Wonder Boy Collection Switch Review

Wonder Boy Collection (Switch)

Developed By: Bliss Brain

Published By: ININ Games

Date of Release: June 3, 2022

Price: $29.99

Long ago in the arcade dominated era of 1986, a small company named Westone released a game called Wonder Boy, published by SEGA in the arcades. Starring a blonde caveman on a quest to save his girlfriend, it was a decent hit. It spawned a whole franchise of sequels and spinoffs, and even got a port to home consoles by Hudson as "Adventure Island", spawning an entire new franchise. From there the rest is history.

Wonder Boy Collection on the Nintendo Switch contains the 4 most iconic entries in the series. The original Wonder Boy is a platforming title which will of course feel familiar to anyone who has played Adventure Island, as it is pretty much the same game. Wonder Boy in Monster Land was the second game, and it's very much an action RPG rather than a straight up platformer (it also has some of the most horrifying boxart on the Master System). The third title, Wonder Boy in Monster World, is actually the fifth title and is a metroidvania-lite action RPG. as for the fourth title in this collection? Monster World IV is the only game in this collection that doesn't star the titular Wonder boy, and instead stars a newcomer Asha. it's a full on metroidvania and arguably the best title in this collection.

There is definitely a lot of gameplay here in this set, and unfortunately you don't get much more than that. Each game is well emulated, however some of the graphics settings are a bit odd, with the last two games in the set having forced bilinear filtering with the CRT emulation that muddles the image. All that's really on offer here is a barebones gallery that has boxart and manuals and not much else. On top of that, some of the best games in the series (next to MWIV) are missing, and are instead only available in the limited set from strictly limited games, which raises the question: why are digital fans getting the shaft here? Still, this is a decent and functional collection, with four games that are definitely worth playing. Still would have made more sense to have just one collection with all the games.