There’s a lot to like about Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World on paper. It’s kind of a platformer, it’s kind of an RPG, it has a cute bubbly look, and it’s a remake of a beloved, slightly niche Japanese title. However, once you’ve spent some time with it, Asha in Monster World soon loses whatever illusion it’s trying to conjure.
Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World
Developer: Monkey Craft
Price: $39.99
Platform: PlayStation (reviewed), Nintendo Switch
MonsterVine was supplied with a Playstation code for review
Asha in Monster World is a 2.5D remake of the 1994 action platformer, Monster World IV. You’d be forgiven for not knowing that. Initially released in Japan for the Sega Mega Drive, Monster World IV didn’t hit international digital storefronts until 2012 when it was released for the North American and European versions of the Wii Virtual Console. It’s not exactly an obscure title, either. Since 2016 Wonder Boy and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, prequels to Monster World IV, have been remade with moderate success. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, released in 2018, was the first entrant in the main series in almost 25 years. So it’s not like people weren’t asking for a Monster World IV remake, but it’s also not something that’s likely to fly off the shelf. Especially since retro purists and modern gamers alike will find ways to pick it apart.
(Full Disclosure: I have never played the original Monster World IV. Every comparison I make to the original is drawn from online articles and YouTube Let’s Plays.)
There’s not much to be said for the story. It’s the same anodyne but classic tale as before: You play as Asha, an Arabian-inspired heroine, who is called upon to save four elemental spirits from an evil cult. Along the way, she hatches and befriends a rare blue Pepelogoo, which grants her additional abilities depending on what period of development it’s in. There are also lite RPG mechanics: Asha can equip weapons and armor to bolster her strength.
The abilities Pepelogoo grants Asha range from “why can’t she just do that herself” to outright pointless. Like double jumping, which requires a sort of Morse Code-like action of holding the right bumper and then double tapping the jump button. It’s the easiest of maneuvers, simplified since its inception, but Asha in Monster World makes it too tedious and cerebral. Of course, once you’ve nailed the double jump, you’re reliant on it. That’s precisely when the game decides the double jump was stupid all along and takes it and Pepelogoo away from you.
Where most games would prefer to dispense mechanics in a way that expands your toolbox throughout the course of the game, Asha in Monster World takes more of an inverted hourglass approach. While Asha’s health, defense, and weapon damage progress linearly, her traversal abilities peak mid-game before disappearing altogether. Like the aforementioned double jump, Asha also gains — and then loses — the ability to glide and the option to ignore manual saving.
This design also makes it incredibly frustrating to complete the game. Throughout Asha in Monster World, there are 200 life drops, collecting 10 of which will give Asha additional health. Though not all life drops are needed to maximize Asha’s health, there is an incentive for collecting all of them. However, several points-of-no-return and losing your traversal mechanics make going back for some life drops impossible if you don’t have an earlier save to revert to.
There’s also a glaring aesthetic update that I think only few will find sightly. Graphically, I think the 16-bit style of the original Monster World IV holds up quite well, but I also don’t mind the flashier, more bubbly appearance of the remake. It’s a bit incongruous with the more traditional design, but overall kinda cute.
The Final Word
Despite never playing the original Monster World IV, I can’t help but feel like it’s the version I’d rather have. An old game relying on old conventions is easily forgiven and forgotten. Asha in Monster World has no such excuse.
– MonsterVine Rating: 2.5 out of 5 – Mediocre
