Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap is a platformer developed by Westone and published by SEGA in 1989 for the SEGA Master System console. It's the sequel to Wonder Boy in Monster Land and the third chapter of the Wonder Boy saga. If the first game was an 8-bit exclusive, the sequel was ported to many 16-bit consoles and computers, including Amiga and Genesis. Instead, Wonder Boy III returned to its roots with a Master System exclusive release. Only later, it was ported to the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine. Unlike many other series, with Wonder Boy each episode is better than the others.

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap starts as a normal platformer, but after the first level, gameplay becomes nonlinear. The hero must travel to different worlds, collecting items and solving puzzles to proceed with the story. A perfect example of metroidvania genre. After the initial human form, your character will transform into a lizard-man, and later into different human/animal hybrids. Each form will have different powers, making everything more interesting. There are also some RPG elements: even if the hero cannot advance in levels, you can purchase armor and weapons to become more powerful.

Wonder Boy 3 is definitely the most interesting of the three episodes and it’s one of the most appreciated Master System games ever. Try it and you will see.