Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World
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Critic Reviews for Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World
The Wonder Boy series gets yet more current-gen love with this big-hearted remake.
Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World earned its reputation decades ago as a fun action platformer, but this new remake does nothing to hide how much this classic has degraded with age.
The least accomplished of the recent spate of Wonder Boy games but it still retains a certain charm and offers plenty of reasons for the franchise to continue.
I also have to stress that Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World isn't a bad game. Some of the backtracking got annoying, but mostly it's just monotonous. The mechanics are tight enough, I just can't help but shrug at the final product. I'm always happy when an old title is given new life, but that doesn't mean I'm going to end up loving it.
Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is an exceedingly bland experience. This remake trades heavily on the 90s nostalgia factor, but fails to consider that, with the original only released outside of Japan in 2012, few will have played Monster World 4 in order to have any feelings of nostalgia about it. Sadly, all those playing the game for the first time will find little to get excited about.
Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is a game that knows how to entertain but without surprising, a lively title that can return a handful of carefree hours. The lack of any playful flicker, however, does not distinguish it from many exponents of the genre. The 3D graphics show a remarkable use of cel shading, but suffer from ubiquitous stuttering. Asha in Monster World is a decent remake, then, that lacks the restoration work done on his "colleagues", shows a little 'too much the weight of the years.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is a basic platformer that never holds your excitement, with mechanics that just don't work anymore.
The fun of playing these games, especially these days, lies in the director, Ryuchi Nishizawa, whose approach to genre was one of precise and genial disregard.
