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With a release almost every year since the Wonder Boy remake in 2016, the classic platformer Wonder Boy series has seen quite the revitalization, putting the bankruptcy of its developer and dry spell of 22 years very much in the rear view mirror.
Due to naming rights and the addition of a female protagonist, some may know the series as Monster World, Adventure Island or even Monster Boy, but odd naming system aside, the secret of its power is well-known, and Monster Boy collection is leading us right back to the golden age of platforming with 4 (Wonder Boy, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy in Monster World, Monster World IV) of the original 6 games.
Starting as an platformer released in the arcade in 1986, the linear levels were replaced with adventurable areas and hub maps with NPCs for a console audience by the time the last entry of the series released in 1994.
Out of them all, I most enjoy the simplicity of the 1st entry – Wonder Boy. With a metabolism that would make short work of any international eating competition you need to consume the food items to keep up your ever decreasing health all while avoiding/killing enemies and bridging gaps of many a platform. It’s a pretty standard platformer by today’s standards, of course, but the challenge and its speed still hold up and its the easiest game of the 4 to just pick-up-and-play.
Wonder Boy of Monster Land fuses the original’s arcade time-limit and difficulty with RPG gameplay but like a game in transition, it never feels balanced enough to enjoy as you have to speed through it without being able to enjoy the RPG elements. There is also a lack of quality with poor hit detection and platform mechanics and its not until Wonder of Monster World (ignoring the two releases inbetween that were omitted from this collection) where the blueprint feels actuated well enough with all features improving, from the visuals to interesting level implements and story.
This might have a lot to do with the fact the time limit is gone, and interestingly these changes are quite indicative of the huge developments in the game industry at the time with it possible to see the changing trends with each game. The difficulty of the games ease after Wonder Boy in Monster Land, for example, and by Monster World IV you are able save regularly. This is inpart down to the consoles cartridges not allowing save files during the Master System generation and requiring long save codes.
Monster World IV continues with the improvements, making the largest home hub area of the titles and many NPCs you can talk to. Naturally each entry’s visual quality improves, and by Monster World IV the 2D visuals have a quantifiable charm that combines with the best overall gameplay in the series, giving it more of a platforming adventure feel to it rather than an RPG.
Another thing common across all the games is a great and varied soundtrack (albeit with some annoying sound effects) and although a playable soundtrack isn’t included its crisp audio is handled well as its most else in the emulation.
The additions found in Wonder Boy Collection are actually pretty standard as far as retro re-releases now go, with original screen display modes and some game art, but the best of these are the save and rewind features, which are, quite frankly, godsends – especially for the Wonder Boy and Wonder Boy in Monster Land. If only I had the rewind feature when I was younger, it would have saved so much heartache, and although not for me personally, probably would have saved the destruction of a lot of controllers.
Before you jump to purchase this release however – buyers beware – as Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection (which includes all 6 of the original games and 21 versions in total) comes out later this year. This may explain why Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap aren’t included in this collection, and unfortunately, they do just happen to be two of the more interesting games of the series, with Monster Lair a side scrolling shooting platformer and The Dragon’s Trap a critically acclaimed action platformer with multiple playable characters.
It might be hard to understand why this isn’t a full collection, but at half the price of a newly-released game, Monster Boy Collection is still jam-packed full of retro goodness and offers great value – just don’t call it a comeback.
