Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, called Monster World II: Dragon no Wana (モンスターワールドII ドラゴンの罠) in Japan, is a direct sequel to Wonder Boy in Monster Land, and was developed by Westone and published by Sega for the Sega Master System in 1989.
The game should not be confused with Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair, which despite being made by the same people and carrying a similar title, focuses more on being a side-scrolling shoot-'em-up with platform segments.
Gameplay
Gameplay is similar to Monster Land, however the hero, Wonder Boy, finds himself cursed early on in the game and spends his time defeating other dragons to return to his human form. The game was highly received for its gameplay and music, and is often even said to be one of the greatest Master System games of all time. It was given the 1989 Game of the Year award by Electronic Gaming Monthly.
History
Legacy
An arguably better version (minus the Wonder Boy branding) exists in the form of Dragon's Curse, released for the TurboGrafX-16 in the years that followed. Confusingly this version of the game is known as Adventure Island in Japan, though bears little resemblance to the Adventure Island franchise, itself branding off from the original Wonder Boy game.
The Dragon's Trap was also brought to the Sega Game Gear in 1992. International releases of this port dropped the "III," calling it merely Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (a prototype ROM with the original name circulates around the Internet).
Both the TurboGrafX-16's Dragon's Curse and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap have been released on the Wii's Virtual Console service, despite being roughly the same game. A similar situation occurred with the sequel, Wonder Boy in Monster World.
The game was eventuallly remade by Lizardcube and published by DotEmu in collaboration with the original game designer Ryuichi Nishizawa. The game was released on April 18, 2017 on PlayStation 4. Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch and PC in June of that same year.
Versions
Localised names
Also known as
Language
|
Localised Name
|
English Translation
|
English
|
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap
|
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap
|
English (US)
|
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap
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Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap
|
Japanese
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モンスターワールドII ドラゴンの罠
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Monster World II: Dragon no Wana
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Production credits
Game Gear version
Original Game
Reprogrammed
Magazine articles
- Main article: Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
Print advert in
Computer & Video Games (UK) #96: "November 1989" (1989-10-16)
also published in:
- ACE (UK) #26: "November 1989" (1989-10-xx)[6]
Physical scans
Master System version
Sega Retro Average
|
Publication
|
Score
|
Source
|
ACE (UK)
|
91
|
№26, p144[8]
|
ACE (UK)
|
68
|
№28, p50[1]
|
Complete Guide to Consoles (UK)
|
92
|
№1, p37[9]
|
Complete Guide to Consoles (UK)
|
96
|
№4, p110[10]
|
The Complete Guide to Sega (UK)
|
96
|
№1, p63[11]
|
Computer & Video Games (UK)
|
86
|
№94, p104[12]
|
GamePro (US)
|
100
|
№3, p38/39[13]
|
The Games Machine (UK)
|
71
|
№26, p26[14]
|
Joystick (FR)
|
88
|
№1, p140[15]
|
K (IT)
|
81
|
№22, p70[16]
|
Mean Machines (UK)
|
95
|
№1, p40/41[17]
|
Mean Machines Sega (UK)
|
95
|
№1, p112[18]
|
Mean Machines Sega (UK)
|
96
|
№1, p136[19]
|
Micromanía (ES)
|
80
|
№23 (Vol 2), p54
|
S: The Sega Magazine (UK)
|
92
|
№1, p4-7[20]
|
Sega Power (UK)
|
100
|
№23, p60
|
Sega Power (UK)
|
100
|
№46, p101[21]
|
Sega Pro (UK)
|
97
|
№6, p31[22]
|
Zero (UK)
|
73
|
№4, p84
|
|
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap
Master System, US
|
Cover
|
Manual
|
Master System, EU
|
Cover
|
Cart Manual
|
Master System, EU ® variant
|
Cover
|
Cart
|
Master System, EU (8 languages)
|
Cover
|
|
Master System, AU
|
Cover
|
Cart Manual
|
Master System, AU (silver variant)
|
Cover
|
Cart
|
Master System, KR
|
Cover
|
|
Game Gear version
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap
Game Gear, EU
|
|
Cart Manual
|
Game Gear, JP
|
Cover
|
Cart Manual
|
Virtual Console version
Technical information
ROM dump status
System |
Hash |
Size |
Build Date |
Source |
Comments |
|
|
|
?
|
CRC32
|
679e1676
|
MD5
|
e7f86c049e4bd8b26844ff62bd067d57
|
SHA-1
|
99e73de2ffe5ea5d40998faec16504c226f4c1ba
|
|
256kB
|
|
Cartridge (EU/US)
|
|
|
|
|
?
