Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a remake of the original Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, with gameplay reverse engineered from the original Master System code and brand new hand-drawn graphics and musical rearrangements.
Set immediately after the events of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, players control an adventurer who, upon defeating the Meka Dragon, has become afflicted with a curse turning them into a Lizard-Man. The player must journey across the world and defeat all the other dragons in the land in order to return to human form. Like in the original game, players explore various lands, defeating enemies to earn items, such as arrows and fireballs, and money which can be used to purchase new weapons and armor.
Over the course of the game, the player gains new animals forms, each with new abilities allowing for additional exploration. These include Lizard-Man, who can spit fire, Mouse-Man, who can climb on marked blocks, Piranha-Man, who can swim underwater, Lion-Man, who can strike overhead and below with a single attack, and Hawk-Man, who can fly through the air.
Changes from the original game[]
The changes listed below are relative to the Master System version. Except for the removal of Charm Points and the functioning of the Tasmanian Sword, none of the changes introduced in the Game Gear version were retained.
Engine and gameplay[]
- The game offers four difficulty modes.
- It is possible to play as a female character named Wonder Girl (whose species is identified as "Hu-Girl", not "Hu-Man"), which also alters the game's title.
- Games can be properly saved now instead of using passwords, which could only record an approximate state. The game also accepts passwords from the original game and can even issue passwords compatible with the original.
- The graphics and audio can be independently toggled between modern and retro styles, the latter of which includes additional settings such as visual filters and an FM audio option.
- In the original, the player keeps the full eight-heart health gauge during the entire playable intro. In the remake, the gauge drops from eight to one during the transformation into Lizard-Man.
- Charm Stones have been completely removed from normal gameplay, with the treasure chests containing them in the original game giving out money bags instead, and were repurposed as rare collectables (see Locations below). Getting all six of them unlocks shortcuts to the bosses, same as collecting 99 Charm Stones in the original.
- The pause menu can be accessed during boss fights. In the original, pressing Pause/Start during boss battles uniquely paused the game.
- Making use of more available buttons, the remake moves the use of items to a dedicated button. L and R buttons can be used to changed the currently equipped item. Unlike the original game, the remake allows equipping depleted items, but also makes it impossible to not have an item equipped.
- Upon buying a new piece of equipment, if it is more efficient than the current one, it will be automatically equipped.
- The Thunder Saber is replaced with the Thunder Ring. Its slot in the menu is occupied by the new Gallic Sword, which is sold right before the entrance to the Underground and uniquely requires four Charm Stones to purchase.
- On the armor list, Dragon Mail and Samurai Armor's slots are swapped.
Locations[]
- Six mini-dungeons called The Unknown were added to the game. Each mini-dungeon contains a series of trials suited to one of Book's forms and forces Book into a specific form upon entering it. A Charm Stone is gathered at the end of each one of these dungeons.
- Some locations were altered to include entrances to the Unknown:
- A door was added at the rightmost spot in the Desert's underwater area, giving access to Lizard-Man's Unknown.
- A secret path was added to the Underground, giving access to Mouse-Man's Unknown.
- A platform and a hidden door were added to the underwater area at the Beach, giving access to Piranha-Man's Unknown.
- Still in the underwater area at the Beach, a portion of terrain was made destructible. Once broken through, it leads to Lion-Man's Unknown.
- The wall at the rightmost part of the Volcano does not go all the way up to the top of the screen. Flying past it leads to Hawk-Man's Unknown.
- The hidden door in the Town seen in the ending cut scene becomes available and leads to Hu-Man's Unknown once the game is finished or at least four Charm Stones are obtained.
- In Meka Dragon's castle (named Last Dungeon during the intro and Old castle upon revisits), the first map has a much higher ceiling, since the remake re-imagines it as the castle's outside/entrance. The second map has an added Fire Stone. The green Cyclops that appears after defeating the Meka Dragon and is guaranteed to give out a big heart in the original gives out a Fireball instead. The enemies on the last screen give out money, which they don't do in the original game.
- In the original, revisiting a dungeon and opening the door to a defeated Dragon's room immediately leads the player outside. In the remake, the player appears in an empty and silent boss room instead, where a new door leads the player outside.
- In the original, the Meka Dragon's boss room gets replaced with a small room when the player returns there to get the Legendary Sword. In the remake, the treasure chest appears in the boss room which gets to keep its size and aspect.
- The underwater area before the Tower has a new hidden door which leads to the enclosed space with the cyclops.
Illustration Gallery[]
Background Gallery[]
Soundtrack Gallery[]
Screenshot Gallery[]
Videos[]
