Wonder Boy is a weird series that never really gained enough traction here in the West. I wonder if many of their releases weren't on the Sega Master System (SMS) but on Nintendo's Entertainment System (NES), this would have been an entirely different story. Perhaps then the confusing titles and sequence numbers would make more sense: Wonder Boy? Adventure Island? Wonder Boy IV? Wait no, III is VI? No wait that's a different series. Anyway, this is _The Dragon 's Trap_, also known as _Wonder Boy III_ originally released all the way back in 1989, remade with love in 2017. Let's see how much of a trap this still is, 28 years later. First, a few words on the original 1989 SMS edition. As a so-called proto- metroidvania--even way before the term was invented by Jeremy--game, this was _way_ ahead of its time. This was even before _Castlevania III: Dracula 's Curse_ on the NES that popularized branching paths and alternating characters with different powers. I had no idea this game even existed until the beautiful redrawn cover art in the local retro game store lured me in.