Wonder Boy 3 : The Dragon's Trap

Wonder Boy 3 :  The Dragon's Trap Console-Sega Master System Year-1989 Developer-Westone Publisher - Sega Genre-Platform/RPG After a mediocre sequel to the original Wonder Boy in Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair, Monster Land needed it's own sequel. What came was the confusingly titled Wonder Boy III: Dragon's Trap. Let's just drop the Wonder Boy title completely and call it Monster Land 2, which it is. To follow the fantastic platformer Monster Land, we were treated to Dragon's Trap, regarded by many to be one of , if not the best game on the Master System. It definitely is a step up from its predecessor, in almost every way and paves the way for the excellent games to come in the series.   GAMEPLAY Taking place directly after Monster Land; akin to Dracula X and Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Dragon's Trap leads off where the last game ended. You traverse the last castle in search of the Mecca Dragon; fortunately you can't get lost in it this time, and it's quite quick to get to the boss, not to mention you'd find yourself hard pressed to die at the boss since your character is damn near immortal. Once you defeat the Dragon, he curses you! You turn into a Dragon yourself, and you can even breath fire! Pretty cool if you ask me. After, you must escape the castle as it is falling apart. Eventually you find yourself in the game's starting town. Right of the bat you'll find yourself with a password save house, which comes in handy. Say what you want about passwords, but at least you CAN continue your game later because of them. In town there are weapons and armor to buy, a hospital to top up your health and various pathways to start your game. You start with one heart piece, but quickly you find yourself a second in town. Throughout the game these heart pieces are hidden in not-very-hard-to-find places and are much needed to progress successfully. There are many shops in the game that have various weapons and armor for you to buy but there is a catch, and it brings upon the most annoying part of the game. To buy higher end equipment, you need what is called “charm points”. Depending on how lucky you are, this can be extremely aggravating as you will need to grind for these points at some point in the game. They drop off of enemies rarely, but also some equipment raises your charm. There was only one point in the game that this gave me trouble, but it caused hours of frustration. As you progress and beat Dragon's, they turn you into various animals; a mouse, a lizard, a lion and an eagle. Each transformation lets you access different paths in the game, or find secrets that only one form can allow. Early in the game you can only stay in the form you're cursed with by the Dragon boss, but later you find transformation pads, and there is one hidden in town. Not finding this hidden transformation room right away also caused a bit of frustration as I thought I literally got myself stuck in the game. You never get to be your hu-man form in the game however, unless you input a special password, or use a secret with a sword you get in the game. The sword however ruins a bit of the puzzles in the game and I don't recommend using it unless you want to just mess around. Dragon's Trap has very solid, fluid controls, I never once had a problem with them. The menu screen can also be accessed by plugging in a second controller and pressing the d-pad any direction. In the menu screen you can select your equipment and magic, and see how much attack, defense and charm points you have currently. I honestly never used any magic during the game, as I found it kind of pointless. I'm sure some sections would have been easier if I had used magic, but I did just find with just my sword. Like Monster Land, learning how to tackle areas by trial and error is key. The game is not too hard, especially if you have upgraded equipment, but has the right amount of challenge to not be too easy. The game is made a bit easier by exploiting the treasure chest, as they usually refill themselves when you enter a new password to continue a game. GRAPHICS Dragon's Trap is not one of the best looking games on the Master System, that title is held by later games that pushed the Master System to the 16-bit breaking point, but for 1989 it sure was pretty. It's a very vibrant, colourful and interesting world. For such a serious story about curses and vampire dragons, it sure is darn cute! All of the characters you turn into are nicely detailed, well animated, and made to look quite huggable, I'm not sure if this was the point but I want to have plushies of each transformation. Most of the enemies have recoloured versions as is common for the time in games, so you'll be seeing a lot of snakes and ogres. Every area of the game has its own style and setting, including a Pyramid level, a sunken ship, and a Japanese temple. These levels are well designed and thought out, although they can be on the repetitive side, and get a bit tedious when you die and have to come back.   SOUND Some of the catchiest tunes of the series make their appearance in Dragon's Trap, especially the brilliant Desert theme that plays on your trip to the Pyramid level to fight the Mummy Dragon. All of the music in the game is quite catchy and will quickly have you humming along. All of the sound effect in the game come through very well, easily letting you know by ear what is happening on the screen. None of them came across annoying or harsh, and fit within the game nicely. CONCLUSION While Dragon's Trap is surely one of the best on the Master System, it's sad that little know of it. Had it been on a Nintendo console, it may have been put along side the likes of Zelda and Mario, but then again the Nintendo probably couldn't of handled Dragon's Trap graphically, and would have been a serious downgrade. It is available on the virtual console, PSN and XBLA, and highly recommended as a must buy. This game is a piece of 8-bit classic history and needs to be played and known.

