The Studio Behind Sega's Wonder Boy Series Might Be Going Bankrupt

A true shame, but they got a good run out of one premier franchise.

Wonder Boy in Monster World, which I think is the third one, still holds a dear special place in my heart. Changing into all the different animals/beasts blew my mind as a nipper

No! This is so sad to hear. Why do so many awesome developers from my childhood struggle so much these days

Reborn Wonder Boy SEGA!

waits for people to ask about virtual console games being pulled

Time to make sure you have the WonderBoy games on Wii VC if you ever wanted them

They were still in business? what have they done recently?

@AhabSpampurse, One of the best games i've ever played. It's the 3rd game in the WonderBoy in Monster World series, but there is another WonderBoy 3 that is actually more like the original title. The Monster World series was different, the game you are referring to is most commonly called the WB III: Dragon's Trap for the Master System and the WB III: Dragon's Curse for TurboGrafx. If they made a sequel i'd buy it day one, nothing else in that series is even close to as good IMO.

I have all 6 Wonder Boy games on the Wii Virtual Console. Love that series so much since I first played Wonder Boy in Monster World on Wii.
I also liked the original Wonder Boy on the Master System and C64 very much back in the day.
I supported them and hoped for a revival, but now it's their demise. Very sad.

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap has a special place in my gaming book. The game is probably the best game that was ever released on Sega's first home console. That music is one of the best 8-bit soundtracks ever. It's only 5 bucks (500 Wii Points) and freaking amazing. Also, if you liked Zelda II, then you really need to play this masterpiece too.

Any chance of the games being removed from Wii VC? If so, i need to download them as soon as possible. When a game is pulled out, how much notice in advance does Nintendo or the publishers give?

@ghasfarost No notice is given.

Sad news! Wonder Boy 3 is still the greatest game ever

@Kevlar44 cheers for the clarity. The one I'm thinking of is where at some point you can turn into a mouse, lion and dragon, we on the same page?

@AhabSpampurse that's Wonderboy III: The Dragons Trap greatest game ever!

It's a good thing I downloaded all the Wonderboy games in case something bad happens. Such a shame this series didn't get more recognition.

In b4 "Nintendo should buy them."

Wonderboy in Monster World was just a fantastic game.

@shaneoh It'll likely be Sega buying them, or at least the Wonder Boy IP.

Wow, they are quick on Wiki, they have already listed Westone Bit Entertainment as past tense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westone_Bit_Entertainment

Well they should have taken all those classics and made 3d Classics out of them. It would have been easy and profitable. Just saying. I can't believe 3d Classics are only being worked on by sega now. Konami has all those PCEngine classics they could unload into 3d Classics. 3d Classics on 3ds should be blowing away VC. But its not. VC is even almost a forgotten place to release too. Its sad to see a company of a Franchise so important to a lot of people going down. I still love The PCEngine CDROM Dynastic Hero. Not the greatest in the series but the fact it came out in the US was huge. Fun little game that was very memorable

@Kevlar44 dragons trap was awful. The 2nd wonder boy, in monster land was the best one by a clear mile

I think Sega already owns the Wonder Boy rights?

@DESS-M-8 Pfft, no way in heck buddy. I know it's just your opinion, but it stinks

if they would only reboot the series, in the Wii days, that way now they wouldnt be in trouble and could have a sequel. I love wonderboy, its a great game and series i will always remember

@MeWario my opinion supported by universal critical fact I'm afraid so unfortunately that leaves your opinion with an even more unfortunate odour.

If sega does own the rights to these I hope they might open the floodgates and either release them as 3d classics or on VC for both 3ds and Wii-U

@Damo and you don't even actually know me. But there are a hell of a lot of people, gamers and publicised reviews that rate monster land over dragons trap. But that'll be true of any two games being compared, somebody somewhere will prefer superman 64 to ocarina of time. But the world still turns. Ultimately, everybody's opinion is utterly worthless to anybody but themselves, including publicised reviews. Everything is subjective and down to the person subjecting it.
EXCEPT MY OPINION WHICH IS LORE AND MUST BE OBEYED AND RESPECTED BY ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wonder Boy is one of the first games I ever played on the tender age of 7 (or 8). I even managed to finish it on the Amstrad 6128 (the sesion must have taken 4-5 hours... was there a pause button?). Never played Wonder Boy 3 though.

I don't want to fuel any arguements but I too prefer Wonder Boy In Monsterland to Dragon's Trap...it just feels like a more pure arcade experience to me (given that it started life in the arcades) whereas Dragon's Trap is definitely more of a home console game. I still think they're both good games though so don't shoot me!

I'm quite sad to hear that Westone's gone into liquidation....I've played through many of their games over the years and really enjoyed them for the most part. The original Wonder Boy was one of the first arcade platformers I really got into, and I rate it as one of my all time favourites alongside Super Mario Bros. Nothing lasts forever, but feels like another part of my childhood has died.