Pros: AKA Wonder Boy III the Dragon's Trap, is an adventurous platformer puzzle game that has you transforming into different animal warriors to pull off different moves, attacks, and abilities, as you travel a somewhat seamless world, advancing forwards towards the end. It's a bit basic, but man, they actually got something here! It's a satisfying exploration type of game, with some light RPG elements. A man, a mouse, a dragon, a fish, a bird, and a lion, all have their own quirks (mouse can walk on certain walls and ceilings, dragon can breathe fire, bird can glide, etc) with tight controls, rock solid hit boxes, and some tough challenges. Also fun little bits of character, like the shopkeepers being eyepatch wearing pigs, that smoke cigs. But what I liked the most about this game, were the incredibly addicting little melodies, the music! The tunes would get stuck in my head, to the point where I had to learn how to play them on the piano, and I'm not somebody who plays musical instruments... they're just that catchy!

Cons: The graphics are a bit, well, ugly? Yeah, they're basic and simple, to the point where I have a hard time looking at what's on screen sometimes, but hey, it's all perfectly playable, everything sticks to a grid nicely, and is understood by the player. Also, it takes quite a few more hits to kill several foes, more hits than I enjoy it taking... Not to mention those sword swings feel so dang puny. Additionally, it's best to just play the remake/remaster of this game that released in the current gen, with completely rehauled visuals, watercolor style. A beautiful remake, animated and lively, it's the way to play this game.

What it means to me: This was one of those discoveries on the Wii Virtual Console, and for me, it was an unknown, nobody recommended it to me or anything. Just was cravin' more games in the early Wii years, and this one filled the bill, I had a great time with it!