Lost Wonder Boy Game Monster World IV Leaves Japan, Arrives On PS3 & Xbox 360

When the Sega Genesis was in its heyday, the Wonder Boy series was at its peak of popularity. Sega picked up and localized most of the Monster World games as Wonder Boy titles… except for Monster World IV. That game, which starred a female warrior named Arsha, remained in Japan.

Surprise! Monster World IV is heading overseas. The ESRB rated the Genesis classic as a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for North America.

This is an action-platformer in which players guide a ‘cartoony’ girl through side-scrolling levels to save her world from evil spirits. As players run and jump through each level, they use a sword to defeat whimsical creatures (e.g., mummies, walking mushrooms, slime blobs) and larger bosses (e.g., a caterpillar woman, a winged man). Enemies blink when hit, and quickly disappear when defeated.

That sounds like the game I remember, but Monster World IV was never localized. Is Sega going to release a digital import on PlayStation Network and Xbox 360 with Japanese text? While somewhat common on Wii’s Virtual Console, this would be a first for Xbox Live Arcade. Hmm… on second thought I wonder if Sega translated the game or if this could be a remake of Monster World IV.