Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom

THE CLASSIC WONDER BOY SERIES RETURNS

- Warren Brown

Game Atelier has come a long way since its 2010 game Flying Hamster, a frenzied horizontal shooter for mobile which saw players take control of, you guessed it, a flying hamster! Since then the studio has developed numerous titles embracing a love of creative cartoon-ish art centred around joyous gameplay.

Take a cursory glance at Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom and you’d be forgiven for assuming it’s just another cutesy game ported over from mobile, but at its core this is an action platformer that celebrates a beloved heritage while maintaining a contemporary presentation. Starting off with an arcade release in 1986, it didn’t take long before a slew of home console variants saw a mass platform release, so it’s fitting that the current team worked in cooperation with original creator Ryuichi Nishizawa.