Rather than rebuild Sega Master System classic Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon’s Trap from the ground up, developer Lizardcube just painted over the original game with modern graphics, music and sound effects. We need more remakes like this.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, out this week for Switch, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 with a PC version due in June, began as a fan project by programmer Omar Cornut and artist Ben Fiquet, who reverse-engineered the original Sega Master System code. Wonder Boy creator Ryuichi Nishizawa collaborated with the team to bring the game to fruition, with composer Michael Geyre beautifully rearranging the original Shinichi Sakamoto soundtrack.
The end result is a game that looks and sounds like a modern hand-painted 2D platformer, but plays exactly like the brutal retro game fans know and love. Players can swap between 1989 and 2017 graphics with a press of a button, while the original beeps and bloops are just a menu selection away.
You can see it all in action in the video below, recorded during yesterday’s Facebook live stream.
Having never played the original Wonder Boy 3, I’m finding Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap to be quite challenging. The developers did include an easy mode, but I’m not ready to throw in that towel yet.
What a perfect way to give retro games a modern feel. Imagine your favourite old school game from the Nintendo and Sega era, playing exactly the same as it always did but looking like an animated cartoon. Which games would you like to see get this treatment? All of them is an acceptable answer.
Comments
27 responses to “More Classic Games Need Remakes Like Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap”
Dragons Trap was *brilliant*. So glad they remade it! Definitely grabbing it for the ps4 pro!
Shame that you can not get it from the AUS Xbox Store even though there is a link for the AU Xbox Store (https://www.microsoft.com/en-AU/store/p/wonder-boy-the-dragons-trap/bvg6n37lfl8m) – glad I have both a PS4 and Xbox One since I ended up getting it for my PS4
Funny thing is that the game is actually rated M in Australia (despite PSN rating it ‘All’):
http://www.classification.gov.au/Pages/View.aspx?sid=Gpl848VNu89uplyQIIqZYg%253d%253d&ncdctx=N8wBxZwD3DjWBb9359xKtHDhQvNvGmNeSZYAQRfK9YOGkHYpAk2Un1Xp1v5RPjeo
Is it the smoking pigs? Must be the smoking pigs.
Its the smoking Pig
I’m surprised a smoking pig didn’t get the OFLC to wave the banhammer, and make it RC. It doesn’t take much these days for Australia to ban a game.
Or…. OR…. They could just make an entirely new fucking game with the updated style so we don’t have to replay the same thing again.
I don’t really get the remastering of some of these games… especially stuff like Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle. I mean, they were great games, but nothing’s changed except the look. If like me, you remember the solution to all the “puzzles” you just blaze through it.
For the love of glob… stop fucking remaking shit… update the style and just make a new damn game so we get extra enjoyment out of it. Hell, even keeping the mechanics the same, but giving us new levels would be better!
Geez calm down
Don’t play it, wait for http://www.monsterboy.com/blog/ instead :o)
Yeah, I was just gonna say there is a new game in the series coming.
Also, the knock on effect of this is awesome – I haven’t seen publications talk so lovingly about the Wonder Boy series like this in forever. If it turns more people onto the series, then that’s a great, great thing.
That’s all well and good, but it’s shit how they expect you to fork out for something that’s been done before.
They could at least take a leaf from Day of the Tentacle’s book. They didn’t just remake Maniac Mansion with updated graphics. They “hid” the original game inside the new game as a sort of easter egg. Granted they didn’t update the graphics, but they should do stuff like that (and then like they have with this, give you the option of playing with original or updated graphics.)
I wouldn’t object to paying money for that. At least you’re getting something new as well!
So, you’re tryin to tell me that, if you had the ability, time, and resources to remake one of your favourite games of all time, and even managed to get the original creator to collaborate, you wouldn’t give it a shot?
I don’t buy it!
I know that, sure as heck, I certainly would!
Not for a straight copy-paste, no. Otherwise that’s just a port.
For me, Metroid Zero Mission is the gold standard for remakes. Captures the original but updates it for modern sensibilities, adds to and extends it as well. And then you also get the original as a bonus unlockable. Perfect.
This! Straight up ports I personally wouldn’t waste my time on. Even as a developer, I wouldn’t do a straight one to one remake no matter how much I love the game.
I would want the people who bought the game to feel like they got something extra for their hard earned money.
I mean, I love the hell out of Industry Giant 2, and as much as I’d like to play it with sexy modern graphics, if I was going to put all that effort in to updating it, I’d go the extra mile and add some extras. Personally, I feel straight port updates is more for the realm of mods. IF i ever decided to just do a one to one port of IG2 with updated graphics, I’d do it as a mod or freebie.
Looks good, but sadly MonsterBoy is going to be a console exclusive.
I would love it on PC, but it’s only getting released on PS4, XBONE and Switch. 🙁
I hope the Dragon’s Trap remake gets a PC release instead of being squandered as console exclusive.
Lands in June :o)
You are so right. I bought it on GOG!
I grabbed it on PS4
It is soooo damn good, I fell in love with it all over again!
My avatar is relevant again!!
This game is such a beautiful remake, I’m loving it.
I’ve been having so much fun playing this game again. I’ve actually spent most of my time switching on and off the old and new style.
The animation and artwork is crazy beautiful. So much love has gone into this
I’d love these guys to do Secret of mana. Goddam that would be great
I would be thrilled if they just bought the Seiken Densetsu Collection to the west. 2 player SoM 1 and 2 would be amazing
Yeah, the multiplayer was one of the best features. It sucked the ios port dropped that.
Som2 not having an official translation is the biggest problem holding back the collection but the fan translation exists.
This is technically a reMASTER, not a reMAKE.
My thoughts exactly. This is like saying tilesets for Dwarf Fortress are remakes.
Dev Blogs said they had to rebuild it first, before adding the updated graphics… which is one of the reasons you can switch the overlay and keep the gameplay stable.
I would love to see HD remasters of all the 16-bit Disney platforms – Aladdin, The Lion King, Toy Story. I understand they remade DuckTales recently, so hopefully that’s a good sign!
I agree, but the extreme cost of licencing that Disney would charge would be so high that it would be unfeasible, even for a big time dev with billions in revenue.
Disney’s greed has gotten so out of control it has a life of it’s own.
If this comes out on PC, I hope I can pick it up on Steam or independently. If this is another Windows 10 Exclusive App-Store BS, than Nope!
I refuse to infect my PC with the Windows 10 Virus/Spyware/Adware/Bloatware/Keylogger.