When a really old game is remade or ported to modern platforms, developers have to cater to two audiences usually. The first one is the fans who played the original and likely want to either experience a game the way it was or through their own rose tinted memories (I learned this when I bought a few NES games on 3DS a few years ago). The second group is newcomers who have either never heard of the game or have never experienced it in the past. Lizardcube’s take on Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap which originally released on PS4, Xbox One, and Switch as Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap ($5.99) nails everything for both audiences and it is finally on iOS as a premium release with nothing cut that costs almost a third of its console version price.
I’m in the camp of people who never played the original and only experienced The Dragon’s Trap through Lizardcube and DotEmu’s remake on the Switch. It did a lot right with difficulty options but the new visuals and new music won me over. I bought this the moment it went live on the eShop for Nintendo Switch and liked it enough to buy it again physically thanks to the limited retail release on both PS4 and Switch. Games like this and Game Atelier’s Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom showcase how to bring classics or how to reimagine older games for modern audiences.
You begin playing as Wonder Boy or Wonder Girl (you can toggle who to play before starting a new save and even tap ...