Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom

I have no nostalgic attachment to the Wonderboy series, so I'm judging Monsterboy freely on its own merits. As a Metroidvania it does everything the genre requires: You have different abilities that unlock new areas as you progress and beat your way through different areas & bosses. Check. That's the basis covered. That core gameplay is wrapped in neat packaging, colorful hand-drawn sprites & backgrounds, bouncy catchy music, the presentation is highly pleasant. Combat and movement is slick enough, though hit detection is not perfect, platforming can be finicky. It does have other shortcomings, especially towards the end the backtracking and lack of clear direction can get quite cumbersome. You will most likely have to resort to a walkthrough to find some of the macguffins required to progress. Overall though I had a blast playign Monsterboy. Whole-heartedly recommended to all ages.

I loved the wonderboy series as a child and I absolutely love this game. The music and graphical style remain in keeping with the Sega classics. The platforming and puzzles offer a moderate to strong challenge without being impossible. The game is not overly punishing, allowing you to try a few times to get past any puzzles or encounters. My favourite part of the game is how the equipment and the different forms come together to aid solving the different problems. The game is certainly aimed at capable players that are between 8-14 or adults who love a bit of nostalgia. If you fit in either group and love platforming with a fun twist, this is the game for you.

While Monster Boy and the Curse Kingdom is a well made and enjoyable game it fails as a Wonderboy sequel because it jettisons the core gameplay structure that gave the series it's unique identity. If you want to play a modernized version of Wonderboy play Dead Cells not this. Let me explain why: The old Wonderboy games were based around long play sessions where if you died and lost 20 minutes of progress you got to keep your gold and try again with better equipment (like a rogue-lite). Monster Boy is all about short, highly difficult sections with lots of checkpoints (like a modern pure platformer: Super Meat Boy, Celeste etc). Dead Cells is all about strategic combat and knowing enemy weaknesses (like Monster World IV) while Monster Boy is more focused on platforming and puzzle solving (more akin to Shantae and the Pirates Curse). I'd love to see Motion Twin tackle a Wonderboy sequel as they really understand the gameplay structure that made those games work. Game Atelier seem more interested in cribbing from modern indie platformers than from their supposed source material.

After purchasing the wonderful remake of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap and hearing about Monster Boy, I was anticipating the new action adventure game in this setting, especially considereing the cartoon-like sprites/backgrounds. The game starts off alright with an odd story that doesn't quite make sense in the context of the 2nd, 3rd, or 5th games in the series, but the intro area hit the nostalgia button and I was anticipating something special. It started with some action, but quickly changed to be mainly a series of puzzles with a little bit of action thrown in, including the bosses that you end up fighting. Unfortunately, this is where the game starts to show some issues, with puzzles that randomly add an unexpected element that does not make sense (trial and error is definitely needed in a lot of cases), poor animations (eg. Frog swimming just rotates the sprite in an arc and looks tacked on), enemy placement that is there just to be cheap (eg. Spiders that swing out of nowhere to hit you), hitboxes that are too small (eg. The shield is all but useless unless you are perfectly in line with the enemy that shoots at you). and music that is alright but repetitive and forgettable (The music you find thorughout the land for one of the NPC characters is actually good). The graphics themselves are pretty, with high resolution backgrounds and sprites, and the switching between forms is an interesting but flawed mechanic if you don't have a proper setup. The videos where they show instant flowing between forms to solve some puzzles was impossible for me and I needed to either take a hit or find an alternate way to solve those puzzles. 2 stars is probably a bit harsh considereing I did finish the game, but I can't recommend it. Buy the Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap remake if you want something special and similar to WB 2, 3 (obviously), or 5, buy Guacamelee if you want a more consistent action puzzle experience, or wait until this game is super cheap.