A modern remake of the 1989 Sega Master System action-platformer Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap is releasing this Spring. Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on April 18. It’s also coming to Steam PC “later this Spring.”
Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap recreates the colorful side-scrolling world of the old Wonder Boy series. The hero of previous Wonder Boy games has been cursed into a half-dragon form. He must journey to different lands and slay dragons in search of a cure. Along the way he’ll learn new half-animal forms with new abilities. Piranha-Man can swim underwater while Mouse-Man can run up certain walls. A total of six forms can be unlocked.
Developer Lizardcube describes the gameplay as “if Zelda, Metroid and Mario had a love child.” The Wonder Boy series are like proto-Metroidvania with a mix of RPG and platforming within a large interconnected world.
A Retro Feature trailer (above) shows the nifty ability to switch the graphics between the original 8-bit game and the modern HD remake with a single button press. You can also switch freely between HD or 8-bit audio.
The remake was developed by new studio Lizardcube and published by DotEmu. DotEmu, a French video game studio, specializes in modern remakes of retro games. Their previous work has helped bring many older series over to mobile, such as Final Fantasy and Titan Quest, as well as launching Heroes of Might and Magic III HD.
I never played Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap but I did play the next game in the series, 1991’s Wonder Boy in Monster World, and it remains one of my all-time favorite titles for the Sega Genesis.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap launches on April 18.
