Monster World IV Review

Monster World IV Console-Sega Genesis Year-1994 Developer-Westone Genre-Platform RPG I love a good platform RPG, and when I hear a particular one is the best, it’s impossible for me to resist. While I already loved the first Monster World game, it had its fair share of problems as well. Here we skip to Monster World IV, and I’m happy to say that all the problems inherent in the first game, are indeed gone. The Wonderboy/Monster World series is confusing at best, due to its titles. While both Adventure Island and Wonderboy started out the same-well almost- they branched off into entirely different directions. Well, at least Wonderboy did. With the second game, Monster land, it vered off into an entirely different play style, and for the better I might add. The Monster World series is far superior to the original Wonderboy series. Even though they started in the same place, they should really be separate series and regarded as such. And generally, they are. So here we come to Monster World IV. It was never released outside of Japan, which is a damn shame. Fortunately the game has been translated for us english folks by fans. Most of the reasoning behind most games not being released in North America is because they wouldn’t sell due to different tastes of the peoples. Clearly, North Americans are retarded, or the game companies are just being mean. And greedy. I could go on. I’ll start off by saying bluntly, Monster World IV is a masterpiece in gaming. Oh it has its flaws still, but in this case the gameplay far outweighs them. This could very well be the funnest Genesis single player experience that was never released on the Genesis. GAMEPLAY Simply put, amazing. The story starts off familiar; a girl named Arsha hears a spirit in her dreams and so she runs off for adventure. Her village is like a hobbit one, as they don’t like adventure but however she does. You go through dungeons with puzzles, and bosses and spirits at the end to save, ect. The game has a relatively simplistic platforming foundation, but has so much more built over top of it, it almost hides the fact its ..well a simple platformer. This may not sound like a compliment but it is. At its heart, it’s a solid platformer. It’s made better by what it adds. What does it add? I’ll tell you. The main “toy” you have in the game is called a Pepelougoo. This Is like your pet companion, and helps you throughout your adventure and even grows as you progress. With your little friend, you can glide in the air, and even double jump with his help. He can also save you from drowning in water, as well as help you solve puzzles. As he grows however, the animation for your interactions with him change, which can be quite amusing. Of course, this being an RPG, it has the typical elements. You can increase your health bars a la Zelda, and buy new weapons, armour, and items to help you in your journey. Monster World IV also gets rid of all the problems the original game had. It has no time limit that kills your health, which was my main complaint of the other game. This also dramatically decreases the difficulty level of the game, which is both good and bad. The game is not much of a challenge, but is still immensely fun. The game controls well. I never had a moment of complaining about the controls. The 3-buttons on the genesis are all you need to play the game well and it’s pretty simple really. This is a good thing because sometimes games try to have way too many button combinations and such, especially on controllers with less buttons. (The Start button is used to spin in NHL 96… yeah..) The game menu is great and functional, not much more to ask for. Everything does as it is supposed to. GRAPHICS Of course being a Monster World game, it is colourful and vibrant. Even the original game in its 8 bit glory was a showcase of colour. Some of the dungeons can get a bit repetative and lack the colour of the rest of the world, but they are dungeons afterall, unless they have a hanging garden in them its hard to have “colour”. Everything is quite smooth and detailed, and I love the art style. Little things in the animation just add that much more to the game. The world is brought out well and presented in a manner that is eye catching and charming. It’s hard to say much about it really, and it’s causing me pain right now. All the characters animation and detail is wonderful. Arsha herself has a ton of animations, and every little thing brings out more greatness to the game. In the dungeons the monsters CAN get repetitive however. There seems to be only about 4 monsters or variations in each dungeon, but maybe I set the bar too high on things like that. But really, can you ever set the bar too high when it comes to great games? As a quick note, I like the Egyptian style of the world. Im a sucker for anything Egyptian, and that personally pulls me in a bit more. Traversing through Egyptian styled dungeons is a treat. SOUND Unfortunately, this is where the game is lacking, and brings me back to reality-telling me there is no perfect game. The sound effects are very average and normal, nothing really is amazing or stands out. The saving grace for them is they arnt particularly annoying. The work and don’t really aggravate you. The music is nice, but 80% of the music in the game is remixed of one song. While this can be nice and bring the places “together” more, hearing the same song slightly altered in every dungeon can get annoying. Sometimes the remix is great, like in the first dungeon, and stands out to make things enjoyable. But then you hear it again in a different way and sort of ruins it. The music, like the first game, also seems to be a bit too “happy” for the game sometimes. Certain remixes fit well while others just sound too happy. But after all, it is a very light hearted adventure game. Not every game can have a moving score. CONCLUSION Monster World IV is a highlight game on the Genesis, and the fact it wasn’t even on the Genesis is a crying shame. It’s beyond madness that this game wasn’t released in North America. Especially since the Monster World series as a whole is awesome, and even perhaps the best series on the Master System. It lost steam during the Genesis years, probably because everyone wanted fast games at that point and Sega was pushing them anyway. If your Japanese and own a Megadrive, you should own this game. If you’re a Monster World enthusiast, you should find this game. If you are human, you should find this game. It IS in English out there as a rom, so go find it, play it, see what you think. Remember, this is only my opinion, check the game out for yourself and judge!