Wonder Boy (also known as Monster World) is a legendary series dating back decades. We haven’t seen a new entry in many years besides a remake of Wonder Boy The Dragon’s Trap, but now FDG Entertainment has brought us a new entry in the form of Monster Boy The Cursed Kingdom. I was skeptical of the game at first, but the more I saw of it, the most I become enamored. This looked like it would recapture the spirit of the older games and bring something new. But how did it turn out?
Monster Boy is a very interesting experience. It definitely takes after the older games, sometimes a bit too much, but it does successfully bring the franchise into the modern era. There are of course many callbacks to the older games, such as musical nods and reimagining some of the items from Dragon’s Trap and how they are used, but giving a new twist on them. Transformatiions are back of course, but handled differently and they are much more involved here.
Wonder Boy The Dragon’s Trap was an early metroidvania style game, but Monster Boy is a much beefier experience and is able to use the experience the genre has gained over the years to level up the fun. Your items are now powerups you will find and upgrade, and to earn them you must find specific items for instance. There is also more of a narrative focus here, and a lot more people to interact with than just shopkeepers. Obviously this takes more after the later Wonder Boy/Monster World entries, that expanded on the gameplay and fleshed out the world from the more simplistic depiction. But Monster Boy goes further and makes the world feel truly lived in.
Monster Boy is gorgeous and there is no other way to say it. The visuals are amazing and almost perfect in detail. I say almost because there is one issue, and that is that the characters sometimes seem superimposed onto the background. It isn’t distracting and you do not notice it often, but it is there. I do like that Monster Boy allows you to go into the background at times, so perhaps this was a deliberate choice.
Gameplay-wise, Monster Boy e is great but does show its roots sometimes too much. The difficulty is obviously toned down from the classics, but sometimes the hit detection is off. Fortunately you have easy continues, so the developers must have realized this as well. The combat works great and figuring out how to defeat a boss is fun. there are puzzles to solve and the game goes further in its evolution than any previous entry in the series.
FDG managed to modernize the Wonder Boy/Monster World series and produce a game that stands toe to toe with the classics. I couldn’t stop smiling when playing this, as I found it to be a truly charming game. I highly recommend checking it out.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided.