OVERVIEW
 
You are Wonder Boy, a jungle caveman who is apparently a womanizer who gets busted by his girlfriend,Tina. She smashes him with a rock then storms off to leave him but he chases her to beg for forgiveness. A devil appears and snatches Tina away. Now it is up to Wonder Boy to go through treacherous levels to "rescue" her. Why did I put rescue in quotations you ask? You can actually view the ending at any time and see what's really going on.
 
GRAPHICS - A+
 
This is a re-imaging of the original Wonder Boy that came out for the Sega Master System so technically a 30th anniversary celebration of the series. As a re-imaging, the graphics got a serious face lift and everything looks excellent from the characters, to the enemies, and all the backgrounds. With updated graphics also comes the updated jump scare too. Getting killed by fire and lightning used to scare the living daylights out of me when I played the original game because it was one of those unexpected things that caught me by surprise. Now that I am older, I do not get scared as easily but it is still a frightening sight. The backgrounds also have some added animation to add a little realism to them. Tina looks super cute with the way she is drawn and the way she fights once you unlock her.
 
SOUND/MUSIC - A
 
I totally love the soundtrack to this game. Even though the jungle stage music is still as repetitive as it was in the original game, it got a good updated rendition to it. The other stages' music are fun to listen to as well. The only thing that kept me from giving the sound and music section an A+ besides the repetitiveness of the jungle theme is that there is no Sound Test option and the only way to listen to any of the stages' music uninterrupted is to stay in one spot without jumping. It would not be such of a big deal but as with the original game and, to an extent, the Adventure Island series, your stamina decreases every time you go without eating anything and end up dying from energy loss. Speaking of that last part, I will go more in-depth in the gameplay section.

CONTROLS - C
 
The controls are average for the most part but they can be harmful as if you fail to look before you leap, then you are pretty much a sitting duck for death as you have no way of controlling yourself during a jump and might end landing on an enemy or a pit. The jumping itself has a large learning curve as you normally have a small jump but when you have a running start, you jump higher. This is important when trying to gather Tina dolls or cross pits using springs. The running also takes some time getting used to as you are not truly guaranteed to stop on a dime and you can run off a cliff by acciden
 
GAMEPLAY - B+
 
I decided to give the gameplay section a B+ because it still comes with the same flaws as the original such as what I explained in the controls section. Those who played the original game know what I am talking about when I say the energy bar is misleading, or more specifically what you think it is. It is really a stamina bar that functions more as a time meter. When you go without eating then it will decrease and eventually kill you. Eating all kinds of foods will restore it. Why is this so important? You may think it is supposed to protect you from damage from enemies and projectiles but in reality every enemy and projectile is a one-hit death. The only exception is tripping over rocks which drain your stamina and that is it. Wonder Boy lobs tomahawks at an arc. After gathering enough dolls, you unlock classic Wonder Boy and Tina. Tina attacks just like Master Higgins in the Super Adventure Island series where she attacks with boomerangs. Skateboarding proves a little level of protection from a hit and sometimes it is important to have it in order to obtain some dolls or leave it alone to get others. 
 
REPLAYABILITY - A
 
There are three difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, and Hell. Now I know what you are thinking when you hear the word Hell difficulty. Do not worry as the game is not that hard on Hell. In fact, the difficulties dictate how many lives you get to complete the level with a few added obstacles here and there. Easy difficulty has all levels unlocked from the beginning so you can practice getting the those dolls in the harder difficulties. You also get 10 lives as opposed to 5 in Normal and 3 in Hell. Each stage has three dolls to collect. Some dolls are easy to find but others you have to do some extra work to make them appear. There is also the Challenge mode where you play each level straight through one at a time just like the original game and try to collect as many dolls as you can. The dolls are important for gathering trophies from the Playstation.
 
OVERALL - B
 
The final verdict is an A-. The controls kind of dragged the grade down a little bit and the difficulty can be adjusted but it is still no walk in the park as without prior experience you can find yourself dying a lot from unexpected things such as enemies that appear before you obtained your weapon in the level just yet and you make the mistake of trying to attack them only to get the "****, I'm dead" salute as it is too late to avoid the enemy. The game is highly addictive and I enjoy going back to the game to try to gather all the dolls of each level especially in Hell mode as you will need each one to get a well deserved trophy. If you have some dough to blow, this is a good game to buy.
 

Thanks for having such an eye wrenching post layout. It really makes me care about your game review and take it seriously.