Wonder Boy in Monster Land

Wonder Boy in Monster Land Console-Sega Master System Year-1988 Developer-Sega Publisher - Sega Genre-Action/Adventure Ah Wonder Boy. My first real Master System game. Your creepy and almost scary looking box art holds a special place in my heart now. I both hate and love you. Seanius raves about this game so it was only natural that it be the first MS game I pick up. Well let's see how it played... GAMEPLAY Taking place 11 years after the original Wonder Boy, the main character "Tom-Tom" as his friends call him, is now a teenager. After a long while of peace, the land was taken over by a jackass dragon guy. So you set off in search of the dragon, talking to various inhabitants of Monster Land, gaining clues, and powering up. To start, this game is vastly different than its predecesor. The only thing that really is the same is a time limit. Every 60? seconds or so you lose a heart. This is probably the worst thing ever in a video game and frustrates to no end. For new-comers this is your biggest enemy in the game. Once youve gone through the game 50 times it doesn't really effect you until the last level, but more on that later. You quickly gain a sword from a ugly guy in a hut and fight a good range of monsters throughout the game. Theres armor and weapon upgrades within the game. You really have to pick and choose to get the best combination and time frame to buy these upgrades. Multiple play throughs will eventually let you find the proper order and combination. Theres boots to make you run faster and jump higher, armor to give you higher defense, shields to block enemy projectiles, and various swords. All but the swords can be bought periodically in stores, the swords however are dropped from bonus bosses. They're optional but needed if you want to beat the game really. There are 12 stages, most have a pattern of going through various sections and ending up at a boss who drops a key to exit the level. The last level however is a maze and is quite evil. This is where the time limit really comes into place and annoys the living shit out of you. This makes the game much harder than it should be, but it's still quite possible and just requires a lot of practice. That being said, this game involves a lot of trial and error. Each play-through you learn something to help you better on your next run. Every single time. There are tons of hidden spots for cash which is quite needed to buy important upgrades. It will take a lot of play-throughs to find all these spots. It takes a lot to master this game, but eventually you get to a point where you can get to level 12 every time in a good position. This game is actually loads of fun, even through monumental amounts of frustration. It's very rewarding when you find out what to do and progress farther. It's hard to really describe the difficulty of this game due to the trial-and-error type of play. While the first 11 levels seem quite easy to me, a first time player would be like, "are you kidding me? This is impossible." This game takes a lot of practice, but your feel awesome after successfully overcoming the levels in the game. The only problem is it can become tedious playing through the game to make it to the last level, only to be panic immensely during the maze and last boss. Believe me this WILL happen. There are a few issues with the game however from a technical standpoint. The first being if you pause the game for too long, the system resets itself. I'm not sure if the Master System does this for every game, or if its just Monster Land, but it is quite annoying. Two other huge issues i had were hit detection, and becoming invisible when i get hit. Sometimes i wonder what the hell is going on when my knife is clearly in a monsters face and it does no damage. This happens too often and i find myself getting too close to an enemy just to hit them and i get hit in the process. Your sword feels too short! When you do get hit, you turn invisible for a couple seconds and this can be extremely frustrating as you cant see where you are. You'll fall into lots of lava pits this way, or find yourself inside a boss and get hit again. It also makes it next to impossible to hit a monster while being invisible like this. These are small gripes however, and only increased because of frustration from other things in the game. The controls are pretty good. Sometimes you feel sluggish but thats the game mechanic anyway. I have some problems with jumping and stabbing things, but thats partially because my controllers are a little off. That story is in another article. Having the pause button on the system is a serious design flaw in the system itself, and CAN effect gameplay in Wonder Boy; but that is not a problem with the actual game obviously. GRAPHICS Wonder Boy is quite colourful and happy all around. Some cave and castle levels feel a bit recycled but other than that each stage is different and well designed. (Except that last level!) Most of everything is clear and you can tell what they are right away. It stands up for its time and while not a showcase for the Master System in terms of graphics, it holds its own. Athough still cutesy still, it does feel a bit more mature than the first Wonder Boy. In the first game it was all very happy-go-lucky. In Monster Land theres a sense of impending doom somehow. It all feels a bit darker, and thats partially because of the graphical style. It's still bright and happy looking but.. compare the two anyway. SOUND The music in Wonder Boy in Monster Land is fairly enjoyable. I've listened to it around 50 times and I'm definitely not sick of it so thats something. A few tunes are quite catchy, and the last level song is pretty cool. Although i'm wondering if the main song could of sounded a bit more epic than "happy", as it is a pretty epic adventure! The sound effects are the same way, nothing fantastic but nowhere near annoying. The sound is a huge pointer in various ways, like what item has dropped, if you hit an enemy, if you lost a heart due to time, if you gained a bonus heart and so on. Theres a sound hint for everything and helps a lot. FINAL WORD While not the best in the series, I doubt it can be said it's the worst like a comment i saw on some forum. Some have said its the "black sheep" of the series, ala Zelda 2 and Simon's Quest; but like them it's still a fun game in itself. Throughout the challenge and frustration, i still had lots of fun. It's rare I go through a game that many times to beat it, and Wonder Boy is one of those few.

