While the name Wonder Boy will mean little to absolutely nothing to a lot of younger gamers nowadays, to those much like me who found the hobby within the 8- and 16-bit days, it may bring back a lot of memories. Crafted by Japanese developer Escape (who later became Westone Bit Entertainment), the sweetness Boy franchise grew from the arcade roots into a deeper, more complicated adventure series whose challenges were only topped by trying to help keep tabs on which games were which (thanks to confusing name conventions and ports that at times changed graphical elements or even the main character).
The game in the future for the reason that transition from quarter munchers to password-powered adventures was Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. In an interesting twist, it begins throughout the ending segment of the previous chapter-Wonder Boy in Monster Land-as our hero is battling its predecessor's end boss, the Meka Dragon. Killing him, however, leads to surprise side effect: you're placed directly under a curse, turning you into the reptilian Lizard Man. To be able to break the curse, you will need to defeat another dragons ruling over the land to obtain a holy relic called the Salamander Cross. Of course, doing this isn't going to be easy-and to get at each successive dragon, you'll have to master other animal forms as well as their special abilities: Mouse Man together with his small size and wall-walking powers; Piranha Man, who can move about much more easily in water: Lion Man, with his stronger attacks; and Hawk Man, who can fly to previously-unreachable areas.
To be truthful, I am not sure I've touched Wonder Boy III much since I first played it back on the Master System in 1989, and I was honestly surprised when LizardCube announced that they'd be doing a remake of the game. I remembered enjoying it for what it had been, but couldn't help wondering why they hadn't instead picked among the later games in the series (specifically Wonder Boy in Monster World or Monster World IV). After playing this updated version of Wonder Boy III, however, I now understand why: because attempting to put this work load right into a bigger game may have been overwhelming for a team this size.
Simply put, the quantity of love and a focus that's gone into this remake is staggering, and that starts with its gorgeous art style. We have seen plenty of tries to HD-ify older sprite-based games at this point-all to varying degrees of success-but I'm being honest when I say that Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (the Roman numeral is dropped out of this version for clarification) is definitely one of the best efforts That i have ever seen released. Below, you can observe a visual comparison between your 8-bit original and LizardCube's version, but it is not merely a case of “more” in terms of the graphics here. It's the choices which were made, the imagining of the items these areas would look like had the hardware been more capable, and the artistry of filling out the blank spaces or replacing the pixels that previously existed. Studio MDHR's upcoming Cuphead has shown us how beautiful and lively 2D gaming can still seem in an era of cheaply-produced and poorly-animated offerings, and that i think Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap deserves to stand right beside it. (Incidentally, as i reviewed the game on PlayStation 4, I additionally tried the Switch version-and it looks fantastic on that smaller screen.)
Audio-wise, the game's soundtrack has been reworked wonderfully, with orchestrated pieces that pay homage as to the came before while raising those tracks one step further. Obviously, if you want to remember how things were in the traditional days, both visuals and audio can be independently swapped to their original versions at any time. While much of the game remains exactly how my brain remembered it, the team at LizardCube did make several slight tweaks for that better. I'd rather not spoil things too much for returning players; just realize that what was a cumbersome aspect in the original has been exchanged for a more interesting group of new content. Plus, while it doesn't affect gameplay in any way, the team added a Wonder Girl that players can choose rather than the default Wonder Boy, that was a really nice (and appreciated) touch. I also can't forget to say that-in a wild twist-Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap was coded in order that it couldn't only accept passwords in the 1989 form of the sport, but even generate passwords in the new game that can be used within the original. (Its not all consumable item will transfer over in exactly the same quantities, but all major unlockables will be there, which is just so ridiculously cool.)
What's interesting is the fact that, in the end, it is the original game that sometimes fails the team updating it for any new generation of players, and not the other way round. There's no two ways about this: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is very much a game from 1989, warts and all sorts of. While it remains an incredibly playable game-to the reality that I was legitimately surprised by how fun it still is-it's also not as friendly as projects made in the modern era. So, people who didn't grow up on this kind of stuff may feel it's sometimes unfair in its difficulty or expectations of skill.
There's a pleasant diversity within the places you will be exploring (particularly with their fresh coat of paint), but the game is also relatively short and small in scope. (I beat it in seven hours, but I'm expecting it will be more around four to five if you don't fall under the completionist mentality like I did). One of the best parts of the game-the animal forms-continues to become a nice twist, and I'd swear most of them feel good gameplay-wise thanks to the game's updated character sprites and animations. Unfortunately, though, Mouse Man and his near-worthless attack range continues to be rage-inducing garbage.
Even basically didn't understand LizardCube's desire to bring back this middle chapter of the Wonder Boy saga initially, I came to really appreciate their decision, even past the “it was really doable” part of the process. While Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap does seem like a relic of a bygone era a lot more than If only it did, more often than not, this is an adventure that's held up far better over the years of computer had any to. With the effort that LizardCube has put in freshening the game up, you could even at times believe that it was actually an indie project conceived at some stage in the last few years like a tribute to similar classic platformers. While it isn't always perfect, also it might not be a great fit to younger players who have now come to expect certain luxuries, Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is not just proof that the nearly 30-year-old game can nonetheless be worth returning to play, but exactly how special and worthwhile games like those can feel when put into both your hands of people that care.
