Monster Boy won’t release in first half of 2016

We’ve been eagerly awaiting Game Atelier’s Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom for quite some time now. It was originally supposed to release in 2015, but the developer confirmed it’d need some more time, and a Q1 release would be more likely.

Now, in a new blog post on the Wonder Boy website, Game Atelier confirms the game won’t release in the first half of 2016, citing their desire to release simultaneously on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

“While we get closer to the finishing line, there’s still a lot to do, so please don’t expect a release in the first half of 2016,” the post read. “Since we’re going to release the game simultanously on PS4 and Xbox One – we need an additional buffer for the release window on top of the porting work.”

The post also read that they plan on ramping up marketing for the game, beginning with a PlayStation Blog post going live on March 4 to introduce Monster Boy to a wider audience.

Lastly, Game Atelier acknowledged people’s desire for a Nintendo Wii U and PlayStation Vita port.

“We totally agree that these platforms need to get Monster Boy, too! We love Nintendo! However, it’s impossible for us to work on all portings at the same time. Also, the game needs to sell well enough so we’re able to finance the porting work as it can be very time consuming. Since we don’t have any guarantee for success, we just can’t announce additional platforms at the moment.”

To date, Monster Boy has had a very interesting development cycle. The game started as a Kickstarter project in April 2014, when it was known as Flying Hamster II, the sequel to the original Flying Hamster, but it was obviously paying homage to the Wonder Boy/Monster World series. Midway through its Kickstarter campaign, Game Atelier canceled the project, and shortly after announced it had secured a publisher in FDG Entertainment.

Little was heard about the game until January 2015 when Game Atelier unveiled an overhauled game that included a name change to Monster Boy and that the game would be an official part of the Monster World series as the original creator Ryuichi Nishizawa joined the project.

“Monster Boy will be an all-new adventure and as we closely work together with Ryuichi Nishizawa it can be considered as an official part of the series,” Game Atelier announced. “Since the trademark is owned by SEGA we had to pick a different name.”