Lizard-Man Strikes Back: Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap Review

Back in the 80s when Mega Man and the older Zelda games were all the rage, there was a lesser known yet beloved classic, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon Trap. Released in 1989 for the Sega MasterSystem, Wonder Boy III never really got the attention it deserved. So in 2017, Lizardcube and DotEmu has decided to bring back this classic, with fully updated hand-drawn visuals and enhanced audio, and turns out that this Metroidvania style platformer still holds up really well.

You play as Wonder Boy, or, as is the option in the modern remake, as Wonder Girl. After being cursed by a dragon, you turn into a lizard-man/woman, and spend the rest of the game trying to regain your original form and defeat the dragon. The plot is simplistic, but it puts that simplicity to great use in designing an interesting gameplay mechanism. As is the case in Metroidvania style games, new areas of the map open up to exploration as you gain new skills and abilities. In Wonder Boy you unlock abilities as you beat bosses (also dragons), and then you are able to change your form into other other creatures. Becoming a mouse allows you to scale walls, as a hawk you can fly, or you get strong attack capabilities as a lion. Other animals also give you specific abilities, but the overall aim is always to be able to advance to new levels and overcome their respective challenges.

The game’s several areas are all connected to a central hub, and if you die at any point, you will be returned to the hub. The game lacks a modern save system, instead every time you die you are returned to the hub and you make your way all over again. This would have been frustrating in a modern game, but Wonder Boy’s world isn’t as expansive, so this never takes much away from the fun of playing the game. Also, if you remember the save passwords from back in the day, they will still work.

Given that the map isn’t too big, exploring every nook and cranny pays off as you keep finding new items often. Some of the merchants who will sell you high end gear are also often hidden away in the world, and so are permanent health boosts, and so on. If you die on the way, any items you find stay with you, even as you respawn at the central hub, so going at it again becomes a little easier with the upgrades on hand. Make no mistake, Wonder Boy is a tough game, specially towards the second half where knowing which creature to play as is the key to making your journey somewhat easier. You will still die a lot, but when the going gets tough, you can always turn on easy mode, or if you’re feeling masochistic, turn on hard mode, which comes with a timer.

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is a work of love, which is clear through the amount of visual details and audio enhancements added in the remake. The hand drawn art style is absolutely gorgeous, and one of the best I have seen in a video game. The contrast is even starker when you switch to the original graphics, which you can on-the-fly with the press of a button. Remember how when you played games back in the day, and because of the lack of graphical prowess, most of the details in the game world would be imagined in your head. The remake is that exact imagination brought lovingly to life. Where earlier there’d be an 8-bit rendition of a nurse with a minimal buy/sell interface, now there’s a fully realized rendition of a doctor’s office with the nurse sitting back on a huge recliner with a friendly smile on her face.

Small as the overall map size might be, every area is filled with vibrant and colorful detail, and they all feel different from each other The attention to detail put into recreating every area in the game is simply fascinating. Every time I switch back to the old graphics I am left more impressed with how much of a lovingly created remake this is. Other remasters have also come recently (Full Throttle Remastered come to mind, which I have been playing recently, and is pretty damn good), but nothing comes close to how much of a visual upgrade Wonder Boy is. Similar treatment has been given to the audio as well. The soundtrack has been enhanced and expanded on using real instruments played by composers Michael Geyre and Romain Gauthier. You can always switch back and forth between the old visuals and audio, and the new one. You can even mix it up so as to have the new audio play on the older graphics and vice versa. In the age of needless and lazy remasters, Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is an absolute delight.

If you have enjoyed old school platformers and Metroidvania style games, and have been enjoying the recent resurgence of these games in the form of remakes or remasters, Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is made specially for you. It may not have all the bells and whistles of a modern platformer, but it’s a shining example of what made that genre great in the first place. Catering to those with a nostalgia for 8-bit games, and for those looking to be charmed by a challenging and fun game, Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap sets the bar for upcoming old school remasters.

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