A legendary series returns with a grand new adventure!
Enjoy a colorful action-adventure game made alongside Ryuichi Nishizawa, creator of the original Wonder Boy in Monster World series.
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom borrows the best from the classic series to deliver a fresh, modern adventu...
A legendary series returns with a grand new adventure!
Enjoy a colorful action-adventure game made alongside Ryuichi Nishizawa, creator of the original Wonder Boy in Monster World series.
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom borrows the best from the classic series to deliver a fresh, modern adventure with fun gameplay, memorable music and gorgeous hand drawn animations.
Can Jin save Monster World Kingdom? Help our young hero defeat challenging enemies, discover hidden locations, upgrade powerful equipment, and more! You'll also unlock special forms with unique skills used to open new paths where mighty bosses and secret treasures await.
Feature Overview:
Six awesome forms with unique combat and platforming abilities to make your adventure exciting from start to finish.
Unlock new paths and secrets with special equipment: look for magic weapons and items that gradually open up the world.
Over 15 hours of epic adventure: explore the new Monster World in a vast interconnected environment.
Hand Drawn animations: characters and enemies come to life with detailed animations and fun facial expressions.
Soundtrack from iconic Japanese composers: Yuzo Koshiro, Motoi Sakuraba, Michiru Yamane, Keiki Kobayashi and Takeshi Yanagawa.
much less sophsitaction than the previous release.
this is more like the "Wonderboy in Monster Land" which is such a great game.
the coin jingle is so satisfactory.
that's how you make this game.
the changing to monster is less my taste. but the game is real fun, and has a nice plot to go along(whihc you skip real fast).
TL DR: buy it if you liked the arcade game. that's the real deal, so far.
WonderBoy 3: The Dragon's Trap was the ultimate game on my Master System back in day. I loved it. The open feeling, the fun character's, finding the code in the manual by accident, all of it was amazing to my young brain.
I then found the remake here on GOG and it. was. AMAZING. Perfect in every way, down to the last minute detail.
That then led me to find Monster Boy and The Cursed Kingdom. It's everything it should be. I love they brought the shopkeeper pig from WB3 and made him a playable character. I love the new character forms. I love that when you equip a new item, you see it on your character. The difficulty level is right in the sweet spot of challenging is places, but overcomable with a few attempts. I love it's not just a side-scrolling platform hack and slash. It takes amazingly simplistic gameplay and mixes in puzzle-solving and lost-vikings style teamwork...all with one character. It's just awesome.
All of the little easter eggs from previous Wonder Boy games are there as well; some very easy to spot and others cleverly hidden. My personal favorite is the underwater statue of Mer-Man from WB3. Meka-Dragon on the walls in one of the dungeons. The Wonder-Boys/Gal in the Sactuary. It's all there with the memba-berries you could ask for wrapped in an actual quality product...not just a nostalgia laced cashgrab with zero soul.
Needless to say, I would highly recommed this game.
PS - the Volcano Level can go play in traffic...
This metroidvania surprised me! Played it on steam deck and ran flawlessly. I might go for the 100% someday, but so far this was a great game with so many positives.
(+) Love the artstyle. Feels like playing a cartoon.
(+) Tons of secrets and collectables
(+) Controls are very responsive (minus the underwater sections)
(+) Doesn't hold your hand! There were a few times where I felt completely lost and had to check a guide, but it never felt unfair or not explained. I was the one not paying attention! I really need to highlight this as it's been a while since a game left me with this feeling. That was really enjoyable.
(+) So many cool references and Easter eggs
(+) exploration and character progress were top notch. Loved the different effects of gear, either for combat and exploration
(+) movement and platforming were awesome. Felt very "gamey"!
(+) so many options due to the transformations
(+) good writing for the characters, I enjoyed most of them
(0) good but not memorable music
(0) bosses were fun but very easy
(-) as helpful as the map was, it didn't really click for me
(-) Very generic story
(-) the beginning of the game is terrible, it really only "clicked" for me after getting the 3rd transformation
(-) backtracking and fast travel were like a chore, did not enjoy this part
(-) combat was far from exciting or interesting (in direct contrast to platforming and exploration)
I quite like the concept of the different monster forms. The art is charming and the combat is fun without being very difficult.
If I have to give it a con is that the characters sometimes feels like it has soles lathered in oil when platforming.