|
CRC32
|
a74c97a7
|
MD5
|
0e8146c23d7947b4677b9b2ca12850e0
|
SHA-1
|
d98344a2c644ce9a0184e8f836271c038aa16a23
|
|
256kB
|
|
Cartridge (EU)
|
|
|
|
|
?
|
CRC32
|
ea89e0e7
|
MD5
|
8e6934c31498569302ff3119c2496043
|
SHA-1
|
5c4d25432512852f48f22280544bd7d034aab744
|
|
256kB
|
|
Cartridge (JP)
|
|
|
|
|
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 File:ACE UK 28.pdf, page 50 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ File:CVG UK 097.pdf, page 36
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 File:Go UK 08.pdf, page 22 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.nintendo.com:80/games/detail/8pVT43FgIVdr81lfBwwDPx10ijCkuv6z (Wayback Machine: 2010-11-21 03:04)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://www.nintendolife.com:80/games/mastersystem/wonder_boy_iii_the_dragons_trap (Wayback Machine: 2017-09-07 09:15)
- ↑ ACE, "November 1989" (UK; 1989-10-xx), page 111
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "January 1990" (UK; 1989-12-16), page 115
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 File:ACE UK 26.pdf, page 144 Cite error: Invalid
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tag; name ":File:ACE UK 26.pdf_p144" defined multiple times with different content
- ↑ File:CompleteGuideToConsoles_UK_01.pdf, page 37
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 File:CGtC UK 04.pdf, page 110 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 11.0 11.1 File:TheCompleteGuideToSega UK.pdf, page 63 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 12.0 12.1 File:CVG UK 094.pdf, page 104 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ File:GamePro US 003.pdf, page 40
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 File:TGM UK 26.pdf, page 26 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 15.0 15.1 File:Joystick FR 001.pdf, page 140 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 16.0 16.1 File:K IT 22.pdf, page 72 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 17.0 17.1 File:MeanMachines UK 01.pdf, page 40 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ File:MeanMachinesSega01UK.pdf, page 112
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 File:MeanMachinesSega01UK.pdf, page 136 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 20.0 20.1 File:StheSegaMagazine UK 01.pdf, page 4 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ File:SegaPower UK 46.pdf, page 101
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 File:SegaPro UK 06.pdf, page 31 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ Aktueller Software Markt, "August/September 1989" (DE; 1989-07-28), page 75
- ↑ Complete Guide to Consoles, "" (UK; 1989-10-16), page 37
- ↑ Console XS, "June/July 1992" (UK; 1992-04-23), page 146
- ↑ Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide, "" (UK; 1993-11-18), page 161
- ↑ Game Mania, "May 1993" (UK; 1993-xx-xx), page 81
- ↑ Micromanía (segunda época), "Abril 1990" (ES; 1990-0x-xx), page 54
- ↑ Megazone, "June/July 1991" (AU; 1991-0x-xx), page 58
- ↑ Power Play, "7/89" (DE; 1989-06-12), page 55
- ↑ Sega Power, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-05), page 60
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 72
- ↑ Video Games, "1/91" (DE; 1991-03-27), page 78
- ↑ Zero, "February 1990" (UK; 19xx-xx-xx), page 84
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 File:ConsolesPlus FR 009.pdf, page 107 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 36.0 36.1 File:Joypad FR 009.pdf, page 86 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 37.0 37.1 File:Joystick FR 027.pdf, page 185 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ File:PlayerOne FR 023.pdf, page 98
- ↑ 39.0 39.1 File:SegaPro UK 08.pdf, page 36 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 40.0 40.1 File:SegaForce UK 09.pdf, page 71 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 41.0 41.1 File:Zero UK 35.pdf, page 80 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "April 1992" (JP; 1992-03-07), page 38
- ↑ Hobby Consolas, "Julio 1992" (ES; 1992-0x-xx), page 62
- ↑ Micromanía (segunda época), "Octubre 1992" (ES; 1992-xx-xx), page 84
- ↑ Player One, "Septembre 1992" (FR; 1992-09-10), page 102
- ↑ Play Time, "12/92" (DE; 1992-11-04), page 85
- ↑ Power Up!, "Saturday, August 01, 1992" (UK; 1992-08-01), page 1
- ↑ Sega Power, "December 1992" (UK; 1992-11-05), page 58
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 74
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 75
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 88
- ↑ Video Games, "6/92" (DE; 1992-05-29), page 123
- ↑ Video Games, "11/92" (DE; 1992-10-28), page 126