Wonder Boy Collection Reviews
All four of thee games in Wonder Boy Collection represent a fair few hours of retro gaming, even if three of them are a tad samey.
Wonder Boy Collection may be a bit short on the extras, but the four games included still make for a very solid collection. Wonder Boy and Wonder Boy in Monster Land are great for arcade gamers and the options let you tweak things to make the games easier or harder to suit your skill level. Meanwhile, Wonder Boy in Monster World and Monster World IV are great for console gamers, offering very fluid controls and a more relaxing style of gameplay where you're not rushed by a timer wanting to devour your quarters. Whether you're a fan of the series or just stepping in for the first time, Wonder Boy Collection is bound to have at least one or two games that everyone can enjoy.
If you flash back to a concern exacerbated from our Turrican Flashback review, Wonder Boy Collection's paltry four titles puts pressure on retro gamers to question its value for money, because it omits series defining titles and key console ports when compared to the more expensive Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection from Strictly Limited Games — which has sold out of its 2,000 PS4 retail copies. It's also worse value than retro compilations that released within weeks of the Wonder Boy Collection, when set side-by-side against the cheaper and more complete Pac-Man Museum+ and the superior extras in Sonic Origins.
Save big collector’s editions to Strictly Limited and let ININ handle the complete versions for release. Change the cover art or something between the two releases but maintain the same game on both carts. Even a full removal of the ININ physical release for a digital only release outside of Strictly Limited’s physical release would be welcomed if it meant I got to experience the full collection. Just be upfront too: explain that you’re the same company handling different release methods. If certain games come with a limited licensing deal be upfront with that information. Mistakes are going to happen, so why choose to make them.
Scoring the Wonder Boy Collection is only partly related to the quality of the games on offer. They're all excellent for what they are, and were they appraised independently, would do very well. But this is more about the package as a whole. Yes, there's plenty here to keep you occupied, but at the same time, what could have been is a sticking point. Wonder Boy is a great little series, with games spanning everything from the Master System to the PC Engine, in various guises. It's not difficult to offer a more extensive library for the broader gaming populace, rather than restrict certain titles to a group profiled for their magpie eyes.
Wonder Boy Collection is stacked with four classic titles that are all worth your time to a degree. Fans of the franchise will likely be disappointed by the omission of other titles that hold much more value in terms of critic appeal. The two standout games for me, Wonder Boy and Monster World IV, have both been remade on the Nintendo Switch as their own standalone video games with updated graphics and some quality-of-life features. After playing through this collection, I'm now tempted to revisit these via their remastered counterparts. Wonder Boy Collection feels more like a collector's item rather than an item you'll purchase because you genuinely want to play these classics.
The Wonder Boy Collection is a solid retro collection that finally puts some respect on old Tom-Tom's name (and Asha's as well, for that matter). Despite some anachronistic design elements and difficulty spikes due to the earlier titles' arcade origins, all four titles included here are well worth diving into if you're a fan of classic gaming and, if nothing else, the theme song from the first title is a straight up banger.
Fans of these games when they came out, rejoice! You have them all in one place for one reasonable price. If the games are new to you, it’s perhaps something you don’t have to regret missing.
It is convenient to have a bunch of these titles in one application and does add to the experience of having a variety of distinct platformers. Asha and Shion’s games are easily the highlight of the package, with the original arcade game being an amusing distraction with spicy challenge.
Wonder Boy Collection is a pack with four good classic games from the Wonder Boy series, but it ends up being an incomplete collection, with nothing very new implemented and with a high price.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Wonder Boy Collection is another nice collection of classic games from ININ Games but one that has some downsides. Not only is it missing important entries like Monster Boy III but the physical version releasing later has more to offer than the digital version. If you don’t care about that though you still are getting four pretty good entries here and with some nice quality of life additions like save states and rewind there has never been a better time to experience these titles.
It's a weird collection that doesn't include the best game of series (Wonder Boy 3) and feels like a glorified emulation package. Unless you're itching for some Wonder Boy, you may want to wait until Anniversary Collection is released.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Wonder Boy Collection is a fun group of titles for people who love classic games. The ability to rewind when you die or get hit is helpful to make progress in titles like Wonder Boy, which are known for their difficulty!
Wonder Boy Collection is the kind of compilation that its games do all of the heavy lifting. In other words, it's just alright as an overall package yet the individual games are sure to scratch your itch for old-school entertainment for hours upon hours.
All in all, Wonder Boy Collection, as a compilation of older titles, is pretty good. It suffers from the fact that, while influential, these games are very flawed, with poor controls and collision detection being an issue shared among all of them. There’s also the fact that the best game in the series, The Dragon’s Trap, is the sole title not featured in the package.
Wonder Boy Collection was an excellent trip down memory lane for me. I have continued to play these games on and off over the years. Now, having four of them in a nifty collection on Switch to take on the go when I have the Wonder Boy itch is great. This is a series of games that holds up very well especially if you love your retro adventures. The collection feels disappointingly incomplete offering only single versions of each game and lacking two very important entries. Still, whether you are new or old the wonder that is this series is still a worthwhile pick-up.
Wonder Boy Collection is a compilation of the Westone franchise that includes four of the six classic installments of the saga -we are left without two thirds-. Relive the classic installments of Wonder Boy and Monster World or discover them for the first time, since today they are still super enjoyable.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
After years of relative obscurity, the series has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years thanks to a stream of remakes, remasters, and all-new sequels—and now, Wonder Boy Collection looks to put the series’ lengthy history back in the spotlight by compiling four of its most influential entries. While the package itself leaves something to be desired, the included lineup and its quality-of-life enhancements make Wonder Boy Collection a solid snapshot of platforming history fit for longtime veterans and genre aficionados.
Even with the heavy hitter Dragon’s Trap missing from this selection, Wonder Boy Collection is still a great option if you want to experience a more obscure retro franchise for the first time, or go back and revel in nostalgia.
Wonder Boy Collection is a cool collection of four games. The games are all unique for their time and thus have something to add. Although one of the games has not aged well and one other has just gotten a remake last year, the collection is still one to play. It will give you tons of hours of gameplay!
Review in Dutch | Read full review