16. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (2018)
- Final score: 26 points
- Total placements: 3 lists
- Highest placement: #5, Kevin
Schnei writes:
Utterly charming, made with so much love. Just the right amount of main quest/optional content without overstaying its welcome.
Casey writes:
Looking over everyone’s lists, it’s interesting to see how this group vastly favored Metroidvanias over the two other dominating genres of the Switch era’s third-party developer scene, “Roguelikes” and “Soulslikes”. But truly, who could blame us? The absolute feast of Metroidvanias available on the platform, however, led to a decent amount of split-vote situations that knocked great games out of the running. Spoilers: we won’t be hearing about the slept-on Islets, the critically-acclaimed Animal Well, or any of the Igarashi-produced Bloodstained series here on The List, though there are a few more Metroidvania games ahead of us. Monster Boy came early on in the Switch’s lifespan and earned a lot of quiet goodwill among Metroidvania fans and retro game fans alike as, during its development process, it gained the blessing of the makers of the classic Wonder Boy franchise, leading to a partnership that let it officially become the first new entry in the series in 24 years!