Note: This is for the arcade version.

Monster Lair may be a more straightforward game than its predecessor, but it definitely puts on quite a bit of difficult action with some standout boss fights to make this a must-play for the Wonder Boy series.

The game is a mix between a scrolling runner and a scrolling shooter, with the player being able to jump and shoot projectiles. The life bar diminishes at a steady rate much like the previous games, so the player must constantly be on the lookout for fruit and powerups for various shot types to stay healthy. Sometimes the player can find neat tricks like shooting fruit to explode into more fruit or wiggle on edges to jump up if they can't make the jump, making some good quality of life changes.

That doesn't mean the game isn't difficult though - some of the stages can be intimidating enough to have the player sacrifice a life to get through and the shmup bosses are tough as nails. Crawling cacti, a slot machine mushroom, and a familiar end foe - the game still has insta-kills for hitting objects that aren't beach balls so the player has to be on their toes, sometimes frustratingly so. A second player is available to help, at least!

The game's graphics are just about as cute as their predecessors, if not containing a lot more detail. The music is also much more catchy, with a powerful boss fight soundtrack that will definitely pump you up for repeated encounters.

Monster Lair looks more standard by design but pays off in the fact that this is a fairly straightforward game with a lot of variety and plenty of action.

Preliminary: (I am playing the original Japanese arcade release.) The Look and Sound are cute so far. And I should remind myself this is actually from November 1988, not late 1989 like I actually am. I finished the first round quite quickly. The boss took way too many hits, it just got repetitive at a point, and (relatedly) I wish power-ups lasted longer. But it's cute and pretty good so far. Stoked to hear that Jun Chikuma did some of the music at the end! Seems it might be worth pushing through 14 rounds just for that.

Unfortunately, the jumping feels a bit sluggish and the movement in general can feel slow sometimes. Like, with the whole countdown aspect of the game where you gotta keep moving along to collect fruit, I wanna go go go!

Day 1

Like others have noted, it definitely gets repetitive. And I'm only on Round 5! I also don't like how you can only face one direction in the shmup segments. I realize there's a special weapon to hit backwards but would've felt fuller being able to look both ways even if the scroll is continuously rightward.

Round 7 and on are definitely getting harder. It's nice how often it provides power-ups and heals, but there are plenty of one hit deaths by running into the onslaughts of enemies. I might just drop it buttttt I probly wont smh

It's certainly the Look and Sound (and my habit of having to finish or come close to finishing a game to write a review... I probly should get over that) that's getting me to push through. Cuz uh the gameplay. It's well-made and of arcade quality. But its parts feel either too easy or frustrating, and always repetitive.

Grrrr how the heck do you hoist yourself on to a ledge? There's a part where I basically have to and I can't do any combination of buttons to make it work? And I can't find any info online.

Yeahhh Round 9 is where I'm calling it quits. Maybe I'm getting better about not finishing games that aren't, well, worth finishing. A big part of that is, this Look and Sound are good and technically the Play is too, but only when I think of 86 and 87 games. Now taht I'm nearing the end of 89, it's okay not to accept the mid-80s vibe arcade games as "OMG!" as I used to haha.

Look: 8/10 Cute, fits the vibe, nothing spectacular but has a good theme and sticks to it. Good arcade colors too.

Sound: 7.5/10 I know I kept talking up the Sound but it really is just run of the mill for arcade. It's catchy and good, but the sound effects sometimes bogged it down.

Play: 6.5/10 I mean, I didn't finish it so I don't feel like I can give it a 7 or more. But technically, I liked both the platforming and shmup parts, just felt blah tho. Maybe both those genres are getting too common so I expect more from them?

Feel: 7/10 Always like when a game is part of a series, and the Look and Sound fit a cute theme, but meh.

Attachment: 7/10 I mean, I kept wanting to finish it because of that platformer/shmup hook I always get. But I did drop it. So who knows. I may return to it if I fall in love with later Wonder Boys, I may not. For now, moving on.

Overall: 7.2/10

Completion: To shmup part of Round 9

Playtime: 45 mins