Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection Review: A Definitive Collection?

When reviewing a collection, there’s always a weird balance of trying to somehow review both the collection itself and the games within it. A well-presented collection only goes so far if the games contained within it aren’t any good. A poorly presented one can still be worthwhile if the games are good enough, but even then, with so many ways to play classic games, there’s real value in bringing classics together in harmony. Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection has its strengths, but struggles to present its games in a satisfying way.

Do Strong Games = A Strong Collection?

To get it out of the way up front, there are some excellent games featured in Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection. That’s not to say they’re all winners, but there’s a reason this series has endured for over thirty years. The first Wonder Boy game is a relatively simple arcade experience, but it’s genuinely fun to this day with a colorful world that’s well-designed and looks great.

The series gets a lot more complex after that, though. Later games are more like prototypes for the Metroidvania genre, before those games had truly put their stamp on them. Some of them are genuinely excellent such as Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, here presented as Monster World II. Monster World IV is a truly excellent final game in the classic series as well, one which was stuck in Japan for many years but is now readily available around the world. Both of these games have excellent modern remakes as well, though neither of those is present in this collection.

Other games in the collection are more fine than great. Monster Lair feels a bit closer to the arcade original than the later games in the series, while Monster Land feels like more of a proof of concept for the series’ later entries than anything else. Wonder Boy in Monster World meanwhile mixes in SHMUP levels which are certainly interesting but don’t quite flow with the rest of the game. None of these are bad games, though, and the collection’s best titles are truly excellent to this day.

A Barebones Collection

This is a barebones collection, not offering much in the way of supplemental material. There are multiple versions of all of these games, 21 unique versions in all, which is cool. It’s hardly an exhaustive list of the game’s ports, but I did enjoy seeing the differences. You can also look through some weakly presented artwork or manual scans if that excites you, but it would be nice to see Wonder Boy truly celebrated instead of just pushed back out into the world.

It’s hard to think this collection was given a lot of thought when the menu descriptions are filled with typos as well. This is minor in the grand scheme of things, who really spends time reading those descriptions? Well, I do. It’s nice to put these games in historical context, and since we’re given little else to do so, they’re an important aspect of the collection. Typos happen, but the descriptions here have so many that it’s hard to believe someone even bothered to proofread them, and lends credence to the idea that this was a cheap cash-in. At least you do get the modern emulation features people expect, such as save states, rewind, control remapping, filters, and much more.

A Strange Release

Even stepping outside of the game itself, there’s weird stuff going on with Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection. When asked to review this game, I was initially confused because I was sure it already came out last year. Well, it did, kind of. Wonder Boy Collection released digitally last year with most of these games, but missing the pair of Wonder Boy III titles. This seemed like a strange oversight until you realized that they were also selling a limited edition physical release of the game that offered those titles as well, but only if you bought a physical release.

That physical release was Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection and it’s strange to see its supposed physical exclusivity last less than a year. The way these collections have rolled out feels simply unfair to the players. It’s unfair to those who spent money just last year on a now completely inferior digital collection. It’s also unfair to those who went out and rushed to buy a physical collection that they were told was the only way to get the full series, only for that to no longer be the case so quickly. I understand plans change and a small publisher must adapt to the needs of their business, but there are ways they could help offset this, such as by offering an upgrade path to those who bought the original digital collection just last year. They’ve chosen not to do so.

Conclusion

Despite not feeling good about the way this collection has released, and the collection itself feeling like a cash-in more than a celebration of Wonder Boy, there are some excellent games present in Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection. While the two best games in the package have excellent modern remakes, playing the rest of these games is worthwhile, as is seeing the original versions of these classics. This isn’t a release for every player, certainly, but if you’ve yet to check out the series, Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection offers a thorough introduction.

Final Verdict: 3/5

Available on: Switch (Reviewed), PS5, PS4; Publisher: Bliss Brain; Developer: Bliss Brain; Players: 2; Released: January 26th, 2023; ESRB: E10+ for Everyone 10+; MSRP: $49.99

Full disclosure: This review is based on a copy of Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection provided by the publisher.