During the Gamescom 2020 live stream, Monster World IV fans got their first look at the remake coming to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in the first quarter of 2021.
If you didn't see our original post, it's called Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World and will feature "full 3D graphics", significantly enhanced visuals, further refined gameplay, and even new game modes and other additional elements. Voice-overs will also be added (a series first).
The game's development duties are being handled by Studio Artdink and several members of the original Wonder Boy team are on board. This includes the series creator, original composer, character designer and creative manager.
Here's the back story of this action-adventure platformer, in case you need a refresher:
This is Monster World. The protagonist Asha, who just became a warrior, gets wrapped up in a major event involving the survival of her kingdom. The invaders trying to take possession of this world have captured the four Spirits. Asha, under Queen Purapril’s decree to save the spirits, sets off on an adventure with the mysterious creature Pepelogoo she met in the capital capital Rapadanga. With Pepelogoo’s help, Asha overcomes difficulties time and time again. Will these two two really be able to save the world?
Will you be checking out this remake when it arrives early next year? Leave a comment down below.
Comments 69
Looks good! Will definitely give it a shot!
I was excited... now I’m not. I think I just want the original...
The character shading and the choppy framerate give a very 3DS vibe to this. Basically a Skip 2D platformer if it was made for New 3DS running on original model 3DS.
The original had some excellent art, not trying to be ungrateful but it’s not a slam dunk update. Day one to show my support though.
Why do they call it Wonder Boy if you are cast as a female character in this chapter?
Looks a bit choppy 🤔. Why use 3-D? Why not do the same as the other wonderboy remakes?!
@Toy_Link and you all loved 3DS games. You all were praising it how good it was a few years ago.. now you suddenly dislike it? Finally you got those horrid glasses off and now you can see clear. This is can be done better
@DoktorTotenKopf This franchise has enough identity problems as it is.
At least they didn't follow its predecessor and call the original Wonder Boy VI: Monster World IV.
(although as I understand, they didn't have a Wonder Boy IV since there were two Wonder Boy IIIs.)
I don’t hate the way it looks but I’m not impressed with it either. I’m sure it will turn out fine once it’s released. If not, then there’s always the original.
Day one buy indeed. I enjoy this on Wii VC and on the Sega Genesis Mini and will enjoy this remake as well. This new remake of Monster World IV feels like it could easily crossover with the Shantae series especially with the same cutesy look and similar art style.
The strange thing with this is that the trend for platformers now is to go back to the pixel art 1994. Or at least go back to the hand drawn nature of those games. It’s come full circle in appreciation. So to overlay a fairly basic polygon conversion...it’s hard to appreciate over the original content. It may even be regarded as a disservice as the remake itself ages.
On an unrelated note....1994, man what a glorious year in gaming. Now that’s the year I’d set my time machine to.
Hmmm.... I love all things Wonder Boy but I'm not exactly blown away by the look of this. I feel like the original game's visuals had a lot more charm to them. This looks pretty cheaply done.
@Alucard83
I like N64 games too, but I wouldn't want to see green fog 5 feet in front of my face in a game developed for current gen. machines.
Also when did I say the shading they used was bad?
Sorry, that you need to cling on a random comment to make up for the Vita's failure. 😉
@DoktorTotenKopf
Why is it called legend of Zelda when you play as Link? Though honestly it does seem a little odd having wonder boy on the title screen when clearly you're a girl. Should be wonder kid or wonder child.
It looks... Okay....
I kinda wish it looked more animated like the Monster Boy Remaster
Looks fine to me. Not overly mind blowing but not bad either. Is this the same developer who did any of the other recent wonderboy games on switch?
That footage... needs far more than polish.
@Zeldafan79 No, the Dragon's Trap remake was developed by Lizardcube.
So it's a remake of a game with FANTASTIC animation.... Remade with terrible animation?
What I'd really like to see is a remake of Monster Lair (the one with the shm'up elements). That was a great idea marred by some poor level decision choices and jump physics. Give it to Lizardcube and I'm sure they'd do something great with it.
As for this...it looks alright. I'm almost getting some early PS2 vibes off it...like Klonoa 2 or something. Still would have preferred hand drawn art. Also...I wonder if they're going to make the Ice Pyramid more manageable than it was on the Genesis version. Have a mini-map or something for that monstrosity.
@Zeldafan79 agree. I think it's just the "old school" fans getting their panties in a bunch over any kind of shift in art direction...kind of like Battletoads.
