Some popular mascot characters remain the same over the course of their life. Oh sure, they are occasionally given new clothes, redrawn or spruced up a little, but you can always tell its them even after a decade or two has gone by. Look at Mario or Sonic, both characters look pretty much exactly the same as they did when they were first introduced, yet both have dealt with going 3D, wearing new clothes and getting a shiny new coat of paint. But then there's Wonder Boy, a character that suffered through a number of character changes before even getting out of the 16-bit era (perhaps that's why he never got out of the 16-bit era). The Wonder Boy you see in front of you doesn't look a thing like the Wonder Boy you saw back in 1986. The original Wonder Boy had yellow hair and a loin cloth. And let's not forget that the Wonder Boy in Wonder Boy III has a crazy anime look and a tiara. And then there's the Tenacious D song Wonder Boy, but that has nothing to do with this game, so we're not even going to talk about it.

The Wonder Boy you see here is probably the stupidest looking Wonder Boy of them all, sure Wonder Boy III had a tiara, but at least he was able to keep his shoelaces tied. This Wonder Boy is sporting untied shoes, knee pads and the stupidest 1980s jean jacket this side of the Karate Kid movies. And if that wasn't enough, the formerly blonde Wonder Boy is now sporting the blue, which was pretty clich? by the time this game came about. But then, how cool can you be when you're fighting giant statues with gumballs in their mouth? If these are the monsters Wonder Boy has to deal with then sign me up, they have no legs and don't look very menacing ... I mean, they have freaking gumballs in their mouth, how difficult can they be? But Wonder Boy apparently hasn't learned anything from his numerous travels, because you just don't fight rock (or gum) with a sword. What you do is stand out of the way and let the statues be, they aren't hurting anybody. And tie your damn shoe, the only way you're going to get injured in this fight is if you trip and fall down because of your stupid fashion sense. Perhaps that's why he's sporting the knee pads. What a rebel.