Wonderboy III: The Dragon's Trap - Review

Author: Si_vincent Date: Mar 22 2006 - 09:14 Score: 20 points

This is a neat platformer with a little Zelda thrown in, and I remember it from back when I had a Master System of my own, as a kid of nine or ten.
You control the Wonderboy of the title, with sword, armour and magic as you fight through various levels. find keys, earn gold to buy upgrades to your kit, and defeat big bad bosses.
The first level should be something of a stroll and introduce you to what you'll be doing throughout the game. Navigate the maze of passageways, killing the bad guys along the way, who will sometimes drop powerups -gold coins, magic spells or health, until you reach the defender of the castle, a mechanical Dragon. defeat him, and you'll undergo a transformation....from simple Wonderboy into a firebreathing lizard...and then it's into the game proper.
One thing that makes this game stand out from the Castlevania style platformers is the various RPG type elements introduced. You collect gold, and can enter shops where you can upgrade your weapons and armour, you have a number of different spells which act like special attacks, and you can also return to areas where you've already been, adding a little exploration into the mix.
It's bright, colourful and engaging. The ability to play for continues when you die in a roulette wheel style gamble is nice, and there are even level codes to preserve your progress, so you don't lose that set of Adamantium armour you saved so hard for. There's a range of things to buy, a nice bunch of spells, and lots of little touches that make this great fun to play. All in all, a sparkling little title that made me wish I still had my old Master System.

I tested this game using Dega (available on this site), and it ran fine -keys being the arrow keys to move, Z to fire, X to jump and C is the 'menu' button. You enter doors buy holding the 'up' key next to them, and fire selected spells buy holding 'own' and pressing jump.

	Title / Type	Submitter	Date
	Review	Si_vincent	Mar 22 2006

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