SMS Review: Phantasy Star

Phantasy Star Console-Sega Master System Year-1988 Developer-Sega Publisher - Sega Genre-RPG As with Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star had the privilage of being one of the most influence RPG's of all time. Unfortunately to me, this game sure didn't stand up to time. Features that were amazing back then are headache inducing now. Keep in mind I never played this game as a youngin, so I have absolutely no nostalgia related to this game whatsoever, so it may come across as harsh. I really REALLY wanted to love this game, but it didnt live up to my high expectations. GAMEPLAY Beginning the game is a nice little cut scene showing the death of the main character's brother at the hands of the evil Lassec. He tells you to go search for Odin, and then you get control and start the game as Alis. Right away your struck by the games colourful beauty. First thing to do is to go into the building right above you, which is just a storehouse but gives you an idea of the dungeons to come. Oh but.. WHOAAAH 3333DDDDDDDD!! Yes the dungeons are done in that seudo-3D of the old days ala Wolfenstein. Only theres no decoration or anything to tell the difference of what section your in. I'm sure tons of kids drew their own maps for these dungeons whilst exploring them and essentially getting lost constantly. Anyway, you wonder around in this spaceport area talking to people figuring out where Odin is. You eventually get to a cave and find him and he joins your party. Two others join your party throughout the course of the game, and its quite fun seeing them following you around instead of magically dissapearing inside of you like the other big name console RPG. You gather weapons and armor, build yourself a ship to travel to world to world which is cool, and then face that jackass Lassec in the end. I would of like it if the world was explained a little bit better, too much in this game is too vague. I wasn't pulled into the story line enough because of this and made the game less interesting for me. Immediedly in this game you figure out its a grind fest. To get the armour and items you need you'll be constantly running around fighting monsters for cash. I'm sure this was a way to make the game seem longer than it really is as you spend 75% of your time grinding. This wore me out quickly and made everything else in the game seem more tedeious than it really was. For example, dungeons that maybe took 10 minutes of my time felt like hours while going through them. Good lord it was exciting to get my first spell. After grinding away for a few levels I finally got a heal spell! This allowed me to.... grind for longer periods of time before I had to go check in at the hospital. Yes! Whenever you get a spell you dont think, “this will help me blow shit up faster!” no. You will be thinking; “Hey this will help me grind”. Gotta love that exit spell, it made me happy while ...grinding in dungeons and needed to get out quick. Battling! What would an rpg be without battles. In Phantasy star its all in 1st person, and you only see one enemy on the screen, but in the top right corner it will tell you how many there are.. of the same monster. You only ever fight one type of monster at a time in the game. It's also random when you attack, so you cant pick off one enemy at a time. This can get really frustrating with monsters that have high damage and you cant take out one quickly first. Bosses actually arn't that hard. The more worrying factor is the monsters wearing your health down before you get to the boss. Oh and monsters drop chests every time, but sometimes they can blow up or shoot an arrow at you. This makes me sad and angry. The game can be quite merciless sometimes, although I never actually died and got a game over, it put me through so much hell that I wanted to smash things. The world however is quite open and non-linear. Well you “Go here” and “go there” but its quite vague and you explore more than go from one place to the other. And theres lots of other dungeons to go find kickass weapons in that are optional. It's fun going from planet to planet in your space shuttle. What's not fun however is the passport check. Yes theres a passport check and it pops up EVERY TIME you go to use the spaceport. Which reminds me, whenever you talk to an NPC it shows them in front of a nice background with a portrait of them. It's quite nice but sometimes a little annoying when you just wanna hear what they say and not wait for a screen to pop up for it. As with most RPG's all the options are in game at the info screen. Everything you select makes another little window pop up over the other one which can get really messy and confusing but its not too bad. You can save at any time any place which is VERY nice and can save you a great deal of backtracking. Just remember to save ALL THE TIME! GRAPHICS This game is immedietly striking in terms of colour and detail, especially if you compare it to it's rival's Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. It essentially blows them out of the water in this case. The towns and backgrounds are very pretty and colourful and not just lazily put together. Theres really not too much animation in the battles and its sort of boring in that case. For attacks you usually just see a line go across monsters or a fire cylinder flying at you or them. I do like how the characters and npcs arn't deformed, it makes the game feel a little more mature than the others, especially since right from the start someone kicks the bucket in the story. Most of the enemies in the games are recolours of other monsters and re-named. I think theres about 15 monster sprites and the rest are re-colours. It's not too bad considering the limitations of the cartridge but it's slightly cheap. SOUND Bleeps and Bloops. The sound is quite lacking and I eventually just turned it off and listened to music. The sound effects were quite annoying to me and literally gave me a headache after a while. The music is quite unremarkable and I was looking forward to some great 8-bit tunes like a lot of people had told me. Nothing really stood out to me and music is a huge part of a game for me to make it feel awesome. Some games I just keep playing because of the music and in this, it made me not want to play it. FINAL WORD I so desperately wanted to love this game since I'm a bit of a Sega fanboy, but in the end it let me down. The game looks great, it's highly influential too and I get that. Just for today's RPG gamer it doesn't fully hold up. I'd love to have had this game as a kid, then i'm sure I would have appreciated it more. I'm hoping Phantasy Star 2-4 won't let me down too! Note: The Star Wars references in this game are unbelievable. Theres Stormtroopers (see screenshots) and you can even get a Lightsaber as a weapon!