I’m a big fan of the Monster Boy games and have a soft spot for them in my library of classic games. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is something altogether new being developed by Game Atelier and I got the chance to spend some hands-on time with the Nintendo Switch version of the game at E3.
Right of the bat the game is incredibly gorgeous with an amazing art style that one can’t help but admire. The animations are fantastic and abundant with everything flowing so smoothly in the gameplay department. Attack animations are solid and hitboxes seem spot on with enemies.
You have the basic Monster Boy gameplay and all the powerups that you can purchase. It doesn’t feel quite as deep as it was in the Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap remake, but this one is pulling from a bit earlier in the series. Still, there are a lot of similarities between the two even though two totally different companies worked on them.
What’s really interesting is just how this game came to be int the first place. Not intended as a Monster Boy game, the project was a planned Kickstarter for another game entirely but reworked after the game was picked up by publisher FDG Entertainment. Sega then stepped in and let the use the Wonder Boy name and here we are.
Wonder Boy series creator Ryuichi Nishizawa is helping to develop this one and the help really shows, especially since he also helped with the Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap remake. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is absolutely charming and feels like one of the classic titles. More than one person at the show watching thought this was a remake of one of the classic entries into the series.
Everything you love is here including being changed into all manner of creatures as you adventure in side-scrolling glory wrapped in an all-new story. Add in all the high-quality cutscenes and you have the makings for something really special.
If you’ve been following the games development you’ll be shocked at the huge jump in quality since the game was originally shown of back in 2016. What originally looked like a mobile game seems to have bee totally overhauled with this new support and it shows in spades.
If you have a Nintendo Switch or PS4 this is one you really will want to keep an eye on!
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