JALECOlle Famicom Ver. Saiyuuki World

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

After Wonder Boy in Monster Land released on the Sega Master System in 1988, developer NMK (Nihon Maicom Kaihatsu) created an altered port for the Famicom system, minus the Wonder Boy name and with some elements changed, releasing later in the same year under the title Saiyuuki World. This game was never released out of Japan, though curiously it did get a Famicom sequel which was localized under the name Whomp ‘Em. However, Westerners can finally get an official localized release of the game as a part of the JALECOlle series with this release on Nintendo Switch in 2024.

Probably the best comparison I can make to Saiyuuki World is the game Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, though both games still differ greatly. While Saiyuuki World does have some light RPG elements, they are nowhere as pronounced as Zelda II’s were, nor does this game have any sort of overworld. There are no towns either, though you’ll find houses and doors throughout the game that lead to shopkeepers willing to trade goods and services for coins you’ve collected.

While that does play an element, the main focus here is on the Action-Platformer gameplay, which is unfortunate, because Zelda II’s Action-Platformer gameplay wasn’t very good, and Saiyuuki World’s is even worse. To its credit, your character’s pathetically short weapon isn’t quite as short as Link’s was in Zelda II, but this game lacks much of the nuance and variety of Zelda II’s gameplay, which had multiple types of sword attacks to use. I suppose Saiyuuki World’s platforming is a tad better, but it’s still not especially great.

As you’d expect from a game from the Nintendo Entertainment System era, this game makes use of 2D pixel art visuals and a chiptune soundtrack, and neither are especially noteworthy here. In fact, I would say that the music is pretty awful, and before long I found myself looking for the mute button.

Despite that Saiyuuki World wasn’t even a significant enough release to even get localized when it first came out, the Nintendo Switch version of the game has gotten a lot of love. This release comes with a gallery of box art, instruction manual art, and promo art, achievements to pursue, a quick save feature, a rewind feature, display and control options, and a frame that includes helpful gameplay info. This is far more than I would have expected for such a niche game.

Despite this, I still find it difficult to recommend Saiyuuki World to anyone but those curious about the game’s strange history and lack of a US release prior to now. When the closest point of comparison is one of the most divisive games in its own franchise, and when I don’t think this game compares well to that release, it’s probably a good explanation for why this game wasn’t released outside of Japan.

tl;dr – Saiyuuki World is an Action-Platformer that was originally created as an altered Famicom port of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, but this game hasn’t aged well and it’s easy to see why it wasn’t localized to the West. This may be an interesting curio for collectors, but everyone else is better off leaving it alone.

Grade: C-

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