Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World isn't much of a facelift of the original version. However, it's a nice family game and a good addition to the Nintendo Switch catalog. Retro gamers will prefer to play the older Wonder Boy titles.

Attractive and charming animation makes Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World appear to be a modern game, but don't be fooled. A lack of modern conveniences—autosave, a map, etc.—places Asha squarely in the old-school department. Blistering boss fights, meandering levels, and a very weird-feeling double jump all combine to make Asha in Monster World a fun game to visit, but only fans of the classic franchise will want to stay.

Over the course of its roughly five hour playtime, Wonder Boy: Asha In Monster World made me smile and laugh on countless occasions because of its humor, radiant graphics, and endearing world and characters. Though I wish certain aspects of gameplay were modified along with the visuals, I understand the motivation to honor the original game, and applaud the developers for leaning into its shortcomings. Wonder Boy is a lovely adventure for fans of the original and newcomers alike.

The fun of playing these games, especially these days, lies in the director, Ryuchi Nishizawa, whose approach to genre was one of precise and genial disregard.

Wonder Boy Asha in Monster World is almost a 1:1 modern version of classic title from 1994, and this works in its favor and against it. It's short, with a simple level design and maybe a little too linear, but also funny, fast paced and with a great soundtrack.

Wonder Boy - Asha in Monster World takes a great Sega Genesis game from the ‘90s and pays faithful tribute to the original gameplay while turning its back on sprites and instead going with 3D models. This is still a fun and enjoyable retro game, but it shows its age quite a bit with this new presentation. It’s debatable as to whether or not playing this remake would trump playing the original, which makes the remake feel a little less special. Luckily, if you go physical, you can make that decision for yourself. Either way, this remake is good, even if it’s overall lower in the rankings of Wonder Boy revivals.

Pop-quizzing Sphinx aside, the use of riddles and hints to figure out puzzles and object placement is a fun element, and overall Asha in Monster World is a fun old-school trip. There’s a bit too much doggedly vintage design at work here, but this is a remake of an old game. We hope Asha returns in something decidedly more expansive and modern though. With a bit more refinement, she could give Shantae a real challenge.

Asha in a Monster World thus remains a nifty platform game, which will above all succeed in transporting fans of the original title.

The game’s simple gameplay and relatively short playtime make it perfect for beginners and are sure to bring a smile to veterans. Framerate issues and tedious levels keep it from being a must-play, but if you’ve got a few hours to spare, playing Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is a good way to spend them.

Preservationist gripes aside, Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is a great remake of a delightful, if flawed, Mega Drive classic. The new art style is gorgeous, capturing the vibrant beauty of the original wonderfully, and the modern tweaks are welcome, though a few more wouldn’t go amiss. But most importantly, it stays true to what made Monster World IV so unique, which, for a game that Sega seems to have largely forgotten about, is lovely to see.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is a game that knows how to entertain but without surprising, a lively title that can return a handful of carefree hours. The lack of any playful flicker, however, does not distinguish it from many exponents of the genre. The 3D graphics show a remarkable use of cel shading, but suffer from ubiquitous stuttering. Asha in Monster World is a decent remake, then, that lacks the restoration work done on his "colleagues", shows a little 'too much the weight of the years.

At the end of the day Wonder Boy Asha in Monster World is a no-frills remake that at times feels a little rough around the edges but ultimately does a well enough job in modernizing the 1994 classic.

Asha in Monster World is a warts-and-all remake of the original game, which is a shame, as ironing out some of the annoying parts and adding extra content would have helped it transcend its previous iteration and feel more like a Metroidvania. The original was one of the best Sega games of its era and Asha's adventures are still a ton of fun to experience in the modern era, even if they end a little too soon.

Not the best possible remake of a largely unknown Mega Drive classic for Western players.

Wonder Boy Asha in Monster World is a faithful remake of Monster World IV with many good additions and enhancements but one that suffers from performance issues in the Nintendo Switch version.

Unless one is a hardcore fan of classic platform titles or a Wonder Boy completist, there isn’t much to recommend Asha in Monster World. It’s an okay example of its genre’s older titles, but I’d say it’s a bit too rooted in the past to interest players who aren’t coming to it for the nostalgia.

New graphics, quality of life improvements and humour make Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World an enjoyable platformer. Its level of challenge depends upon player experience in the genre. It is unfortunately let down by the final level which had little challenge and numerous small issues that should have been easy to fix. It is a sound title on Nintendo Switch that could do with some tweaking to make it shine at its best, but for those who love the graphic style and just want to have fun there is plenty to enjoy.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World could've done much more to present a fun experience, the limited and primitive combat and the repetitiveness make this remake a visually updated version of an outdated game.

When you break it down, the arguments against playing Asha in Monster World are plentiful and loud. While the final product may be a bit better than the sum of its parts, it's still a middling platformer that seems devoid of the care that the rest of the remakes in the series have been infused with. In the end, it's an average title that you'll enjoy if you're already a fan, and won't be missing if you're not.

While all its relevant parts are good, none of them really stand out among today’s very best. So if you’ve only given this a passing glance when scrolling game trailers on YouTube and it’s not particularly floating your boat, be prepared for a decent player here but not one that’s going to dazzle you for months ahead.

The least accomplished of the recent spate of Wonder Boy games but it still retains a certain charm and offers plenty of reasons for the franchise to continue.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is a remake tethered to the archaic design of its source material. Updated visuals cannot mask outdated mechanics that just don't fly in this day and age.

The core gameplay of Wonder Boy is platforming and combat. Both turned out to feel their age. Simple jumps between platforms and the occasional glide were all that really encompassed the gameplay. The different enemies were bland and if you couldn’t defeat them with a simple slash, then the solution was to jump and slash. The game needs just a little more depth. There were magical slashes that did more damage, but maybe a more complex magic system would have enhanced the experience. Thankfully the puzzles break up the monotony.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World should be looked upon as an example of what a 25-year-old game could look like with the graphical technology of today. It doesn’t veer far from the source material, though, so the game itself feels basic compared with what the modern-day gamer is used to.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World’s greatest sin is that it is simply adequate. There’s nothing earth-shattering about this remake. It looks fine, but isn’t nearly as striking as Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap. It plays okay, but there are times when you feel the frustrations and limitations of Asha’s moveset. It is okay and people who loved the original will probably appreciate it being freshened up. But as far as remakes go, it’s nothing special.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World earned its reputation decades ago as a fun action platformer, but this new remake does nothing to hide how much this classic has degraded with age.

Asha in the Monster World feels like an opportunistic remake. The unambitious graphic update has a hard time breathing a new life to a dated game design, and it’s tough to enjoy the whole thing in 2021.