Charming Wonder Boy non secular successor Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom did properly for itself on consoles, and now us PC people can play a free slice of it (with saves transferrable to the ultimate game) whereas we look ahead to the complete launch. Developed by Game Atelier, what it lacks in official Wonder Boy branding, it makes up for in authentic collection creator Ryuichi Nishizawa being concerned in manufacturing. It’s a vibrant and bouncy Metroid-ish journey, with bucketloads of weapons, instruments and transformation powers to gather. You can play the demo here on Steam, or see a trailer under.
Many heroes’ journeys start with some nice tragedy, or falling into possession of a prophesied magic sword or somesuch. Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom begins along with your uncle getting drunk and occurring a public bender together with his magic wand out. I imply that in essentially the most literal, kid-friendly means. He’s nonetheless drunk as a skunk, however he’s additionally turning folks into animals with spells, and customarily elevating a ruckus. It’s a good way to set the game’s cartoony tone – vibrant, pleasant, bouncy and never particularly perilous, even once you’re combating a screen-filling squid.
The game has a really comparable artwork type to Lizardcube’s wonderful Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, however isn’t held again by the archaic design of that (gorgeously hand-drawn) retro remaster. Even within the house of the demo you find yourself with a intelligent palette of expertise fairly rapidly, together with a defend that robotically displays projectiles as long as you’re not attacking. Even just some minutes in, there’s causes to backtrack to discover a bit additional. I’ve but to play the ultimate game, however judging by the praise-laden trailer above, it seems like we’re in for a deal with when the complete game launches.
You can seize the Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom demo on its Steam page here. While there’s no launch date but past “2019”, it hopefully isn’t far off. No price-tag both, however the Switch model prices £35/$40 for reference’s sake. It’s printed by FDG Entertainment.
