The Wonder Boy franchise has had a long and varied career over many years. The original title Wonder Boy came out in 1986 and forever captured my attention. Playing this in the arcade was such a treat and I've always been drawn to the series.
Each iteration changed up the formula and still managed to capture my attention. My favorite of the series will always be Wonder Boy in Monsterland from 1987 and remains the title I remember fondly.
I only played the Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap remake recently as I missed the original entry many years ago. This entry was thoroughly enjoyable and allowed the user to switch between the amazing hand drawn graphics and those awesome retro sprites.
I played through some of Monster World IV in the original Japanese cartridge back in the 90's but never ended up finishing that one. From what I remembered it was an enjoyable entry in the series.
Enough backstory already. Talk about the game at hand.
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (2018) is the new entry at least to me available on the Nintendo Switch, Sony PS4 and Xbox one. I'm playing the Nintendo Switch version.
Lots to like about this entry. Gorgeous hand drawn graphics, responsive controls and great music that includes some amazing remixes of the original score.
I enjoyed the game up to a point. Once you reach the "volcano" he level of difficulty ramps up considerably. Challenge is never a thing that bothers me and should increases upwardly at a steady pace. In this case there is a big problem and is an indication of poor game design.
The series up to this point involves switching between different characters that have different abilities. The core mechanic stems from this. The switching mechanic itself is somewhat problematic as it's laggy even when setting the settings to switch instantly.
The notion of "git gud" does not apply. No self respecting game developer especially in modern game development should allow this to happen. Most modern era games are too easy. This is bad game design.
Puzzles are a feature of the original series to a point, they've taken this to the extreme. Once you get to certain regions this is all there is. Each screen is some puzzle for the player to figure out. This is the major flaw.
I find the spirit of the series is lost. I'm trying to solve an annoying puzzle and this is not fun.
Lots of trial and error gameplay. Dying multiple times even after recognizing what you need to do is not engaging for the player.
Patience, patience, patience appears to be the major mechanic of this title. This is not a good thing and never has been in any form of game design.
I've been playing this game for several months now as I've been carving out an hour here and there to play this one. There are quite a few of different forms you change into and I often find myself forgetting the abilities of each. Maybe this is just me; I can't honesty say.
I'm not sure how many hours I've dumped into this title yet, it has to be at least 10+ hours at this point.
The last boss is an effort in annoyance. All your skills will be put to the test. All of your forms will need to be used throughout this slog of a fight. Don't forget that when you die and you will die repeatedly, you cannot skip the cut scenes full of dialogue. Have fun with that.
I eventually beat the end boss and finished the game. What happens? A black screen. The game crashed! A huge middle finger from the developers directly to me it seems. Epic trolling bravo.
I had to beat the last boss again for the final cut scene to trigger and finish this game. I've never been this frustrated with a game at any point during my lifetime.
21:34:36 hours and 62% completion this title is telling me. I'll never play this game again. I immediately deleted it.
Looking at reviews I see this one floating around 8-8.5 out of 10. Personally, I've give it a 2/10. I initially thought it would be a 6 or a 5, but now it's sitting at a 2. I'm sad to say this one doesn't fit the bill for me. This has been a real slog and I'm only continuing playing because of my invested time. I become more and more annoyed as I play yet I continue. The time sunk fallacy I suppose…
Who is this game for? The retro gamer? The modern gamer? Kids?
The retro gamer will notice the heavy reliance on puzzles and that may turn them off. The modern gamer will consider this too easy. Kids will certainly have issues with puzzles and their complexity.
I notice there is a Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World which is a Monster World IV remake. I've not heard good things about this one. A little break from the Wonder Boy series is needed I think.
All media courtesy of Nintendo