Willy’s Wonderland was one of those cult-ish, “so bad it’s good” movies we watched a few years ago for two main reasons: it was a new movie released during the pandemic (a time when we were so desperate for new content, we made Tiger King a hit), and it featured Nicolas Cage. We love the man. He is always in crappy movies, for the most part, but we can’t help but love him, right? But that was the main appeal of the entire movie: Nic Cage fighting FNAF-ish animatronics in a really ridiculous manner. It wasn’t the premise, the setting, it was Nic Cage in a dumb situation. So what do you get when you release a tie-in Willy’s Wonderland game, three years after the movie’s debut, without him? You get crap.

Yep, I can’t even try to start off in a positive note or come up with some suspense: Willy’s Wonderland is a pointless piece of tie-in shovelware that doesn’t even justify its existence. It came out years after the movie’s release. It’s absolutely crappy in terms of visuals and gameplay. And, to add an Everest-sized pile of salt onto its wounds, it doesn’t feature Nic Cage. It doesn’t even feature a Nic Cage lookalike. The only reason the movie is even somewhat remembered is absent.

What do we have here? In essence, a very short, bland, and clunky Final Fight / Streets of Rage clone. You select between two different playable characters (again, neither of them are Nicolas Kim Coppola), walk to the right, and beat up zombies and possessed animatronics. Every once in a while, grab a health pickup. Beat the living hell out of everyone in front of you. Eventually die once or twice. Beat the game quite quickly. That’s it.

You have access to two special attacks, which are restored quite quickly, but not enough for you to just spam the R and A buttons. With that being said, every single fight – and I do mean EVERY SINGLE FIGHT – can be beaten by just spamming the kick buttons. There is no logic or strategy in Willy’s Wonderland. Every zombie or animatronic enemy is as braindead as you can imagine. Not even the clunky collision detection ended up being too much of an issue. Being utterly boring was.

To make matters worse, the presentation is just terrible. Willy’s Wonderland looks like a low-budget PS2 game at best. It runs like an iPhone from 2009 trying to boot up Skyrim. It’s disappointing. It is not pushing the Switch’s hardware to any known boundaries (hell, it wouldn’t be pushing the Wii’s hardware, either), yet it runs poorly. Furthermore, the sound design is comprised of just one buttrock riff looping every few seconds, and out-of-sync sound effects. No voice acting, no nothing. Again, no Nic Cage, be it in visual or sound form.

I really don’t get the existence of this Willy’s Wonderland game, and I’m all up for some licensed shovelware every now and then. Why release it three years after the movie’s debut? You thought you had a Goldeneye in your hands? Why release it in such a poor state, performance wise? Finally, if the damn movie was all about Nicolas Cage, why make a game without him, in any way, shape or form? The man accepts every single role you throw at him, even the cheap ones. Even with my sky-high tolerance for licensed shovelware, just stay away from Willy’s Wonderland.

Graphics: 3.0 Looks like a low-budget PS2 game at best. It runs like an iPhone from 2009 trying to boot up Skyrim. It’s disappointing.	Gameplay: 4.5 A bit of input delay can be noticed in the gameplay. You can beat all enemies by just mashing down the kick button. The collision detection is a bit crappy.
Sound: 2.5 Just one buttrock riff looping every few seconds, and out-of-sync sound effects. No voice acting, no nothing.	Fun Factor: 1.0 The only good thing about the Willy’s Wonderland movie was the fact Nic Cage was in it. When you remove the sole saving grace from the equation, you’re left with a basic, glitchy, and deeply unenjoyable beat ’em up.
Final Verdict: 2.5

Willy’s Wonderland is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Switch and mobile.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Willy’s Wonderland was provided by the publisher.