Quick Review: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap

Not often do I get to play games from SEGA consoles – or remakes of them.

This dragon is going down! ...I hope.

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap was originally a game developed by Westone and released on the Sega Master System in 1989. Today’s game is a remake of that title, this time developed by Lizardcube, published by Dotemu and released to Steam on June 8th, 2017. The most notable change in design may be the use of hand-drawn scenery and sprites. The intention was otherwise to stay as true to the original Wonder Boy title as possible – so aside from a few quality of life upgrades, much of the remake should play the same.

Well, this is a strange turn of events...
Good thing I adapt well!

The story to this one directly follows the previous installment in the Wonder Boy series, even opening like the other would have ended: As the fully-equipped hero, we make our way through the final dungeon, with a lot of health and such high attack and defense that the enemies are trivial. We get to the “final boss” and, while tough, we beat him. Surprise! This dragon had the power to inflict curses, and in its dying breath, transformed our hero into a weak fire-spewing lizard. Their quest, now, is all about finding some way to undo this curse and retrieve their human body. The only logical way to do that is to defeat the other dragons, withstand their curses, and amass abilities to find the cure!

The gameplay has the basics with some interesting twists. Move around with the arrows, jump with X, do a sword slash with Z (I usually switch those two around in the options) and use a special attack with C. Those attacks can be picked up from enemies that are felled, and used up afterwards – they include a boomerang, a fireball, an arrow shooting upwards and a bolt of lightning (will harms all enemies on the screen). We swap between these options with A and S.

Running up that pole, running up that column.
Why is the mouse outfitted with wall stickiness?
I really don't know.

Yeowch! Hey! Stop walking into me! My
invincibility frames and "Ow!" sprite won't
go away till you let go of me!

We have hearts at the top of the screen, but don’t go think those deplete by halves and quarters like in other franchises; no, they’re more like a fancy way to show an HP bar. What do I mean by this? Well, as we progress through the game, we can buy swords and armor that will increase the character’s attack and defense respectively. Almost like RPG mechanics in a platformer. The higher the character’s defense, the less the hearts will deplete from the same attack. Some weapons and armor also come with bonus abilities.

You can play as a lion too? Best game ever!

The other major gameplay element is the curses themselves, as each one grants new abilities to our hero. Their lizard form can breathe fire; the second one, a tiny mouse, can run up walls and ceilings; the third one, a humanoid piranha, can swim; and there are more. The game is built so that no character can get stuck badly. We also get the occasional upgrade to our skills. While not purely linear (as you can explore a fair bit of the map at any time), progression is limited based on the form and abilities you have. Late in the game, you become able to switch between your hero’s collected forms at will.

Also of note: Choosing at the start to play as either Wonder Bor or Wonder Girl (even if the human form sticks around for all of 5 minutes); difficulty levels from Casual to Hard; and the possibility to play the game in the original 8bit.

There's even a small handful of extras added to
this version that weren't in the Master System
title.

I had to travel half the world to get to this
place. I better get some cool stuff out of it.

The hand-drawn art makes this game a treat to watch as you play, with lots of detail in every area. The soundtrack, which takes the chiptune tracks of the original and updates them with real instruments, is highly enjoyable as well. Gameplay is pretty solid, with multiple options for attacks as well as special abilities for each form – the one downside is that when you get stuck with a new form, you have to get used to its features. Not so bad for most of them, but I remember struggling with the mouse’s wall climb and its sword the size of a friggin’ toothpick, I swear. Lots of rewards can be found through exploration as well. There’s a number of gameplay flaws lifted from the title it remakes, such as the lack of checkpoints, our sword’s hitbox, some physics, and (the worst in my opinion) how the game handles invincibility frames after getting hit, often trapping the player in an inescapable series of blows while they stand there in their “hurt” sprite.

Putting those flaws aside, if the goal was to be faithful to the original game, then that’s a success – and the game is still pretty fun and engaging.

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is available on Steam for 19.99$ USD.