It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about Game Atelier and FDG Entertainment’s Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, a new Wonder Boy game, but an update on the PlayStation Blog comes bearing good news. The game is nearing the end of production and should be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2016. It will released in time to celebrate the series’ 30th anniversary this year.
In Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, players will be able to guide Monster Boy through a 2D world where everything is open and connected. To advance to new areas, he’ll need to transform into different animals. The initial image shown on the PlayStation Blog depicts his standard human form, as well as pig, frog, dragon, lion, and snake transformations. These will be used to solve puzzles and advance, as it is a Metroidvania game.
The update also goes into what people can expect from the overall presentation. There will be high resolution, HD visuals, with Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom ideally running at 60fps in 1080p. Game Atelier and FDG also have access to original Wonder Boy assets, like characters, graphics, and sounds, thanks to licensing deals and Ryuichi Nishizawa, creator of the original Wonder Boy games. Yuzo Koshiro, who provided music for Actraiser, Shinobi, Streets of Rage, and Ys, is heading up music production on the project, with Motoi Sakuraba, Michiru Yamane, Keiki Kobayashi, and Takeshi Yanagawa also contributing. Haruka Shimotsuki, who sang theme songs for Ar tonelico and Atelier, will lend her voice to the project.
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom was originally going to be Flying Hamster II: Knight of the Golden Seed. Game Atelier found a publisher, FDG Entertainment, and that’s when the project turned into Monster Boy and the Wizard of Booze. Now, it is Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom and will be coming to the PlayStation 4 in 2016. An exact release date has yet to be revealed.
