Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

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Review:

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is a spiritual successor to the Wonder Boy series, and by “spiritual successor”, I mean that this game is pretty much a Wonder Boy game in everything but name, with strong similarities to the recent remake of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap.

Like that game, this is a Metroidvania featuring a protagonist who, over the course of the game, gains the ability to transform into multiple different forms, each which give him different abilities to explore, get past obstacles, and fight enemies.

Also like that game, this game features absolutely beautiful hand-animated characters, now with some delightful hand-painted backgrounds to make for an overall gorgeous-looking game.

As for the gameplay, well, much of what I said in my review of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap applies here – there’s solid gameplay, but it’s a bit repetitive, with some areas just seeming to take up space. That said, this game doesn’t seem to have quite as much of an issue with that as Wonder Boy did, so I’d say that between the two, this is definitely the better game.

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is ultimately an excellent follow-up to the Wonder Boy games that improves on the formula while still keeping what worked before, presented with absolutely gorgeous visuals. For fans of Metroidvanias and especially fans of the Wonder Boy games, this is definitely worth a look.

tl;dr – Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is a Metroidvania that follows in the footsteps of the Wonder Boy games, and does an admirable job of it, too. It still feels like there’s a bit too much filler here, but the gameplay is solid and the visuals are absolutely gorgeous, making this a superb entry for the genre.

Grade: B-

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