VC: Wonderboy in Monster World

This week's Virtual Console releases for the Wii saw the usual batch of retro titles, with most hailing from Sega's Mega Drive along with Shockman (PC Engine).

We've been playing Wonderboy in Monster World for hours, and in true blog tradition, we'd like to tell you why you should be playing this too.

Graphically simple and straightforward in 2D, you take on the role of young lad Shion and it ss your task to free the world from Monsters who've decided to make it their favoured place to stay. The history of the original game is somewhat complex; this is actually the fifth game in the Wonderboy line and part of the Monster World sub-set of games. Graphically for the day it was released, it's awesome.

In terms of game play, this game will hook you from the start with a cunning mixture of platform gaming (walk along horizontally most of the time and progress through the game in levels) and role playing (upgrading your weapons, magic and equipment whilst learning new things to search for and do by speaking to towns folk).

The game can be played on your Wii using any controller; the Wii remote, classic pad or the Game Cube pad. We'd recommend using the classic pad though, to produce a close example of the original type of pad you'd have been using back in the day. It's also the easiest to handle, we think.
The game plays excellently all the way through, giving you a constant stream of alternative directions to try to travel in and new things to do or look for. If you complete an area, often there will appear a new way to teleport straight there in the future, cutting down the labours of plodding endlessly through field after field of bad guys; a problem that plagues many modern RPG games. Nice to see this classic title handling boredom and slam-dunking it!

At no point were we bored. The challenges are enough so that anyone can have a go at it, but there will be points where some quite accurate game play and determined skill use will be the only way to progress. In the traditonal way, items are your way into new areas and so you'll be able to roam quite freely ... but at the same time find your path directed for you by what you need to carry on.

The different sectors of the game are varied; desert land, ice, jungle etc. You can save your progress but only in Inns scattered through the game's villages. This will cost you a small fee.

As you improve your weapons and armour, Wonderboy's actual armour and so on will change, giving you a feeling somewhat of satisfaction. It's annoying when playing an RPG and the armour doesn't change depending upon what armour you're actually wearing.

All in all, this is well worth the 800 Wii points that you'll have to shell out to get it. Even if you played the Mega Drive/Gensis release, we say play it again Sam! It gets the firm thumbs up as this week's one to watch out for. Although ... we'd love someone to explain the connection between ceramics and ice to us. Ahem.