Mostly looks ok, just ok - but the main character animation seems a bit stiff and wooden.
@RetroOutcast
I grew up with those old 2-D platformers and i still welcome change now and then. Remember when everyone freaked out over Wind wakers Cell shaded style? Didn't hurt the game one bit as many found out!
Oh, with the first announcement I was under the impression that it was going to be a sequel, not a remake.
Not that appealing to me now, and the visuals... I was hoping something more in the line of Monster Boy...
@Zeldafan79 As did I. I don't understand why people throw a temper tantrum when a remake or reboot of any media isn't 1:1 with their childhood and then go on to say that anyone who likes said remake/reboot is "too young to understand" or isn't a "real fan". It's one of the dumbest things about the gaming community these days aside from the git gud crap.
Wonder Boy and Monster Boy looked great (specially the last one), but this.... This looks bad imo. The 3D doesn´t really do it any favour, and the fps are terrible. I don´t think it was a good idea to release a trailer so soon...
Not a fan of the art style either, kinda like the original look - gladly you can play that on the Genesis Mini. Thus said, I will still keep an eye on this one - the game is really good
Just me or is the frame rate a little janky?
@RetroOutcast I agree man, aside from the janky framerates (which could easily be fix in a future update before release) the game looks fantastic. People just love to complain for the sake of complaining and it's not because it should look like LizardCube's Wonder Boy remake, even Streets of Rage 4 got the same complaints and that was made by LizardCube. People just love complaining cause they couldn't take off that nostalgic goggle.
hmmm... first look doesn’t seem like the same amount of love was poured into this as Dotemu put into WB: Dragons Trap.
Looks more akin to SquareEnix’s 3D Secret of Mana remake
I’ll happily be surprised though
@NinChocolate Me too. 94 was my fave year for many reasons.
this is gonna flop harder than a fish on hot concrete.
damn im good
Looks great. Hope It gets a physical version.
Looks a bit iffy to be honest, was hoping for an art style similar to Wonder Boy / Monster Boy but this looks a bit cheaper.
It is an early build and plenty of time until launch though so it should improve greatly.
Does not look very promissing. Horrible resolution, poor music, choppy/limited animation.
I seem to have a Knack for replaying the original versions of these games entirely, Only for a Remaster to be announced or released RIGHT AFTER. The lesson I'm learning is: These Games will not go anywhere. They will always be remade and re-released.
If it's as good as the other Wonderboy games kn Switch then I'm really excited for this
Looks like Wonder Boy’s been taking some estrogen pills.
Yikes... This looks incredibly rough
Why 3D??
Definitely lacks the charm the previous remakes had.
I like the art style, but the framerate is a bit choppy. It should be fun if they sort that out.
This loos terrible...
I was hoping for it to look like the Dragons Trap.
Yeah, that's my hype gone :/
These plastic sheen cel shaded models without the matching outlines always look incredibly cheep, a bit like 90's pre-rendered and converted sprites.
Why someone would willingly go for that look is beyond me honestly. Sure, a 3D game is a lot cheaper than hand drawn HD assets, but even then, that style is just...yeah, not really appealing.
And let's hope that the framerate id due to footage of a very early, unoptimized build...
Woof. Seriously, if you're going to do a remake instead of a new game, you have to ensure that the remake looks better than the original. This is Final Fantasy 6 iOS all over again.
Personally I would've rather they did a Dragon's Trap style graphical overhaul. This is... fine, but I wouldn't exactly call it an improvement.
@KingMike
"This franchise has enough identity problems as it is"
you can say that again. its annoying as hell
Blech, this just looks rotten. Why couldn't the WB3 or new Monster Boy team have made this?
Monster World IV is great but this just looks bad
I was excited about the announcement a few days ago. But the gameplay video really took a big part of the excitement away.
The character animation is really weird and the overall design is lacking any identity. The complete opposite the the other Wonder/Monster Boy games and "inspired by (Shantae)" titles.
If it would not be part of the Wonder Boy line, I would not give it any thought anymore.
At the moment im nto worried because it is still in development. But ngl, im disappointed that this wasn't a new game like had originally been discusssed.
Also, Im surprised they skipped porting Wonder Boy in Monster World. Classic Wonderboy, Wonder Boy III got remakes (and in a sense we got Monster Land in an AGES release). That one is my favorite in the series.
I hope that tune doesn't play a lot in the actual game. The repetitive notes really get annoying after a few seconds.
