"Bikkuriman World" - Turbografx-16/PC-Engine

AKA - "Wonder Boy in Monster Land"... except it's a promo game.

----- Introduction -----

Surprise! I mentioned half-heartedly I wanted to do PC-Engine reviews on the blog, probably almost a month ago by now for you. At least, I think I mentioned it. I decided to mix it up after thinking about it (after I played the Famicom Space Invaders port, I saw there was a string of so-so Famicom games coming up, and I wanted to have some variety to keep me motivated).

So, here's the first PC-Engine review!

*Celebratory fanfare*

The PC-Engine got its start with a nice little set of titles, Shanghai, and Wonder Boy in Monster Land. I'm going to start with the latter, because I don't want my first PC-Engine review to be a solitaire Mahjong matching game.

However as mentioned pre-intro, Wonder Boy never came out here (on the Turbografx, anyway), and never got titled that. It only came out for the PC-Engine in Japan, where it was developed as Bikkuriman World. If you're not familiar with "Bikkuriman," they're a type of wafer... snack... thing, that exists in Japan.

This one is clearly "Kemono Friends" flavor.

They come with a sticker inside, and in the '80s they released a set of stickers (according to Wikipedia, the "Akuma vs. Tenshi," or "Demon vs. Angel" set) that rocketed them to sudden popularity. They even had an anime TV show in October of 1987!

Well, surprise-- they also got a game in October of 1987, because you're looking at it. It's just a mixed up port of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, but it's a "Bikkuriman" game all the same.

I should order some of the wafers and review those as part of this...

Aw man, yeah, that would actually be pretty cool-- nevermind.

I think we'll just play the game, after all. I'll give the regular version of any Japanese games a shot before relying on translations or etc.

This guy looks ready to snack on some evil.

----- Playthrough -----

Bikkuriman World starts you off as a naked baby-man in the middle of the woods with underwear on his head. It's a bold start. It seems like a classic rule of maintaining your audience in video-games is to produce a start that makes them want to keep playing, but in this case, seeing the naked baby-man makes you instantly want to stop.

But let's continue.

Why is he holding his arms out like that...?

Walking forwards to the first shack you come across, you'll acquire an old man who'll tell you it's your destiny to save the "zone" and restore its peace, yadda yadda, and more importantly, he'll give you a sword (which the game labels 'gradius,' or gladius in non-Engrish).

Yeah, yeah, just give me the sword, I know what you want me to do.

And so begins your adventure into Bikkuriman World. There's a few harsh truths to keep in mind while playing this game. The first is that everything in this world costs cold, hard cash. The second is that there's only so much cash to go around. You'll get some from killing enemies, but the creators of the game have also put in a device to keep you from farming. There's a timer constantly draining (see the left side of the screen), and if it empties out, you'll lose some health. This is to keep you moving forwards.

Likewise, if you kill too many enemies in one area, they'll go from giving you gold to simply giving you points. Kill a few more, and they'll start giving you nothing, and take twice as many hits to kill.

HANDS UP, SN-- oh god, I just meant to threaten him. I'm a murderer.

You'll face a large variety of enemies in this game, from snakes, to mushroom guys, to oni that shoot arrows at you from a distance, to hopping skeletons, to bats. Also all of those guys again, but different colors and they take more damage the next time.

It's worth noting that compared to the original Monster Boy in Wonder Land-- I mean-- Wonder Monster in Land Boy-- whatever, anyway, the boss sprites are way cooler and more creative than in the arcade one is what I'm saying.

Though to be honest I really can't tell what's going on with his bottom half. Looks threatening, though.

In the first day of playing this game, I made it two or three levels in after 4-5 tries. I wanted to try to beat the game, so since I had some reviews scheduled to hold my blog over in the meantime, I decided to keep playing it daily for a little while.

Edit: AND I couldn't beat it.

I was able to get to round 7 a few times, but in the end I couldn't beat the game, it ramps up in difficulty quickly, and after playing it about 15 times, I think my patience is exhausted.

But at least when the bosses start returning as regular enemies, you know you're, like, HALFWAY there.

----- Review -----

Innovation:

Does the game show anything not yet seen on this system/ever before?

Well, considering this is a launch title, I guess it did lots of things that haven't happened on the console yet. It certainly sets the standards for what to expect from platformers on the consoles.

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Spitting Rage:

Does the game make you want to tear your own organs out of your body?

It's pretty tough, but the game seems reasonably fair, even with its arcade-brutal difficulty. If you play it a few times through, you'll find yourself mastering a lot of parts that may have troubled you before, including boss patterns that seemed downright unfair at first. It's hard to be upset at a game that you can master with some effort.

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Intuitive Design: 

How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?

There's really nothing in this game that confused me that much, and I was playing in Japanese. The general loop is platforming, collecting coins, upgrading your equipment, and trying to push further into the game.

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Satisfying Gameplay: 

How rewarding does playing the game feel?

I think it feels really good to beat the bosses and go through the levels. The platforming feels good, especially once you get some better boots that let you walk a bit faster,

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Game Depth: 

How deep/long is the game?

I might be biased since I've been playing NES arcade ports mostly, but there's a decent amount of levels and different kinds of bosses here. I imagine for the time frame it's not going to be that complicated, but it was a nice step up from what I've been playing lately.

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Sound Design: 

How's the sound?

I like the soundtrack, and the sounds are well conceived too! I'm not sure if this is a different OST than you would get from a version of Wonder Boy in Monster Land or if this is just a version of that OST. I do know that this is my favorite track though.

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Graphics:

How's it look?

Everything in this game looks pretty good to me; I guess the small enemies could use a little more detail, but especially the bosses are big and detailed sprites with interesting themes.

I wish the player character looked that cool...

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Personal Chord: 

Does the game have that undefinable "something" for me?

I think so. I can't say that I have any knowledge of whether Bikkuriman snacks taste good, and it would be kind of silly for me to rep something I've never tasted on a shirt... but Wonder Boy in Monster Land is really good fun.

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Should You Play: 

Is there a reason to even bother with this one?

I think so. I mean you should play Wonder Boy in Monster Land I think, maybe not this Bikkuriman flavored edition, unless you just want to for some reason. Also, speaking Japanese will help because there's a boss that asks you quiz questions you get hints to from a shopkeeper.

So maybe just play the regular game.

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