Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is a 2D side-scrolling adventure game was released for PS4, XBONE, Switch, PC, Stadia, and Luna in between 2018 and 2021, while PS5 and XSX/S is set to release at later date. It was developed by Game Atelier and published by FDG Entertainment, and it is a follow-up to SEGA's Wonder Boy series.
Last year, I did already cover the review of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap for PS4 which is a remake of the SEGA Master System's 1989 original title. I did describe the game as being faithful rendition of 1989's original game comes with artful presentation, simple 2D core gameplay with focused on simple exploration and combat, appealing animated graphics, arranged music score, and decent in-game content is what made the Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap a remarkable 2D side-scrolling adventures, so I did say that I will consider looking into with the follow-up title like Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom which I finally have it now being installed on my PS4. I was originally planning to get it as a physical copy from online store but sadly I never took a chance to brought it due to being ridiculously overpriced which cost around £50 to £60, yes I fully understand the physical copy was released in Asia territory, where as the US copies comes with collectors edition was distributed by Limited Run Games costs around over £100 more expensive compared to Asia region which is the reason why it's difficult to purchase stuff from internationals depending on shipments cost, so instead I've bought the game as digital copy for £12.99 as part of the sales discount via PS Store, so that I had a chance to play another side-scrolling adventure based off Wonder Boy series.
I've spent whole 2 weeks of playing for its exploration, grinding, upgrading, and discovering throughout the playthrough, so is it anything better than the previous title that I've played it last year? the answer is yes because this is a stepping forward from the predecessor which I will discuss the presentation, gameplay, visuals, and sounds to see how are these holds up to the game pretty well compared with the predecessor.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The story starts off with blue-haired young boy named Jin who discovered his Uncle Nabu went crazy with the magic that causing to spread chaos across the kingdom, turning everyone, including his brother Zeke, into animals.
He went on his journey across the kingdom as his quest to prevent his Uncle from using his magical powers that harming the kingdom.
The story is quite simple and easy to follow stuff, so you just a blue-haired guy dealing with the crazy drunken uncle of his to stop the madness that really hurts the kingdom filled with bunch of hometown people had turned into animals is due to cursed magic that Uncle Nabu had already used.
It's not just a hometown people who had been transformed into animals, it is also happening to Jin as well which giving him a ability to transform into 5 different creatures throughout the game which he is known to be as Monster Boy.
He also learns from the king's court magician named Mysticat about a way to restore everyone to normal form by obtaining 5 animal orbs from across the kingdom.
It kinda reminds me one of the Studio Ghibli's animated film such as Spirited Away where 10 year old girl has to find her way to free her parents, who have been transformed into pigs by an evil witch in a abandoned village which I got to say its a interesting comparison between twos with similar plot in-fact I really liked these kinds of story concepts that really fits the Wonder Boy Universe.
I liked Jin as the main protagonist because it's not only just his human appearance, but has an interesting monster form such as turned into snake, frog, lion, dragon, and of course stinking pig, so just about much more appealing than the ones from the Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap Remake.
Then you have side-characters like Zeke the tiny little-green dragon (Jin's brother), Pepelogoo the blue-rounded flying creatures, Ollie the banjo player (based on Youtube User "Banjo Guy Ollie"), Professor Leveratt the old historian rat, Mack Malino the smart ass-pirate, and Percy the beer drinking sailor.
Uncle Nabu is one of the main antagonist that I don't really describe him as a bad guy due to his drinking habit that drove him into a wicked mess which is the reason why his nephew Jin trying to stop him from using dangerous magics, while there are other major antagonists in the game which I am not gonna give a heavy spoilers till you progress through the game properly.
The presentation in the game is somewhat colourful and well animated that really adds the game's charms with nicely made hand-drawn aesthetics such as cartoonish characters, and bold and detailed foreground levels, and has fluid visual effects that made the game look damn impressive for indie's project.
It may be not quite comical as you can say Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap Remake which has breathtaking environmental design and unique character's animation with more frames are better in my opinion, but still I really liked the overall design for this game which is just as remarkable in same way.
