Wonderboy: The Dragon's Trap is a remake of a Master System game. At a touch of a button you can switch between the new beautiful graphics, and the retro pixel art. There's another button to switch between the new and old audio.
The game starts off like that Mario Bros Bowser Castle level where if you take the wrong path, then it loops around. You are then thrown into a boss battle. After the Mecha Dragon is defeated, your human character is cursed and turns into Lizard Man.
Once you escape the castle, you find a small village but have little guidance where to go next. You are given the instruction to find the "cure" but the nurse offering a "cure" isn't what it means which is confusing - it’s a reference to the entire aim to become human again. After wandering around, I found a hidden passage to a beach but it led to a dead end, and it took more exploration to find the correct path. This vague direction can be a problem in other parts of the game too. Once you do find the correct path, you will find some platforming challenges and plenty of enemies to kill, culminating in a boss battle where you will transform into a different beast. So there are the following forms: Lizard, Mouse, Piranha, Lion, and Hawk.
Each beast has a different ability which allows you to reach a new area as long as you know where to use it. It's a Metroidvania of sorts, although it will be a while until you find a room which allows you to transform forms freely, and even later, a weapon that allows you to do it at any time. This means your abilities don't stack for a large part of the game which limits where you can go at any one point.
You constantly buy new swords, shields and armour to hopefully scale with the enemies. Returning to old areas has a clear difference when you can take down enemies in 1 hit when it used to take 3.
There's a couple of disposable items like the arrow that shoots vertically, lightning bolt that hits many enemies, fireball and boomerang. There's a potion that acts as an extra life and restores your hearts on death. You lose all the items when you die, but get to keep your money, and it is possible to grind out coins by revisiting areas and defeating the enemies.
It is really difficult to get through sections, and dying throws you back to the village. In general it feels like there are too many enemies, and you can't trust your eyes because enemies can pop out of the floor or from above. Some movement patterns are awkward, and if you have others throwing fireballs then you are sure to be hit. It can feel like you are “stun locked” with repeated hits, but it mostly seemed to register as a single hit due to the invincibility frames.
There's a bit of trial and error to get through certain sections, and the game often poses a massive challenge. The boss battles seemed fairly straight-forward though and you just need to time your jumps to slash at their face.
There's certainly moments of frustration, but it's a good game if you like a challenge, and is a well-done remaster.