Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap

So where is Wonderboy/girl?

When the original came for the Wii Virtual Console I thought about giving this series a chance, especially after Monster World IV that arrived for the first time to Europe through the digital downloads, but I never got around to it since there was the point of choosing which version to get, which was a blessing in disguise since I got to get the enhanced remake instead. And it is beautiful. I really dig the art style, but if you more into the retro look, just push a button and it goes into the 8-bit original. It's always fun when you do that and can see the artist "real" intention compared to the limitations of the systems of the time. Story is that Wonderboy (or Wondergirl which I guess is a new addition for this version) is about to end the mechadragon, the final enemy of the last game and battles their way to the end of the castle and confront the dragon. After an intense battle the dragon is defeated, but defeating it unleashes a curse upon our hero that turns him/her unto a lizard. You escape the collapsing castle and later have to set out on a new adventure to free yourself from the curse.

There they all are!

Simple premise. You use the lizard to find another dragon that turns you into a mouse that can walk on walls and ceilings. Find yet another dragon to turn into a pirahna-man that can swim. Defeat the next dragon and turn into a lion-man. Repeat the dragon slaying and turn into a hawk-man that allows you to fly into the castle in the sky and fight the last dragon that turns you into a human again and then... the game ends. A bit anticlimactic I gotta say. Overall the game have its highs and lows. It was really enjoyable at times figuring out where to go and find the hidden doors or areas to get another heart or gold to buy new equipment. But some things really irritated me. The character is slippy, it feels like I'm gliding around when jumping or running and that gets me when certain areas really need precision jumping, doesn't help by throwing in certain characters gimmicks like the mouse climbing. Also, the enemies are a pain to hit with certain characters and not until the lion-man did I feel comfortable fighting against them. And don't get me started with the damn weapons and special armours that doesn't explain what they do so I have to guess what the Tsumarusa blade or what's it called actually does. Or that the lucky sword increase the amount of gold I get from defeating enemies when that is equipped.

Is that... is that the mouse transformation? How can you tell that it is a mouse?

Also the music... it isn't much of it. You can change from the remake music or the retro feeling by pressing down  the control stick. Is it like 4-5 tracks on the whole game? The dungeons all seems to have the same music? Also, I got lost once, mostly because I forgot that I hadn't searched the sea with the piranha-man and actually had to replay the game to get that I missed it... on easy as a girl... not because girl must be an easy mode, but since I played the boy on normal I wanted to see what the girl was like and I choose easy and actually finished the game with her. Funny enough each time I died the game told me to go see the pig fortune teller and all he did was to refer me to different animal transformations so I don't get what that was about. Overall a fun game and I'm rather excited for the new game Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom.