Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap Reviews
With gorgeously rendered animated visuals, an instrumental recreation of the 8-bit soundtrack, and some truly compelling Metroidvania mechanics, Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is just as good a game today as it was decades ago.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a monster of a remake. It gives a fairly forgotten gem a profound buff to let its inherent charm shine through even brighter with gorgeous artwork and music. Its animal-altering mechanic and hoards of enemies guarantee that you're in for a good, fun challenge, and while its platforming and boss fights may not have the same impact, it's no wonder why the developer saw Wonder Boy fit to return.
Hadyn received a digital copy of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap from DotEmu for review.
But through all those old-school problems, The Dragon's Trap is still a strong and engaging Metroid-esque platformer that features a pleasant interconnected world filled with areas packed with secrets and grand old-fashioned platforming. It's well worth overcoming the outmoded aspects to experience a fresher take on a great game.
The Dragon's Trap: Wonder Boy is an excellent remake of a beloved classic. The enhanced visuals and superb audio really bring the game into the modern age complementing the excellent design of the original. Unfortunately, inherited design flaws such as some obscure puzzles, imprecise hit detection, and the lack of a hints system do hold the game back. However, these issues do not detract too much from the overall experience. This modern version of a classic game will appeal to a new generation of gamers and also remind longtime fans why they fell in love with the original.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap sets the bar incredibly high for future recreations of classic games. Not only does it pay reverence to the source material in nearly every conceivable way, it also manages to modernise the original game through an astounding level of quality in presentation.
Considered to be a hidden gem that was ahead of its time, this edition is possibly the best remake of a retro game ever. A unique game with a special charm, one that is highly recommended for classic game fans and anyone looking for special experience and doesn't mind a bit of work to get there.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap should be used as a benchmark for future remakes of classic games.
With this new rendition of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, it's easy to see why so many old-school fans loved this franchise. The world design and inventory systems are well designed and the remastered visuals and audio will have you salivating. It's a blast to discover and utilize the special skill of each animal form. The whole family will have a wonderful time with this classic. (The ability to swap visuals and audio to retro at the click of a button is pretty slick too.)
Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is an astonishingly beautiful game to both look at and play. Its story is as charming as ever and the gameplay doesn’t ever over-complicate itself. The large variety of stages have enough to keep things interesting, while the amount of creatures to play as, with their unique skills, and ability to change from modern to 8-bit graphics at the touch of a button is marvellous.
Wonderboy The Dragon's Trap is one of my favourite experiences on Switch to date
I simply have to commend Lizardcube for the effort they have put into Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, even if it is a remake. A lot of other companies that remake older games can learn a thing or two from this developer. It looks great, sounds great and still plays wonderfully too. It was a great game in 1989 and whilst maybe some of that greatness has now gone, because games have simply moved on since then, it is still certainly a really fun game and one that I did not want to put down from start to finish.
A beautiful homage to a timeless platformer that packs two very distinct visions about game, art and level design. This is what remakes should aspire to be.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
A beautiful lick of paint and superb execution mean that Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is not only well worth your money, but it also feels perfectly at home on the handheld mode of Nintendo’s Switch. This love-letter to the past proves a great game forever remains a great game.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap may essentially be the same game as the original but its brand new graphics and sound make it worth checking out for existing fans and newcomers alike.
Wonder Boy is another remake of a game. It has everything 1986 classic had and adds on top of that. The game looks great, the simple gameplay is relaxing and demanding at the same time.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a fun, nostalgic romp that brings some of its legacy issues along for the ride. For those that can adapt to that, it is a great game. I am all for bringing back lesser-known titles, especially from consoles such as the Master System, as long as the same love and care is poured into them.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a well done remake of a classic action game. It allows the player to experience the game from the perspective of both the new art direction as well as the old one, making for an interesting experience.
The decision point in this game should heavily factor in how well you believe you can put up with some dated gameplay concepts against your appreciation for a game that is absolutely incredible to look at. A nifty add-on feature allows you to toggle both the graphics and the music to their original versions and play through the game that way. Even though the original look is obviously much simpler I was surprised at the level of care put into its look even way back when. If you get frustrated remember you can always look up old save codes and start out a bit more juiced up, another nice classic touch thrown in for good measure. All said, Wonder Boy is a nostalgic romp accented by a memorable reskinned look worth checking out.
Technically great remake, that didn't age well in terms of playability. For fans of the genre and historically interested people nevertheless recommendable.
Review in German | Read full review