Quick Critique: Wonder Boy in Monster World (Patreon)

I've talked in the past about how I consider Wonder Boy in Monster World to be one of those games that I consider capital "I" Important to me in shaping my relationship with video games and that it's vividly burned into my childhood memories. I held WBiMW in such high regard that when Sony re-released it on the PS3, I couldn't play it again because I was legitimately afraid that my love was all nostalgia from a kid that didn't know any better. Due to a run of not much coming out on the current systems and after having received the absolutely fantastic "Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works" for Christmas (thanks, Dad!), I broke down and gave it another shot. And it totally thrills me to say that the game is still great. The Sega Genesis was a magical thing of beauty and from the first screen, the art and music hit me hard and I was super happy to find that I still remembered where the secret shop was. The controls are still slippery and the hit detection is still wonky and mazes and invisible doors are still BS, but as a whole, it's such a well-laid out game. I remember the world being so vast and sprawling, but after replaying it, I see how it's set up in ways to push you forward but give you hints at how much more there is and what fun it will be to explore when you find new tools. Last year, I went back and played a lot of old games on the Virtual Console and was super bummed out how poorly so many of them stood up over time, but where the Super Metroids and Shantaes of the video game world let me down after revisiting them, Wonder Boy still has it. Aaand it still totally has some of the best boss fight music ever composed.