I say this game has many locations to visits such as Skullrock Beach filled with sandy surfaces, palmtrees, and big pool of sea to swim around underwater with sunken ship. Village of Lupia is a hometown where you can visit stuff like shops, church, and windmill. Green Fields has green-like scenery objects. Misty Woods is a forest places with mushroom-shaped building. Crystal Caves filled with icey pillars and cold objects. The Lost Temples has man-made dungeon with inside puzzle-areas. Village of Aeria is a observatory places took place in above sky. The Volcano filled with firey particles and lava surfaces with it. And lastly the haunted places such as Deadwood Graveyard and Haunted Manor filed with gravestones, ghosts, skeleton, bats, and of course big mansion with spooky things inside the rooms which I got to say it is well designed level locations that adds the game's personality with perfectly balance between the visits starting from more bright and colorful scenery to slight dark and gloomy tone.
I also forgot to mention an opening sequence at the beginning is pretty spectacular to watch if the game could have gotten their own anime TV series, that will be really awesome if they really did that in the future.
Overall, it has solid storyplot, likable characters, and charming hand-drawn presentation.
Gameplay
You take control of Jin in 2D side-scrolling perspective, as your main goal is to retrieve all 5 orbs to peacefully restore the kingdom. You will access to map inventory screen by pressing the touch-pad button which shows you the whole map of locations helps you navigate throughout the levels, as well as it has the list of legends icons such as treasures, resources, gears, and gems which can be located somewhere in the areas.
You will start off basics by moving Jin around with left and right d-pad button or left thumbstick, while right thumbstick pans around the camera to see surroundings around the areas. You will have basic sword weapon which attacks enemy by hitting the square button, while your shields will act as a defence item which prevents enemy's projectiles from damaging you, while standing still. After damaging enemy will drop down the items such as standard coins and bagcoins which you can save these later for spending stuff at the shop, where as special items adds up ammunition stuff like thunder, bombs, tornado, boomerang, and fire, while hearts adds up player's health.
While progressing through the game, you will obtain the ability to transform into 5 different creatures, after defeating the boss, such as Pig form gives you ability to ground pound the objects like flat-rounded switch, sensing the hidden passage or items, and using the special item attacks that I've mentioned on above so you can able to destroy breakable objects, flaming the torches, reaching the switch-lever from long-distance, and unlocking chest box that requires one of the matching special items.
Snake form will allow you to climb around the green walls and passing through the tiny small hole making it easier to access next room.
Frog form does have a same basic attacks as the human form, but his long-inch tongue allows him to swing through the hoops, rotating stuff, and picking up objects like blocks and cogs. He also has ability to swim around the underwater as well as reducing the oxygen levels.
Lion form gives you ability to dash through water on top and break through blocks, as well as it also works as dash attacks too. Lastly the Dragon form allows you to fly above the levels and spitting fire projectiles.
Player can obtain numerous of weapons, armors, bracelets, and boots from the shops, which many of these offer unique abilities and can be upgraded by finding gemstones being located somewhere in the levels.
Stuff like Ice weapon which allows you to freeze enemies and creates ice blocks to get across the pouring lava, where as Ice boots allows you to walk on the hot lavas and performing double jump. Fire weapon uses as shooting fireballs when on full HP, Cloud boots allows you to walk on clouds, Earth Aegis shield reflects fire & physical projectiles from enemies, Prince Tunic armor can glow in the dark caves and increases defense, Knight Spear can throw attack on long-range distance, Morning Star can break through objects, and there are many choices of weapons and gears that are not just improving your player stats like attack, defense, and speed, but these are really useful things that requires for player to use these for main quests and exploration such as being able to uncover the unvisited areas, being able to pass through the blocked passage, and trying to reach the unaccessed higher platform which is the reason why you will need these weapons and gears added to your inventory options, as well as having these fully upgraded to make your player's performance feel stronger enough to fight against bigger bosses.
Speaking of making player's stronger, you may also need to upgrade a heart capacity can be located somewhere in the areas which really helps extending your health points, so your player's health can may last longer during the battles and exploration.
