Wonder Boy Collection
Wonder Boy
This was originally posted on the 3rd of January, 2023, in this Twitter thread.
I'm not gonna go into a ton of detail here. The game's a pretty straightforward platformer. I didn't really think too much of it.
Wonder Boy In Monster Land
This was originally posted on the 3rd of January, 2023, in this Twitter thread.
Like a huge dumny I decided to play this game on Hard mode. Plus, I didn't realize until it was too late that you have a limited number of continues. So I actually didn't even beat this game. I ended up softlocked on the second to last level. Here are my thoughts anyways though.
Overall, I thought the game was in a kinda awkward in between of 2D Arcade game and 2D Adventure game.
The timer feels at odds with the rest of the game. It discourages you from spending time on basic enemies, but if you don't spend time fighting basic enemies you're not gonna collect very much gold, and without gold you can't buy any gear from the shops, and if you're not always buying gear from the shops, the boss fights become insanely difficult.
Maybe the game balance is better on Easy mode, or maybe it's just a skill issue on my part. I did miss most of the health upgrades which could've helped.
The linear level structure of the game also doesn't really do it any favors as an Adventure game.
At the end of the day though, they were making an arcade game. It would've been pretty poor for business if players could pop in a couple of quarters and just really take their time with the game.
I'm glad that in the future the series would shift it's focus more towards being Adventure games. (Additional Context: At the time, I had already played Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, and Wonder Boy: Asha In Monster World as of originally writing this post.)
Wonder Boy In Monster World
This was originally posted on the 12th of February, 2023, in this Twitter thread.
This game is pretty good. It doesn't do anything super crazy or ambitious, it's just really solid.
It also just doesn't do a ton to stand out from other Monster World games. It does have some gimmicks, but none of them are really big and in your face.
The main one I'd say is the spears. They work as high risk, high reward alternatives to swords. They're nice to have as an option, although I just stuck to swords most of the time.
There are these little followers you get throughout certain points of the game, and most of them really just aren't helpful. They act at random as far as I know, and when they do decide to act it's just extremely underwhelming. Sometimes they can actually be detrimental because they throw off enemy attack patterns. That little dragon fella was genuinely really helpful though.
There was this ocarina mechanic near the start of the game which I expected to be utilized way more, but you seemingly just use it once, then you trade to somebody in exchange for some info later on in the game. I was actually a tad relieved that the ocarina was barely utiluzed though, since I wasn't really interested in memorizing a bunch of input sequences.
Anyways, the weirdest part of this game was definitely the last area. Once you save the prince, he says something along the lines of 'Thanks, I was being mind controlled by aliens,' and then you go and fight aliens. 👽🛸
The final boss was definitely my least favorite part of the entire game. It just throws way too much at you at once.
Alright now look at this dude's design. This is the prince, and he's just so cool lookin' that I felt the need to show you.
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(This is the kinda guy I wanna kiss on the mouth) |
Lastly, I wanna note that there's this charmstone item in the shop that costs 500,000 Gold, and I decided to start grinding for it in the ice world. It turns out though that after the iceworld, enemies in the following areas drop like 10x the amount of gold, so uh whoops.
I'm pretty sure that grinding in the ice world for a charmstone completely doubled my playtime. You trade charmstones in at a secret shop as an alternative way to upgrade health and magic, so that's neat I guess.
So uh, if you like 2D Adventure games, consider giving this game a shot. It's pretty good.
Monster World IV
This was originally posted on the 15th of February, 2023, in this Twitter thread.
After 100%'ing the remake, I figured I should check out the original to see how it compares.
It seems like the inability to backtrack in the was an intentional design choice in the original.
(Additional Context: In the remake, you can backtrack through most of the game, but not all of it which left me frustrated after nearly completing it)
What really makes me think this is the Chest Spirit in the Ice Pyramid. First the spirit asks you if you want healing medicine, and if you say yes it'll give you the medicine and then give you the option to save.
Saving here though immediately locks you out of getting some healing drops though because what you're actually supposed to do is say no to the healing medicine, so then the spirit will ask if you want a life drop instead.
This was altered in the remake, to where you can get every item the spirit offers.
Thankfully, I went into this game using guides to make sure I didn't end up missing anything like that.
With that out of the way, now I wanna mention that I really like games graphics. While I also really enjoy how the remake looks, the original just hits a really nice sweet spot for me.
When it comes to gameplay, I prefer the remake. Asha's attacks in the original have a ton of recovery, while in the remake they have way less. I think enemy AI may have also been tweaked in the remake, I'm not totally sure on that though. (Edit: I wish I provided further context because I do not remember what I specifically meant by that)
I think the way Magical Hits were changed the remake was a really nice improvement. In the remake, you have a meter on screen that shows you when your Magical Hit is charged, and you get to choose when to use it to enhance one of your attacks.
In the original though you don't get to see when it's charged, nor do you get to choose when to use it. It kinda just happens. I didn't even realize how they worked until I looked it up because there's nothing in the original that even indicates when you're preforming a Magical Hit. From what I can tell, Magical Hits also aren't even mentioned in the manual.
(Side Note: Look how cute this game's manual is.)
The last major difference I'd like to mention is the save system. In the original you can only save in certain spots, while in the remake you can save in pretty much any room. I prefer the remakes save system. I used save states to mimic the remake's save system l though, so the save system didn't really affect me.
Overall, I think I prefer the remake. The original is still an extremely charming video game though.
Wonder Boy Collection
This was originally posted on the 12th of February, 2023, in this Twitter thread.
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| Nintendo | PlayStation |
Here's some thoughts about this collection I guess(1):
It runs the games well I guess(2).
There's rewind, fast-forward, and save state features which I much appreciated.
The art gallery is very small, and as far as I can tell, you can't zoom in on any of the images. They're just stuck in this really low quality I guess(3).
It's also lacks the full manuals for the games. The gallery only features like 2 pages of the Monster Land manual, and it shows off some artwork from the other manuals.
As for the games themselves, I didn't really care much for Wonder Boy and Wonder Boy In Monster Land that much, but Wonder Boy In Monster World and Monster World IV though are very good games.
I'm aware that these names are very confusing. In fact, when I bought this, I thought it had Wonder Boy III The Dragon's Trap on it. Seeing that it actually had Wonder Boy In Monster World instead was a pleasant surprise.
Apparently they released another collection recently that includes all 6 of the original games.
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| Nintendo | PlayStation |
There's even a fancy limited release physical version for it I guess(4).
That Anniversary Collection seems to outclass the non-anniversary Collection in pretty much every way. Except for the price; unsurprisingly the one with more games on is more expensive.
It'd feel weird recommending the Anniversary Collection over the non-anniversary Collection though since I literally don't own it, so uh, make your own purchasing decisions.
| 2023 Media Page |
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