{"id":23156,"date":"2023-03-10T00:01:25","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T00:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=23156"},"modified":"2023-03-08T01:09:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T01:09:34","slug":"wonder-boy-anniversary-collection-ps4-ps5-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/10\/wonder-boy-anniversary-collection-ps4-ps5-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection (PS4, PS5, Switch)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Last year we got a collection of classic Wonder Boy games<\/strong><\/a>, but there was only one problem.\u00a0 Not all the games were on the collection!\u00a0 Well they\u2019ve seemed to fix that this year with Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection.\u00a0 It now has pretty much all the Wonder Boy games, plus all versions of those titles and cool new bonus features.\u00a0 It\u2019s available to download on Switch and PlayStation consoles, but reviewed on PS4 here.<\/p>\n

Back in the 80s and early 90s, Wonder Boy was a 2-D platforming series by SEGA and Westone.\u00a0 It was a bit more popular in Japan than in the US, but the Wonder Boy series also has ties with Hudson\u2019s Adventure Island games, which were a bit more popular in the States.\u00a0 For the longest time Wonder Boy laid dormant, but in the past few years, we\u2019ve gotten some remakes and updates of some of the games, like Dragon\u2019s Trap and Monster World IV.\u00a0 Not only that, we also got a full on sequel in Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom a few years ago.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a look at the games on this collection!<\/p>\n

Wonder Boy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first game was originally in mid 80s arcades, and is a pretty straightforward 2-D platformer like Super Mario Bros.\u00a0 You play as Wonder Boy, a caveboy character out to save his girl from evil.\u00a0 Break open eggs to find power-ups like throwing axes or a skateboard.\u00a0 You have a constantly depleting energy bar and if it runs out or you hit an enemy, you lose a life and must start back at a checkpoint.\u00a0 To keep your energy full, you must constantly eat fruit that appears as you progress.\u00a0 If this sounds an awfully lot like Hudson\u2019s Adventure Island on the NES, that\u2019s because they\u2019re pretty much the same game.\u00a0 They just changed the main character since SEGA only had the rights to the Wonder Boy character, not the game itself. I prefer Adventure Island more, mainly because the music isn\u2019t as repetitive.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not a big fan of one-hit-and-you-die games, so this was never one of my favorites.\u00a0 In this new collection you can play all versions: arcade, SEGA Master System, Game Gear, and even the SG-1000.\u00a0 That\u2019s cool because the SG-1000 was never brought to the US, so this is the first game I\u2019ve played on that system.<\/p>\n

Wonder Boy in Monster Land<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though this is an arcade game as well, it introduced a lot of staples that would make the Wonder Boy series what it was later on.\u00a0 You can get gold from enemies and buy better weapons, armor, and items at shops.\u00a0 But there are still stages with time limits, so you can\u2019t explore or grind for too long.\u00a0 Most of the Wonder Boy games would evolve with this game with more exploration and RPG elements, as opposed to most of the Adventure Island games which would follow moreso the gameplay of the original.\u00a0 This version lets you play the arcade and Master System iterations.<\/p>\n

Wonder Boy in Monster Lair<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one wasn\u2019t even in the Wonder Boy collection we got last year.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit of a departure, as it\u2019s more of a sidescrolling shooter.\u00a0 But it looks great and is really fun.\u00a0 You can play both arcade and Genesis versions here.<\/p>\n

The Dragon\u2019s Trap<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here, Wonder Boy can transform into different animals with various skills and abilities.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty fun and they even made a great remake of it a few years ago<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 On this collection you can play most of the versions, but not the remake!<\/p>\n

Wonder Boy in Monster World<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this one you play as adventurer and warrior Shion and since this was a console game, it leaned more heavily into the exploration and RPG elements.\u00a0 You still defeat enemies in 2-D fashion and collect gold to buy better weapons and armor.\u00a0 But now you can save your game at inns.\u00a0 Since this one was made in the early 90s, it\u2019s a bit slow and clunky, but still fun.\u00a0 Here you can play both the Genesis and Master System versions, and the Master System version is pretty impressive for an 8-bit title!<\/p>\n

Monster World IV<\/strong><\/p>\n

They dropped the Wonder Boy from this title because here you actually play as a girl!\u00a0 This 16-bit SEGA title was originally only released in Japan, but when it was first brought to the US digitally and I reviewed it<\/strong><\/a>, I was floored.\u00a0 It was made in 1994, late in the 16-bit lifecycle when those kinds of games were starting to get really good.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if the makers of Shantae were inspired by this game, since both are very similar.\u00a0 They released a 3-D remake of this one last year.\u00a0 Too bad that one\u2019s not on here, but since it was recently released on its own, I guess I can understand why it\u2019s not here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And those are all the games.\u00a0 Neat new features include being able to play both Japanese and international versions.\u00a0 But my favorite is being able to view the maps for all levels, just like how you could in Nintendo Power magazine!\u00a0 You can also toggle how you view the games, save at any time, and rewind with the menu features.\u00a0 There are some problems with this collection, though.\u00a0 One is that some of the goals and objectives in these titles are a bit obtuse, but that\u2019s just the nature of these kind of games.\u00a0 It\u2019s a shame they couldn\u2019t get the Dragon\u2019s Trap and Monster World IV remakes on here, or the new Monster Boy sequel, but since those were separate games and by separate publishers, that may be understandable.\u00a0 This is the collection they should\u2019ve released in the first place, so make sure to get the one that says \u201cAnniversary\u201d on it!<\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, and Use of Tobacco. You hit cartoony enemies with weapons and they disappear when defeated, and you just fall off the screen when you lose.\u00a0 Some of the shopkeepers smoke and ask if you want beer.\u00a0 Reading skill is needed for the text, and younger gamers may need help with the more difficult areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year we got a collection of classic Wonder Boy games, but there was only one problem.\u00a0 Not all the games were on the collection!\u00a0 Well they\u2019ve seemed to fix that this year with Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection.\u00a0 It now has pretty much all the Wonder Boy games, plus all versions of those titles and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23157,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23156\/revisions\/23157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}