Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap

I read an article about the studio re-making this game and their commitment to honoring the original. In terms of visuals and sound, this game is an absolute treat; the cartoon re-design is utterly charming, and the music is well-orchestrated and catchy. If you've played platform games both of Wonder Boy's era and in the last ten years, though, you will probably find a laundry list of less-than-welcome reminders of how far the genre has come. Slippery movement, significant pauses to change direction, a need to get a running start to get any sort of horizontal movement in your jump (a fact the game's hazards and enemies are happy to exploit), a need to "grind" through lesser monsters to earn coins for new equipment and a few design choices that range from slapstick to downright cruel: coins that bounce out of reach before vanishing within seconds, an invincibility stun-lock during which bosses can bounce you all the way across the screen with their attacks, a hit-box on your attacks so small that you can miss something that's literally on top of you, and the "curse" that appears after bosses and cuts off your ability to actually get the coins fountaining from the site of that boss' defeat (which caught me flat-footed the first couple of times and then chased me around so much that it was incredibly difficult to get any REWARD for that hard-fought boss encounter thereafter.) Again, this isn't the fault of the re-make's creators; these were features of the original game, and by all accounts, they've actually smoothed out a few of the game's rougher edges (such as actually TELLING the player the benefit of a particular item rather than making them figure it out through trial and error). The game is charming, and even kind of fun once you get used to some of its quirks and make allowances for some others. It's just that, in the present day, games like Shantae and Steamworld:Dig have shown that games can challenge without punishing you on the design/control level.

The work done on the remake is nothing short of awesome. Among other things I'm really impressed by the way animations are far more detailed than the original while maintaining perfect consistency with the timings and collisions. The game is guaranteed 100% un-retouched in terms of gameplay. So you get to taste the original flavor, be warned. Yes, even landing a single blow is not always easy. Yes, you - the player - are supposed to be precise and to stay focused. Don't fret, you will be rewarded, those mechanics are rock solid. Just get the hang of it ! I can understand this is not for everybody. The level design is great overall... It brings a very good pace for action while encouraging exploration (and trying to fall in every pit) but... how do I put it ? There is also this "and now what ?" factor... Typical 8bit era I guess. Does it prevent me to rate it 5 stars ??? Apparently not :P

I was attracted to this game by the high quality hand drawn art and animation. Unfortunately the game looks much better than it plays. It feels more like a mid 2000s browser flash game than a modern platformer. The controls are extremely clunky. Every surface feels like the character is sliding on ice and the hitboxes seem to extend several pixels beyond the boundary of every sprite. Additionally, though the animation is very fluid, little quirks really spoil the flow, like how when the character attacks in midair, it's the same sprite as when the character is standing with their feet planted on the ground. Needs a little more work before I can give this game a good review.

The remade graphics are gorgeous - lovely animations, great music. Everything else about it is terrible though. Repetitive, barebones level design and enemies with all the flaws and issues you would expect from a game that is effectively a Master System game with a lovely graphics frontend over the top. If you were to play it in the original graphics, you could forgive it for its retro charm and chalk it up to "well that's just what it was like back then" but if anything the remade graphics and animations drive home how barebones and antiquated the level design and mechanics are. Get it for the visuals if you must, just don't expect decent gameplay.

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a remake of 1989's Wonder Boy III for the Sega Master System and Game Gear. Lizardcube did an amazing job of re-drawing the art and re-composing the music, while staying faithful to the original. Everything you will see on-screen has been re-drawn by hand and the music was redone with instruments played by actual musicians. Looking at the game being played, you would never think this was a nearly 30-year old game. That said, there is a caveat. While the sound and art assets were completely redone, the gameplay was left completely untouched. This means no tutorials, no in-game messages and only a few visual hints to point you in the right direction. I found myself aimlessly wondering the levels more than once, because I had no idea where to go and at some point I had to resort to looking up a walkthrough. Nevertheless, good times were had. The game also does not overstay its welcome. I finished the game in a little over 7 hours, but you can easily beat in two hours or so, if you know what you're doing and where to go (which I didn't on both counts). Highly recommended.