Be prepared to relive a classic with a new shine – Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is here! You’ll get to see it either in a beautiful hand-drawn style, or in all of it’s original pixelated glory. The choice is yours. Come. Check our Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap review!

 

Boasting beautiful, hand-drawn animations and a re-orchestrated soundtrack, the cult classic returns with a unique blend of exploration, action, and adventure!
Cursed into a half-human, half-lizard monstrosity by the Meka-Dragon, you are in search for a cure! The only way you can return to human form is to find the Salamander Cross, a magical item with the power to remove curses…
With each dragon slain, the curse intensifies, transforming you into different animals! Explore large, interconnected locations populated with grumpy monsters and exotic dragons!
Play as the game’s classic character, Hu-Man, or as his brand-new, long-awaited co-star Hu-Girl. You can also inhabit Lizard-Man, Mouse-Man, Piranha-Man, Lion-Man, and Hawk-Man, and use their unique abilities to uncover the land’s deepest secrets.
Enjoy 3 difficulty levels catering to players of all types, and switch from modern graphics and sound to 8-bit graphics/audio at any time – even during gameplay!

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap – Wonder Girl Trailer | PS4

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is a remake of a title that originally released on the Sega Master System, the Game Gear, and TurboGrafx-16. Since I was a Nintendo kid when I was younger, I never actually got any SEGA hardware, so this is my first foray into the series. The game can be played in it’s new and enhanced hand-drawn graphics or by using the original 8-Bit art from the title, all with the click of a button.

As it is a remake of the original title, it feels very old-school in terms of its gameplay. It’s an adventure platformer with a bit of a Metroidvania feel. The game actually starts you off as a human as you go after the evil Meka-Dragon. After you think you’ve beaten him, you are turned into a lizard creature. This is when the game properly beings as you set out into the world to free yourself from this curse. As you beat more Dragons across the land, you gain access to skills that transform you into other creatures. Each has their own abilities, so you need to use them to cross the world and find the cross that will remove the curse put upon you.

You’ll need to play the game for a bit before things click since the gameplay is pretty much the same as what it used to be like back in the day. The game can feel quite unforgiving when playing it, but once you start to get into the grove of how your characters attack and jump, your skills will certainly improve.

The transformations you unlock as you progress in the game include a mouse knight, a lizard, a lion, a hawk and more. Each one will gift you with different abilities allowing you to progress further in the game. Each one plays a little bit differently. It’s not a very complicated game, but it’s certainly a fun one.

The world looks gorgeous with all the new hand-drawn visuals, not to mention how everything has been changed from 4:3 to 16:9! Each character has a unique look thanks to the change in visual art style. The world looks great, whether you are in the castles, town, deserts, or underwater. As you toggle between the original version and the current updated version you can see the care the developers took in developing this title for PlayStation 4.

The music is great and has been updated to give us a solid new take on the original soundtrack. I spent some time playing in 8-Bit mode while listening to the original soundtrack, and I appreciate how the music was revamped as a companion to the new hand-drawn graphics. The trackas are fun and upbeat and perfectly match the action.

The game has a bunch of trophies, but no Platinum. All of the trophies will be unlocked if you beat all of the game’s bosses and find the secret rooms for each character, so it’s not too hard. You also need to do one run in Hard Mode, so good luck with that one since the game is already hard on its own without having to play in Hard Mode!

Final Thoughts

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is a great remake of a beloved classic. It’s a great game, but as a direct remake, the gameplay does seem a bit old-school. I would love to see a new fresh game in the series… and it seems I’ll be getting my wish soon thanks to Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, which is a spiritual successor to Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap. It is being developed by Game Atelier and will be published by FDG Entertainment on PS4, so be sure to get Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap today to prepare you for that one as well!

Disclaimer
This Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap review is based on a PS4 copy provided by DOTEMU.

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