Nintendo Wii Fanboy

The internet has made it easy to find cheats for games, but we miss the tips pages from game magazines, when the discovery of a new code could inspire you to go back to an old game. These codes aren't exactly new, but oldness is the essence of the Virtual Console! We're bringing back the classic codes every week on The VC Advantage.

There are a lot of games in the Wonder Boy series, but it's not always apparent which games are. For example, there are five Wonder Boy games on the American Virtual Console, a number beaten only by the Mario series and matched by Donkey Kong (according to our quick count). Of those five games, only one has the words "Wonder" and "Boy" in the title. The rest are just similar-looking (or not-so similar) side-scrolling action games, some of which have some light RPG elements. Two of the games on the Virtual Console are the same game. To put it succinctly, it's a big mess -- and one that, thankfully, has been explained for us already. We're just going to provide some codes for those of you who have dared to get into the series.

Dragon's Curse (TG16)
Start in Hu-Man form: We apologize if this spoils the beginning of Dragon's Curse for you, but you get turned into a Lizard-Man shortly after the opening of the game. It's the beginning of the game, and also sort of the central gimmick. Anyway, if for some insane reason you'd rather be a dude than a lizard-style dude, you can use this password to make that happen. It'll start you in the first town in Hu-Man form. There are reasons, like better armor and stronger attacks, but, on the other hand, lizard. It's a tough call. The password is NODEGOSOOOOOOO.

Monster Lair (TG16 CD-ROM)
Continue: This is one of the basic varieties of classic code: the secret continue function. It's the only way anyone ever got anywhere in Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road, if, for some reason, they were playing Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road. To continue in Monster Lair (which has more in common with the NES's Adventure Island than it does with Dragon's Curse) press left, right, down, up, then hold Select and left. Oh, and be dead.

Wonder Boy in Monster World (GEN)
Stay at inns for cheap: Not much of a cheat, but this one trick beats the information we have for The Dynastic Hero, which is none. Possibly due to its rarity, nobody seems to have played enough Dynastic Hero to get any cheats. It's quite possible that this trick for the Genesis game works on The Dynastic Hero as well, since they're the same game and all. Anyway, this is pretty simple: if you can't afford the cost of a stay at an inn, the inn will gladly take whatever you've got on you. Even if it's nothing.

Adventure Island (NES)
The very first Wonder Boy game can be found on the Wii with Wonder Boy removed and Takahashi Meijin in his place. Longtime readers know that Adventure Island (and its sequels, which are divergent from the Wonder Boy sequels) was already the subject of its own VC Advantage. But here's a weird glitch we didn't discuss then:

See the next boss: If you pause the game right as the first boss is leaving the screen, the next boss will appear. Pretty awesomely useless, huh?

[Codes via GameFaqs]