Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom

I really enjoy the game. It's beautiful, it has tight controls, varied challenges, an adorable premise, and I love Metroidvanias, so it sucked me in, and I've dumped hours into it. But man, the irrational difficulty spikes. For example, you'll go explore a side passage that leads to a secret and realize that it's really punishingly challenging, with extremely, pixel-tight controls and timing necessary, and decide to back out, only to realize that the only way out is to complete the challenge. Who designs a game like that? The game is good enough that despite ranting about it on occasion, I keep coming back to it, but man. I gotta knock a star off for some miserable level design in spots. A fly in the otherwise great ointment.

A game with magnificent cartoon-style graphics and a very nice soundtrack. I'm normally a fan of pixel art, but I admit being in love with the stunning modern graphics of this game. However, it has to be one of the most infuriating games I've ever played! It's like every section of each level finds a new way to make you angry! But at the same time, it was difficult putting the controller aside because the game is a lot of fun. The game isn't that fun during the first few hours though: you're a pig wandering through the sewers! So, you have to hang on at the beginning because the best is coming. In addition, the control is not very good. Yes, the control is responsive, but your movements feel restricted. This is a problem that remains throughout the game: you never feel confident facing enemies and moreover you often get hit even by the lamest enemy. The game is never boring: the levels are a series of sections that require varied actions and creative thinking. The game is definitely more focused on solving secrets than on action. The discovery of hidden treasures is very satisfying. The treasures are well hidden and that feeling you get when you enter these secret places! The game is not impossible, but difficult. It requires a lot of perseverance and patience because you have very little information on what must be done to solve some secrets. Even to beat certain bosses, you have to solve "secrets" during the battle and it's not always easy (and frustrating!). Some Metroidvanias (Gravity Circuit for example) are better than this game, but it's still an excellent game if you are able to tolerate the frustration that comes with it.

I played and reviewed “Wonder Boy: the Dragon's Trap” before and I'm glad to say they updated the controls, which were a major complain of mine in the previous title. Now your character jumps, runs, and uses abilities effectively enough to be on par with the enemies and hazards in the game, sometimes even better. Not only your character feels great to maneuver, but also has a huge array of abilities and equipments to use, giving the game a lot of variety and customizations. Sadly the gameplay itself turns the many options from pointless to an outright hindering. Not only the unavoidable hazards and problematic hitboxes from the previous title have not been improved, but the game itself for the most part is overly cryptic and extremely picky with it's biggest elements: puzzles and secrets. The game only explains the basic mechanics and then either expects the player to find out everything else by himself without giving any clue (X has effect on Y but no indication it does so), willingly omits important information (use X on Y but no indication Y even exists), or outright changes its own rules for the sake of difficulty (Use X when you see Y, and later you must use X but there is no Y), sometimes even going against the events of it's own story (the character forgets he has X item to solve the situation easily). All of this while leaving no option to tackle anything outside combat with very specific combinations of (upgraded) items and/or abilities. Also, this game got REALLY carried away with fake walls. Overall, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is a big improvement of Wonder Boy: the Dragon's Trap in terms of controls and pacing, but still suffers of the same issues with hitboxes and cheapshots while also failing to give important informations and clues required in order to progress at all. Not really a bad game, but still far from being actually good.

Monster Boy tells the story of a town whose inhabitants have been magically turned into animals by the uncle of our protagonist. It is your quest to assemble the animal orbs, gain their power, and use it to stop your uncle Nabu. The game is a solid Metroidvania title, where each new ability unlocks secrets or new pathways in old areas. Each area in Monster Boy is a unique biome with its own enemies and scenery. As you explore these areas you will come across fast-travel locations making it easier to move between them; and eventually you find a wand which allows you to fast travel at any time. The bosses are pretty straightforward. Once you get the wind power you can steamroll just about any boss that gets in your way; with the exception of the Lion boss since it has a specific method to defeating it. Fire, Wind, Lightning, Boomerang, Bomb; these are some of the magic powers you will gain to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. Your equipment can also give you unique powers, such as the ability to double-jump, glide, or walk on water/lava. Exploring as you gain new abilities is typically met with upgrade materials or increases to your abilities use count; this is similar to Zelda titles where you increase your heart count, or increase the amount of bombs you can hold. The six animal forms include: Lion, Dragon, Frog, Pig, Snake, and Human. Each one has a specific ability that will help you solve puzzles or traverse new ground. The puzzles can seem obtuse, but almost every puzzle I found spelled out what I was supposed to do using hints (which can be found using the pig). I see a lot of people say the puzzles are confusing, but I have yet to come across one where I needed trial and error to solve it. The rotation puzzles are the most obscure, and they only require you to think semi-logically for a second. Monster Boy is a fun throwback to the original series, while taking chances to bring something new to the franchise. This one easily stands on its own.

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is beautiful. The visual graphics, animations and atmosphere remind me a lot of classic animes from the 90's. The soundtrack provokes me the same effect, is just wonderful. I'm surprised how well animated the game is, and how good the gameplay is too. The gameplay is a mix of platforming, action and adventure, with intuitive puzzles here and there. You change forms between various species of animals and the human form. And the moveset of each animal form changes too. If you plan to collect everything ( for example the parts of a special golden armor), some areas can be tricky and require a bit of patience (in some cases) but nothing very hard or impossible (so far). If you enjoyed 90's animes in 2D, you're going to love it.