And it’s really, really soon.
Dan and I are both massive fans of Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon’s Trap, originally released for the Sega Master System way back in 1989. Yes, we know we’re old. Shut up. Age comes for us all, and it will come for you too.
However the Wonder Boy 3 remake, announced last year, divided us. I thought the overhauled visual style was quaint and charming, while Dan felt it made it look too similar to other 2D platformers – like Rayman, for one – and had lost the essence of the original. What we both agreed was that the retro-inspired music and sounds were like waking up in our childhood and the gameplay, reverse-engineered in part from original cartridges, is spot on.
Thankfully, to avoid any office arguments, Lizardcube have since added a Mario Maker-esque toggle between retro and modern visuals. That’s everybody happy, then, and seems to confirm that the gameplay fits the original like a glove. Fisticuffs in Thumbsticks towers have been averted. This time.
And now the Wonder Boy 3 remake has gone gold on all console platforms – the PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch – and is going to be released in under a fortnight (the PC version is coming a bit later). The release date has been penned in for April 18, 2017, and will be available to download from each platform’s online store. It’s expected to cost around $19.99 US (which will probably be around £20/€20, too).
Beware the Meka-Dragon’s curse.
