When Westone Entertainment put the Wonder Boy franchise to rest in the late ‘90s, it’s doubtful they believed its impact and legacy would continue to this day. I’m not just talking about the vast amount of Wonder Boy re-releases and HD remakes we’ve seen over the past decade or so, but brazenly inspired modern games too, such as Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom.
Pokettohiro is the latest title to take inspiration from Wonder Boy III, although this isn’t something too obvious at first, closer resembling Zelda II. This could simply be down to its choice of hardware, with this being a brand new Game Boy Color game. It’s available both on a physical cartridge and as an inexpensive (£9.99) download on modern systems. The benefit of the console release is that it features a bevy of extras, including artwork, sprite sheets, a digital manual, turbo/rewind tools, and a choice of screen filters and sizes.
There’s a cheats menu too, just in case anyone simply wants to experience the story. You’ll still need to put effort in to unlock the trophies/achievements, as this is a fully fledged 5-6 hour adventure with a non-linear design, relying heavily on navigational skills to complete.
The opening scene involves a brief action sequence that ends in betrayal. Our hero then reawakens in a small village, soon to be revealed as the central hub for this free-roaming adventure. Accessible from here are a museum with a bestiary to fill, an item store, an ongoing quest to find seven lost children, a cave to slowly progress through upon finding elusive crystals, and a fortune teller who provides hints on where to go next. The hero’s doting parents also provide clues – and a good thing too considering there’s no map or main quest log.
You’re free to explore the areas surrounding the village, which will eventually result in stumbling on a dungeon or an area currently inaccessible – prompting you to make a mental note of its location. Dungeons are viewed from a side-on perspective and are small in size, involving little more than finding keys to unlock doors and flicking switches. It’s a shame that the developers didn’t implement more puzzles, with just a single example present. Every dungeon ends with a boss fight against a large creature (ah, the good ol’ background image trick!) which results in a new character unlocking, making those previously inaccessible areas reachable. As the world is peppered with secrets, new characters can also give access to concealed rooms that contain either a crystal or museum pieces.
The character selection is initially inspired, adding a skilled archer, a high jumping ninja, and a magic flinging mage to the roster before cribbing from Wonder Boy III with an avian swordsman. The last character to be introduced is a tiny fly who can squeeze into small gaps, essentially being Pokettohiro’s Mouse-Man. To reach new locations and explore the world fully – with themes including woodland, underwater, desert, volcano, an ice realm, and an airborne palace – you’ll need to switch characters often. That said, the archer is soon made redundant, while the ability to fly makes the birdman very hard to resist. Each character also has a ‘bonus’ room of sorts to find, taking place in a brighter dream-like world.
You’ll also have to find and retrieve a few key items to progress, such as finding snorkels to dive underwater, with some of these items only purchasable from certain shops – and so it pays to make a note of what’s in stock and where, too. Indeed, there is a lot of backtracking involved, and this is easily the game’s biggest downfall. It’ll quite happily have you dashing through 2-3 locations just to reach a new area, only to backtrack to the village. This becomes more of an issue towards the end where dungeons now require a set number of crystals to open. Cue a trek to past areas to scout for those previously unreachable. Pro tip: the mage can occasionally make crystals appear by using magic on pink stone piles. Thankfully, the end of a boss battle always sees you teleport to your homestead, ready to head out anew, so at least it doesn’t force you to backtrack through dungeons.
The artwork is well drawn and consistent, oddly proportioned human character aside, and although it doesn’t boast much in the way of graphical trickery, the controls are fluid and the screen scrolls smoothly. Collision detection could have been better but isn’t problematic during boss battles and other areas where it matters the most.
I’ve played a few modern Game Boy games over the past couple of years, and this is not only one of the more polished examples, but also one of the longer lasting with a runtime similar to a contemporary 2D adventure. It would have definitely gained positive reviews from the ‘90s gaming press, although its influences may have felt more ‘on the nose’ back then. Nowadays we call that ‘nostalgia’ – and you’ll find a welcome dose of it here.
Ratalaika Games’ Pokettohiro is out now on all formats, with a Game Boy Color physical release also available. Developed by DMG Studio.