Wonder Boy Returns

The success of Wonder Boy Returns Remix is that it captures the very best of the original Wonder Boy and packages it in a way that is thoroughly palatable to a modern audience. The downside is that the original game was very much a product of the player-hostile arcade genres of the '80s

In short, Wonder Boy Returns Remix accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. This is a remarkable update to the '80s classic. The controls might take a minute to adjust to. Thankfully, the level-design clearly accommodates for them. Each of the 32 stages is filled with secrets and scoring opportunities, so there's plenty of replay-value. If you're a fan of old-school platformers, or just insatiably curious, considering giving it a shot.

If you feel the need to revisit Wonder Boy or Adventure Island, which were ported to pretty much everything available in the late 80's, you might give Wonder Boy Returns Remix a shot. For the rest of us, though, there are two much better Wonder Boy games on the Switch that you'll probably enjoy a whole lot more.

There's nothing of value in Wonder Boy Returns. It's the weakest platformer I've played for years, and were it a free Flash game, as it so closely resembles, I still wouldn't recommend it.

Wonder Boy Returns is a remake that plays it safe. While it does add a few new additions like different playable characters and an improved difficulty balance, this is pretty much the same game you remember but with a coat of paint that may or may be not appealing to you.

Wonder Boy Returns is a noble effort at modernizing a retro 2D action gem.