Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is a gorgeous 2D game that still has some of the archaic design choices of the original 1989 version. I will go into more detail about that soon, but I want to go over the positives first since even with some of the archaic design choices, this is still a good game.
Anyone who sees Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap in action will compliment the art style and animation. It looks fantastic and the animation is smooth like butter. I would not mind a series of shorts with this animation style.
The music, while not that memorable, is still good. I ended up humming the town theme while exploring the town multiple times in my playthrough.
The story and gameplay are basic, but I expected that since this was originally a game from 1989 made on the Sega Master System. I like the different transformations the protagonist can obtain. My favorites are the Lizard-Man, Lion-Man, and Hawk-Man. The controls can get a little slippery when dealing with tiny platforms, so watch out for that.
The game has so much going for it, but an archaic design choice is still persistent even in this remake: The lack of a map. The game requires the player to do loads of exploration if they want to get health upgrades or new weapons, but the lack of a map makes it difficult. I found it really easy to get lost, so I had to look up a walkthrough to see where I needed to go. I do not understand why a map system was not included in this remake. This reminded me of the original Metroid and one of the reasons why I dropped that game is the lack of a map system. I have not played Metroid: Zero Mission, but that game has a map from what I gather and that is a remake of the original Metroid. What is Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap’s excuse for the lack of a map?
Another archaic design choice I do not like is that if you die, you are sent back to the town. I do not like this feature in this game or any other game. Send me back to the last door I opened instead.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is a good game unfortunately hampered with archaic design choices. The lack of a map is a major issue for a game that requires the player to do loads of exploration. That alone is preventing this game from being great.
Anyone who sees Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap in action will compliment the art style and animation. It looks fantastic and the animation is smooth like butter. I would not mind a series of shorts with this animation style.
The music, while not that memorable, is still good. I ended up humming the town theme while exploring the town multiple times in my playthrough.
The story and gameplay are basic, but I expected that since this was originally a game from 1989 made on the Sega Master System. I like the different transformations the protagonist can obtain. My favorites are the Lizard-Man, Lion-Man, and Hawk-Man. The controls can get a little slippery when dealing with tiny platforms, so watch out for that.
The game has so much going for it, but an archaic design choice is still persistent even in this remake: The lack of a map. The game requires the player to do loads of exploration if they want to get health upgrades or new weapons, but the lack of a map makes it difficult. I found it really easy to get lost, so I had to look up a walkthrough to see where I needed to go. I do not understand why a map system was not included in this remake. This reminded me of the original Metroid and one of the reasons why I dropped that game is the lack of a map system. I have not played Metroid: Zero Mission, but that game has a map from what I gather and that is a remake of the original Metroid. What is Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap’s excuse for the lack of a map?
Another archaic design choice I do not like is that if you die, you are sent back to the town. I do not like this feature in this game or any other game. Send me back to the last door I opened instead.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is a good game unfortunately hampered with archaic design choices. The lack of a map is a major issue for a game that requires the player to do loads of exploration. That alone is preventing this game from being great.