I've seen negative reactions to the redesign on social media, but personally, I don't think it looks that bad. Yeah, it's made up of polygons, but they've come a long way since games like Virtua Fighter and the original SNES Star Fox game.
I played wonder boy in monster world on sega genesis and you played as a boy with blue hair, so why in the remake is it a girl with green hair, makes no sense
@geni53yr7 The way they titled this one is odd. I guess they wanted to make it clear this is from the Wonder Boy series, but it's a remake of Monster World IV and this female character was in the original Monster World IV.
It even has the original frame rate!!!
oh by the way, the only review I will trust on this one will be Johnny Millennium's.
Looks like another game I'll be playing with my Saturn Bluetooth Controller. I NEVER play Streets of Rage 4 without it!
@geni53yr7 It's a remake of a different game. The green-haired girl's game (Monster World IV) was originally released only in Japan, but was given an official localization in like 2009 when it was released on Wii Virtual Console and other digital stores.
If it’s the same game, then I’m sure it will be fine. Monster Boy has weird flash like visuals I really don’t like and it’s hands down the best game of the series by a long shot.
They went for cel shaded look thankfully so there's no complaints there. But some of Ashi's animations are a bit stiff and unfinished (her kickflip landing animation..or lack there of and her walking) [the kickflip landing animation is there on an alternate clip of the trailer so hopefully they're looking at it] and the framerate...Why the framerate.
And the barren looking place with the fountain, is that supposed to be the town?
The animation is atrocious, like wow. Nope.
Damn that frame rate is all over the place.
@Dazzle Exactly, however it could just be an early alpha/prototype build (I hope) lol. I won't hold my breath though.
I don't really mind how the game looks, hopefully it will get polished a bit here and there.
But that soundtrack... It's so repetitve and annoying. I really can't see myself playing this if that soundtrack makes it in the game.
Why is Wonder Boy a Wondergirl? Did he take that potion from Fable 3?
The character animations feels veeery off, :-/
Too bad, I hope they fix that. The original game is great!
All Wonder Boy games on Nintendo Systems:
1. Wonder Boy (1986) Sega Master System, Wii Virtual Console
2. Wonder Boy in Monster Land (1987) Arcade, Wii VC
3. Wonder Boy in Monster Land (1987) Sega Master System, Wii VC
4. Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (1988) Sega Mega Drive, Wii VC
5. Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (1989) Sega Master System, Wii VC
6. Wonder Boy in Monster World (1991) Sega Mega Drive, Wii VC
7. Monster World IV (1994) Sega Mega Drive, Wii VC
8. Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (2017) Nintendo Switch
9. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (2018) Nintendo Switch
10. Wonder Boy Returns Remix (2019) Nintendo Switch
11. SEGA AGES - Wonder Boy: Monster Land (2019) Nintendo Switch
12. Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World (2021) Nintendo Switch
Wonder Boy had a clone on NES called Adventure Island. It turned into a seperate series that took many cues from the Wonder Boy series. All of the big main titles were on the Wii Virtual Console, along with a brandnew WiiWare game (Adventure Island: The Beginning) and other de-licensed Wonder Boy ports such as the 2 Turbografx CD games Monster Lair and The Dynastic Hero.
As soon as the second game, Wonder Boy turned from a classic platformer into a prime example in the Metroidvania genre in a time where only games such as Metroid 1 and Zelda II existed. With The Dragon's Trap in 1989, Wonder Boy took over the crown, and held it until 1994's Super Metroid. If you look for other good Wonder Boy inspired side scrolling action adventures you might want to check out the Shantae series too.
On Switch you basically get the best remakes of Wonder Boy 1 (Wonder Boy Returns Remix), Wonder Boy 2 (SEGA AGES - Wonder Boy: Monster Land), Wonder Boy 3 (Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap), and Wonder Boy 5 (Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World). So only a remake of Wonder Boy 4 (Wonder Boy in Monster World) is missing - if you don't count the side-title Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair.
It's interesting how they announce this right after I finished replaying the original Genesis/Mega Drive. I hope they add in some quality of life improvements too, such as making the ice Temple dungeon less of a slog. Simple improvements could go a long way.
@Retro_Player_77 basically boils down to "it's not 1:1 with my childhood waaaahhhhhhhhhh game bad"
Agree that the frame rates kind of stink from what I'm seeing here but I'll chalk it up to the game still being in development and it's probably something they'll optimize later on.
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