Wonder Boy/Monster World?

[HappehLemons]

In a nutshell, can someone tell me what is going on with this games timeline?

Wiki says

Wonder Boy (Arcade/SMS)
Wonder Boy in Monster Land (Arcade/SMS)
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (Arcade/SMD)
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (SMD/GG)
Wonder Boy V: Monster World III / Wonder Boy in Monster World (SMD)
Monster World IV (SMD)

So why isn't Wonder boy II or IV on the list? Where's Monster World I and II? Why did they suddenly add "Monster World III" at the end of Woner Boy V? Why did the games name change over to Mosnter World?

I've never played thru, or quite frankly knew anything about the wonder boy series but now I'm more confused then ever.

[Scissors]

The Wonder Boy games go by a lot of different names (more than you listed there), so it can be confusing. Wonder Boy in Monster Land was the second in the series, even though it wasn't numbered. It was called Super Wonder Boy: Monster World in Japan. Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap is Monster World II, as it begins where Monster World I left off. In Japan, it wasn't called Wonder Boy III since it wasn't the third one. It would be considered fourth in the series even though it's not numbered. Wonder Boy III: Monster's Lair (the third game in the series) was a different kind of game from the Monster World games, so it kept the Wonder Boy name, but didn't use the Monster World name. Monster World III and IV had similar gameplay as Monster World I and II, so they Used the Monster World name. I'm not certain why they dropped the Wonder Boy name from the last one, but I think I read somewhere that it's because it stars a girl rather than a boy.

Hopefully this clears things up a bit. There's probably an article out there that explains the titles a lot better than I just did.

Edit: This article explains things pretty well:
http://hg101.kontek.net/wonderboy/wonderboy.htm

[lkermel]

Without forgetting's Hudson Soft's spin-offs and Takahashi Meijin (aka Adventure Island) series.
As Scissors said, Harcore gaming 101 has a great article about the whole series. I also have some info on my site.