Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (Review)

By: EyeSpyeAlexI’m switching gears and reviewing a new video game – Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap. Perfect for flashback Friday, Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is a remake of the classic Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, which came out on Sega in 1989. The remake boasts new hand-drawn graphics, along with new musical rearrangements of the classic soundtrack.For those unfamiliar with the original, you play as an adventurer traveling the land and slaying dragons. The most recent dragon you slay transforms your character into a humanoid dragon. From there, you travel through different lands, turning into different creatures, and try to become human again. The only problem with Wonder Boy is there is no discernible story. I spent a lot of time wandering around and trying to figure out what to do to progress the plot. Similar to Mega-Man – I am certain there is an order to unlock characters in to beat the game easily. I just couldn’t figure it out.A new benefit of the remake is getting to choose whether to play as a girl or boy adventurer. I chose to play as a girl and was surprised to find that the title of the game changed from Wonder Boy to Wonder Girl.Overall, the controls were easy to manage on the Playstation. Your character has the option of cycling through special attacks which can be earned upon killing enemies – such as a boomerang, tornado, and fireball. A cool feature of gameplay is pressing the right button allows players to cycle between the remastered and original graphics. On top of that, players have the option to listen to the remastered and original soundtrack while playing. I switched between both and was happy with my choices.While the game may have new and shiny graphics and music, it kept the same difficulty level of the classic game. There is thankfully a save feature, but it’s only for saving your overall progress. You don’t even need to remember a cheat code to get to it (looking at Punch Out). However, there are no checkpoints in level, which proves to be extremely frustrating.The lack of in-level saves is especially frustrating due to the skewed damage your main character can take. Certain enemies can cause near negligible damage, while others can kill you if you run into them. The enemies also vary in type: red, blue, green, and humanoid being. The humanoid villains are nigh impossible to kill, requiring at least 6 to 10 hits. The different colored enemies can take anywhere from 1 to 4 hits.If you’re looking for a game to fill your nostalgia void, Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is perfect for you. It comes with all the things – both good and bad – that come with playing older games. If you’re looking for a game that’s easy to pick up and put down, this game is also for you. If you’re looking for a game that has an easily followed storyline, I would keep looking.[yasr_multiset setid=2]