Wonder Boy in Monster World

"Quite a cool little actiop/platform/rpg -while it lasts"

STORY

This is a negligible part of the game. You start off as a boy called Shion whose world -MONSTER WORLD!!!- has been overrun by monsters -MONSTERS???- and every half-an-hour after that you get one line of dialogue that tells you whats going on. Nothing out of the ordinary but it serves its purpose

GAMEPLAY

Imagine a cross between adventure island and zelda on the NES and you`ve got this down. The RPG element comes in from the weapons and armour that you buy with money gained from slain enemies, but this is quite basic - there are only five levels of stats with a total of about 20 equippable items. You will also find various spells dotted around the place but this feature is also lacking as its you hardly ever have to to use them.
The action is quite fun and easy with the difficulty only picking up with one or two of the later bosses. You move basically in one direction delivering justice personally to various cute baddies. You might be put off by the slow initial movement of your character, but don`t be because the speed picks up later on. There could also be some frustration due to the fact that you are sometimes left drifting with no clue as to where to go next, but you`ll get there eventually. Overall, the gameplay is quite fun.

AUDIO/VIDEO

The graphics are suitably cute and colorful, but there`s nothing here to rave about. The sound effects are equally
average but the music is very cool with some seriously hummable tunes that make running around a hell of a lot easier.

VALUE

Here comes the bad news. You will finish this in less than 4
hours and there`s not much else to do after. This hurts this really fun game terribly and is why I would suggest only getting it very cheaply.

OVERALL

An enjoyable action/rpg but just dont expect to enjoy it for very long.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/04/02, Updated 03/04/02