You may have the save points being located on many locations that you've visited which saves your progress, but it is also counts as the checkpoint system after the death which takes you back to the same checkpoint location as before.
It also has the warp portal, a fast travel system which gives you option to choose which any of these locations on the map inventory you wanted to visit, so this is the quickest way of traveling the places that you don't had to walk all the way to the visiting places may slow down your pacing in the game.
I got to say about the game is that I am much preferred this over the previous installiment because I am much impressed with the large numbers of locations seems to be a lot bigger to explore things which I really liked discovering the hidden secrets, collecting many upgrades, spending stuff on more weapons and gears, and opening random treasures which also gives me a optional goal to achieve 100% completion which is the reason why the single-player adventure had such a long-length playthrough.
I did also mention earlier on my Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap Remake about lack of map inventory which I am finally glad they added it on this game making the exploration easier to navigate and tracking down stuff.
As the exploration turns out well, the player's movement feels much smoother and balanced which prevents the player falling off the platforms or landed onto hazards objects makes the controls feel precise. The use of combat works pretty well during the gameplay because I really liked the choices of weapons and gears they put in the game with different types of attributes such as better attacking system that instantly kills the enemies, faster movement that made the player move faster, and higher defense reduces the player's hit damage, but I also wanted to praise the effective use of weapons that made the enemies and bosses feel vulnerable such as Ice sword beats fire enemies, Fire sword beats icy enemies, poisonous dagger beats dead skeleton, and any types of weapons that works effectively against their weaknesses.
Having the different types of transformation also helpful for your quests with easy to access undiscovered places, breaking objects, being able to swim around, and fly around the levels is what adds the biggest highlight of the game itself.
The downside is that most enemies intends to instantly kill you with the cheap deaths depending which enemies had the stronger hit projectiles even I've equipped with the gears with higher defense and having plenty enough health upgrades are also benefiting the player's strength, but it can get really annoying if they hit you severely can make your health drain faster and dies in the stage, you had to start back to the checkpoint system over again till you reached to the new area without dying can be unforgiving.
The puzzle solving aspects in the game is quite an unique especially with stages like in haunted manor where you had to get across one of the upside down room, using black hole to move objects like table and spike ball, and using your blue buddy Pepelogoo to fire his beam from reflecting mirrors to activating light bulb.
Stuff like in Volcano where you need to destroy 4 man-made objects to open up underground passage, the waterfall stage where you need to collect all shines before time-limit runs out which rewards you with treasure box, the village of Lupia where you had to remove the blocked well by hitting the hidden levers somewhere in the town, and in the forest where you need to figure out which 4 of these flat-buttons in correct order unlocks the door of mushroom house.
I also find the bosses quite fun in the game because it requires memorising the boss's weak patterns and evading their projectiles keeps me engaging with the battle, so you may going to like these kinds of challenges starting off from giant squid with 4 arms to big pounding king mushroom, large ancient green frog swallows you inside his body to large flaming purple dragon, and there are many more bosses to encounter.
It really adds the in-depth of gameplay design feels well executed and just plays outstanding overall that the fan of the whole franchise will be feel appreciated.
Overall, it has large map of locations with more exploration, smooth platforming controls, great use of combat and transformation, cool puzzles, and fun boss battles.
Graphics
This game is absolutely looks fantastic with the use of hand-drawn animation throughout the game. As you can see these visuals are really stunning with the colorful environments, bold and detailed level structures, and has nice use of parallax scrolling.
I really liked the use of special effects and background layers in some locations like a green waterfalls from the sewers, a pirate ship and huge blue sea from the Skullrock Beach , a hot hazy effects with smokey puff from the volcano, a shiny lighting effects from Misty Woods, a windy swifts around and has rich looking icy layers from Crystal Caves, a flamey torches hangs on the wall from Lost Temples, and lastly a glowy shades around you in one of the dark underwater places.
The character animation is looking just impressive as you may expected from the Wonder Boy games with aesthetics anime-style design that made the characters and bosses looks amazing for side-scrolling adventures.
