Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap



A direct sequel to Wonder Boy in Monster Land, which ditches the stage-based format of previous games in favor of a free-roaming approach. After being defeated by Bock in the previous game, the Meka Dragon places a curse on his killer. Bock turns into a lizardman and now has to regain his human form.

Tropes in Dragon's Trap:

 * Adaptation Dye Job: Bock's in-game sprite has green hair instead of blond like he does in the official illustrations. The TurboGrafx-16 version, Dragon's Curse, depict him with the proper hair color though.
 * Ambidextrous Sprite: Averted for five of the six forms (didn't need to be averted for the Lizard-Man who didn't use any equipment).
 * Though they do use the wrong sprites when Mouse-Man is climbing the left side of a wall or a ceiling.
 * Baleful Polymorph: The main premise of the game.
 * Blind Idiot Translation: "Before, you IS the Monster World"... huh?
 * Chromatic Arrangement: Enemies that come in multiple flavors are usually red if they are weak, green if they are average and blue if they are strong.
 * Country Switch: Playing the Master System version on a Japanese Mark III will change the game's title to Monster World II and will enable FM music if a sound module is connected to the console. Otherwise, the game's menus and messages will still be in English.
 * Cursed with Awesome: You'd think that being turned into a dragon or lion-type monster would be bad, if not for the special abilities that came with them.
 * Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Even though some locks look different from others (depending on whether you have to unlock them once or every time), the same keys will work on all of them.
 * Involuntary Transformation: Damn blue flames.
 * Law of Chromatic Superiority: All of the mooks come in three palette swapped varieties, with the green monsters being the weakest, the red ones being moderately strong and the blue ones being the strongest.
 * Load-Bearing Boss: After defeating the mechanical dragon in the first castle, it collapses once you escape with it.
 * Market-Based Title: The Game Gear version in Japan was released as Monster World II: Dragon no Wana. While the Master System version uses the title Monster World II when played on a Mark III, Monster World II was never officially released for the Mark III in Japan.
 * The PC Engine version of Dragon's Curse is titled Adventure Island.
 * The English Game Gear version drops the numeral and is simply titled Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap.
 * Metroidvania
 * Multiform Balance: While the forms generally get better as you progress through the game, each has its unique strengths and all of them are used in the final dungeon (except Lizard-Man, which you will probably never use again after getting Mouse-Man).
 * This is elaborated further down in a dedicated list.
 * One Size Fits All: All armors can equipped by the protagonist, no matter what form he's in.
 * Password Save: Relatively simple for the complexity of the game.
 * Pig Man: The shop owners and the guy who runs the church, at least in the Master System version.
 * Recycled Title: The PC Engine version is named Adventure Island, but had nothing to do with Hudson's series of the same name (which branched off from a remake of the first Wonder Boy).
 * Remixed Level: The Meka Dragon's lair, which is actually a much shorter and much easier version of the previous game's final level. You are able to get there again towards the end of the game, only to find out that it is now populated by different monsters.
 * Sequel Number Snarl: Dragon's Trap came out the same year as Monster Lair and both games bore the title of Wonder Boy III. Note that this was never an issue in Japan, where Dragon's Trap is titled Monster World II: Dragon no Wana.
 * Super Not-Drowning Skills: Unless he's in the Hawk form, Wonder Boy is not in the least uncomfortable walking around underwater.
 * A Taste of Power: You get all of the Legendary equipment as soon as you start the game, but lose it after you escape the dragon's tower.
 * Bag of Spilling: Just how did Wonder Boy lose his weapons?
 * Also inverted: Where did he get the ivory equipment?
 * Video Game Settings: Includes Shifting Sand Land, a Temple of Doom, Jungle Japes, Lethal Lava Land, Under the Sea, Gang Plank Galleon, Wutai, and an Ominous Floating Castle in space.
 * We Have Forgotten the Phlebotinum: In the Game Gear version it is impossible to regain the Legendary Shield later in the game.

Form-specific tropes.
 * Human:
 * A Taste of Power
 * Theme Naming: To go along with the "[animal]-man" theme, the pause menu calls him "hu-man".
 * The Teaser: The only moment in the game when he's playable, unless you know one very special password...
 * Lizard-Man
 * Breath Weapon: He can spit fire.
 * Informed Equipment: While changing the equipment does affect his stats, he's never seen wearing armor or using swords and shields.
 * Lizard Folk
 * Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: He can walk in lava just as fine as he can walk in water. Too bad the only place he can try this out doesn't lead anywhere unless the player is in Piranha-Man form.
 * Shoot the Bullet: The only way he can deflect projectiles.
 * Use Your Head: He can't use a sword, so he can't break blocks with it. Instead, he can break the ones above him with his head while jumping, Mario-style.
 * Mouse-Man
 * Ceiling Cling and Wall Crawl: He can walk on walls and ceilings made of checkered blocks.
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The smallest of all forms.
 * Piranha-Man
 * Conjoined Eyes
 * Fish People
 * Lion-Man
 * Catfolk
 * The Charmer: The charm points are off the charts when Wonder Boy in this this form.
 * Hawk-Man
 * Super Drowning Skills: He takes damage just from touching water.
 * Video Game Flight: Of the "successive Double Jumps" variety.