Game Review – Wonderboy: The Dragon’s Trap

All remasters need an ‘insta-swap tohow it looked and sounded in the olden days’ function. We love it so much. We gleefully fiddle with that crap like a kid who’s just discovered electric windows. This function serves Wonderboy III particularly well, because the differences are so pronounced. They remade *the hell* out of this thing.

One second you’re cutting your eyes on the original 8-bit Master System graphics, the next you’re gawping at the sort of lavishly animated sprites that’d make even the artisans at Ubisoft Montpellier moist. Same deal with the audio. One click of a button and you’ve gone from the quaint chip-tunes that must have sent an entire generation of parents insane, to a funky modern remix.

The game itself holds up remarkably well, too, and a lot of the original’s cleverness has withstood the test of time. For example, the game throws you right in the deep end by re-fighting the final boss of the last game, but, plot-twist, he turns you into an animal.

Wonderlizard III wouldn’t have had the same brand recognition, back in the day. That said, you’ll spend most of this adventure not in your boy form. As this short adventure progresses, you’ll acquire the forms of Mouse (wall-walk), Piranha (access underwater secrets), Lion (opens up offensive moves) and Hawk (fly about, but get drowned easy). That’s a lot of variety, and the platforming is still razor sharp.

The things that grate are few, but they’re worth mentioning for modern audiences who go in expecting their butts to be wiped. Being left aimless in a non-linear world is the biggest speed bump for newcomers to the genre. That said, if you can show patience, or are accustomed to the sucker punches that come with games designed from a time before the space shuttle blew up, Wonderboy is just fine.

What you should focus on is how much love has been lavished upon this. It’s bordering on obscene. For retro gamers, this is a wonder worth every single coin they’ve been harbouring. Modern folks should get in touch with their heritage and become trapped by this delightful time capsule also.

Score: 8/10

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