Just like Wonder Boy: A Dragon's Trap Remake, this is by far one of the best looking graphics design that brings the new to the franchise which I am very impressed with the game's results makes the use of the 2D hand-drawn techniques being able to run on modern hardware.
Overall, it has colorful environments, bold and detailed level structures, nice use of parallax scrolling and special effects, and impressive character's animation.
Music and Sounds
The game does clearly have the excellent music which was composed by three of the well known veterans such as Yuzo Koshiro, Motoi Sakuruba, and Michiru Yamane did such a magnificent job of creating their original soundtrack adds the redeeming quality of the game.
Stuff like a beach theme from Wonder Boy III which sounded lot better in this game with great arrangements to it, the green fields and maze cave sounded like its belongs to 3D Sonic games, the haunted house theme is sounds very identical to games like Castlevania and Bloodstained, and the observatory sounded reminds me of theme song from TV series such as Twin Peak which I kinda really these type of songs they put in the game.
Speaking of amazing soundtrack, I also liked the opening theme song on both English and Japanese version which was sang by Haruka Shimotsuki for both Japanese opening and ending, while English opening was sang by Leandro Fonseca or maybe Marco Rafeiro because the game's ending credits roll doesn't really tell you which are these two sang the English opening, but still I really liked these song which is quite enjoyable to listen while watching the epic opening intros.
The sound design in the game sounds pretty good for entire things like hit detection sounds, some ambient noises in fewer locations, and background effects, where as the game does not have a fully voice over for every characters except stuff like grunting, squealing, and hissing, so it would have been nicer if they included a voice role during the text conversation between the characters, but maybe sometime in the future next installiment.
Overall, it has excellent soundtrack and good sound design.
Special Features
The game does have stuff like collecting all 5 golden gears and weapon, unlockable sound test if collecting all missing music sheets, and has surprising retro-style stages as an easter egg which is cool, but I wish they could add stuff like the gallery mode, speedrun mode, and online leaderboards.
Overall, an acceptable features.
Advantages
Charming hand-drawn presentation
Large map of locations with more exploration
Great combat and transformation
Cool puzzles
Fun boss battles
Impressive graphic design
Excellent music
Disadvantages
Needs more features added to game
Cheap enemy's hit projectiles instantly damages player
Final Verdict
Presentation 8.5/10 - solid storyplot, likable characters, and charming hand-drawn presentation.
Gameplay 8.5/10 - large map of locations with more exploration, smooth platforming controls, great use of combat and transformation, cool puzzles, and fun boss battles.
Graphics 9/10 - colorful environments, bold and detailed level structures, nice use of parallax scrolling and special effects, and impressive character's animation.
Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - excellent soundtrack and good sound design.
Special Features 7/10 - all 5 golden gears and weapon, unlockable sound test, and Easter egg.
Overall 8.5/10 - Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is a better follow-up to the previous installiment of the Wonder Boy franchise in all thanks to long-length single player adventures filled with many stuff to explore in the game, the focusing mainly on both the combat and transformation benefiting the whole quests, learning to improve your player's upgradable stats and choosing the right weapon and gears to equip, and it does have epic bosses and unique puzzles that adds the fun factor of the whole game which I am really happy with the results.
I also feel appreciated with the presentation and visuals really adds the game's appeal to those who really into with the anime-style characters and colourful environments, where as the sounds design choices are also good in the game, but it is a overall original music are the ones that sounds pretty outstanding throughout the game's playthrough as well as the opening intro which really puts a cheerful smile on your faces that made the game quite memorable.
Despite the positive overall, the physical copy from Asia territory tends to get really pricey which cost you a £50 and over, where as the US print from Limited Run Games are slightly even worse with nearly £100 which makes it a rarest game for both PS4 and Switch on whether its on Ebay and other online gaming stores.
The cheapest way to get the game is to buy it digitally from PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, Steam, Stadia, and Luna for between £33 and £35, so I was lucky I've purchased the game digitally on PS Store for £12.99 sale discounts.
Hopefully someday I will look forward to play Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World for PS4, which is a full remake of the SEGA Genesis/MD's original 1994's titled Monster World IV, so that being said it is absolutely worth checking out.
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