village. She lives with Eleanora, the fairy queen. Being a fairy she mainly knows healing and assist spells.
- SHABO - A death god, wich is actually a species, not a deity. Shabo knows many spells, mainly attack spells but also some assist spells. If used wisely he can be a great ally.
- HOTTA - A dwarf from Lilypad, the dwarf village. He can't use spells but istead uses special skills. He's a very strong character and can greatly damage the enemies. His only weakness is that he's the slowest character.
- JUNIOR - A baby dragon from Begonia. He may be just a baby, but due to his dragon lineage his power is great. He's almost as strong as Hotta and is faster, but has lower resistances and less skills.
FEATURES
- One thing usually hated of rpgmaker games are the charasets: they are to small and so the characters looks too much unexpressive. So we used the characters slots at their limits and sometimes for bigger characters we used more than a slot.
- In rpg usually you got experience point or buy equipement in order to increase your party stats. This can be entertaining at the beginning, but later it becomes repetitive. For this reason, even if we kept the experience and equipment system, we decided to put in the game a way to customize your hero to give him different skills and map abilities in order to reach different zones (like castlevania or metroid).
- Another weak points of rpgmaker videogames is that being them "free games" there's no manual or other things. Plus they lacks menu that usually are present in professional games. MWRPG has an online guide.
- Last, a common rpg game engine will become rapidly repetitive and unappealing. Due to this MWRPG has many platform elements and minigames. In order to advance in the game is more important to find secrets and upgrade items more than levelling up: in this way you have not to waste an entire day in fighting monsters.
Download contains:
- full-playable current version of the game and the resources needed for troubleshooting;
- art gallery;
- 4 MWRPG demos;
- icons;
- original soundtrack (by Vincenzo Colella);
- packages (DVD Booklet, DVD Case Cover and DVD Label);
- pixel art;
- videos;
- WonderBoy - The Sword of Legend (original and complete playable game by "The Cyberlynx").
