Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, known as in Japan, is a platforming action-adventure video game developed by Westone as part of Sega's Wonder Boy series. It was published by Sega and released for the Master System in 1989 and for the Game Gear in 1992 as Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap. It was ported by Hudson Soft and released in 1991 for the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine under the name Dragon's Curse. It was also ported in 1993 by Brazilian company Tec Toy under the title Turma da Mônica em o Resgate, with the game retooled to include characters from Brazilian comic book series Monica's Gang ('). A remake developed by Lizardcube and published by DotEmu, titled Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, was released in April 2017.
The game takes place after the events of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, in which Wonder Boy has been cursed by the Mecha Dragon and must locate the Salamander Cross to lift it. The game is nonlinear and features varying landscapes in which players must navigate. Players find items and clues needed to access different parts of Monster Land, and they can transform into other forms and gain different abilities.
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap received wide acclaim from gaming magazines upon its release. It was praised for its colorful and cartoon-like graphics, rich sound and diverse sound effects, and varied and addictive gameplay. Criticisms include sprite flickering in the Master System version as well as slippery controls. It won Electronic Gaming Monthlys "Best Game of the Year" award for the Master System in 1989. Reviews from gaming magazines have described the game as one of the best Master System and 8-bit titles of that era.
Overview
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap takes place immediately after the events of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy travels into the Mecha Dragon's lair in order to slay him. (Some sources refer to this creature as the "MEKA dragon".) However, upon doing so, he is inflicted by a curse that transforms him into "Lizard-Man". In the game, the player controls Wonder Boy as he tries to undo this curse by journeying across the land, defeating other dragons, and finally defeating the Vampire Dragon to obtain the Salamander Cross – the only object that can remove his curse.
After completing the first level in the game (a simplified version of the final level from the preceding game Wonder Boy in Monster Land), the player begins as Lizard-Man from Alsedo, a town in Monster Land, and the gameplay becomes nonlinear. From there, the player explores and finds items and clues needed for Wonder Boy to access different parts of Monster Land. Gold and additional secondary items can be found by defeating enemies and opening treasure chests. With gold, players can buy additional items and better equipment in shops and restore their life meter in hospitals. Items with question marks displayed cannot be bought unless the player has "charm", which can be increased by collecting Charm Stones or by equipping certain items.
thumb|left|Lizard-Man attacks an enemy frog by breathing fire at it in the Desert stage. Above, there are two Fire Shooters.
In the game, the player uses the directional pad to move Wonder Boy left or right, crouch down (only possible as Hu-Man or Lizard-Man), or to enter doors. The buttons on the controller are used to attack enemies and to jump. Wonder Boy can attack with his main weapon or with secondary weapons by holding down on the directional pad and pressing the attack button. Pressing the pause button brings up the Status Screen (and pauses the game if Wonder Boy is fighting a dragon). Wonder Boy has a life meter shown on the top of the gameplay area as a series of hearts. When all hearts turn black, Wonder Boy dies and the game ends, but if he has a life potion ("medicine vial" in Dragon's Curse) remaining, he will revive with some of the hearts refilled. After the game ends, the player is taken to a "continue screen"; there the player has an opportunity to win a free life potion before restarting the game at the town. Players can visit the town's church to receive a password in order to continue the game at a later time. The password saves the player's current form, equipment, and amount of gold; but it does not save any secondary weapons or life potions in stock. Dragon's Curse has a "file cabinet" which allows players to store passwords into the game's memory. After defeating a dragon, Wonder Boy changes form, and his abilities change. He turns into Lizard-Man after defeating and being cursed by the Mecha Dragon in the first level. At that point, he loses all equipment and all hearts except one. Piranha-Man can swim freely underwater and can access underwater places (such as the ship) which the other forms cannot, Lion-Man attacks enemies with his sword by slashing from directly above to directly below him allowing him to attack targets other forms cannot hit because all of them except for Lizard-Man simply thrust their sword, and Hawk-Man can fly freely in the air but takes damage if he enters water. It was first released for the Master System in September for North America. The game was then released to the PC Engine in Japan under the title Adventure Island (not to be confused with the Adventure Island series of games for the Nintendo Entertainment System); it was released for the TurboGrafx-16 that same year by NEC under the title Dragon's Curse. Westone allowed Hudson Soft to publish the game provided they made no reference to the Wonder Boy series. In 1993, Tec Toy released the game in Brazil for the Master System under the title . Tec Toy replaced the sprites with characters from Brazilian comic book series Monica's Gang ('), so instead of the player character turning into different creatures, he gets turned into different characters from the comics, relaying between them in order to rescue Monica, who disappeared after the previous game. During the same year, Dragon's Curse/Adventure Island was released for the Wii's Virtual Console service worldwide. The Master System version of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap was released in Europe on and in North America on .