Item: Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
Rating: 8.2
Author: Yuri N. Macedo

I was hyped for this one. I grew up playing Monster Boy on emulators - because living in Brazil means you're not getting old school consoles anytime soon - so the nostalgia came kicking in when I first heard of the kickstarter. The game did not disappoint, although it kinda seemed too much like an indie game. I'll try to explain my reasoning. Owlboy, Undertale, Hollow Knight, Iconoclasts, Celeste and Bloodstained are all indie games. But they did not have a drop of that incomplete indie feel to it. They were super original. This game was not. It seemed like a fan recreation of an old MB game. A good one, yes, but that was the aftertaste. Of course I enjoyed the game, the story was good, the gameplay too and the music and cutscenes were the best touch in my opinion. But maybe, another coat of paint over this game would have made it an AAA when it comes to metroidvanias. Besides that, my only complaint about the game was the insignificance of the sidequests and completion. There's really little to no incentive to completing the game, and even the rewards for doing that are not worth your time. And there are sidequests, but they are so irrelevant you don't even want to embark on them. So, this is my overly nitpicker review of this game. And I'm not being ironical or mistaken with the rating, for me it's really a 8.2 but with a lot of mistakes that should be corrected. And come on, even a small patch or update could have corrected most of them. Godspeed!

I was hyped for this one. I grew up playing Monster Boy on emulators - because living in Brazil means you're not getting old school consoles anytime soon - so the nostalgia came kicking in when I first heard of the kickstarter.

The game did not disappoint, although it kinda seemed too much like an indie game. I'll try to explain my reasoning. Owlboy, Undertale, Hollow Knight, Iconoclasts, Celeste and Bloodstained are all indie games. But they did not have a drop of that incomplete indie feel to it. They were super original. This game was not. It seemed like a fan recreation of an old MB game. A good one, yes, but that was the aftertaste.

Of course I enjoyed the game, the story was good, the gameplay too and the music and cutscenes were the best touch in my opinion. But maybe, another coat of paint over this game would have made it an AAA when it comes to metroidvanias.

Besides that, my only complaint about the game was the insignificance of the sidequests and completion. There's really little to no incentive to completing the game, and even the rewards for doing that are not worth your time. And there are sidequests, but they are so irrelevant you don't even want to embark on them.

So, this is my overly nitpicker review of this game. And I'm not being ironical or mistaken with the rating, for me it's really a 8.2 but with a lot of mistakes that should be corrected. And come on, even a small patch or update could have corrected most of them.

Godspeed!

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom

Review Title

Player Score

Yuri N. Macedo