I admit defeat. This game kicked my ass. In my experience, many, not all, but many retro gaming encounters begin with a warm sense of nostalgia, and end in a frustrated bruised and bloody aging gamer crumpled in a heap in front of the television. I'll definitely be writing about ones that don't end this way, but I can't say I'm surprised at this end result.

Back in “the day”, I owned a Sega Master System, and on that system I played Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. It was probably the most memorable game I played on the Sega Master System. It was memorable not just for the Sega Master System, but even for the NES, and to stick in my mind with everything that was going on with the NES was definitely telling about the game. I always thought back on that game and remembered it fondly.

Now, thanks to the power of the Virtual Console, I'm able to play it again. When it was initially released for the Virtual Console, I didn't recognize it at all, due to the fact that it wasn't technically Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap for the Sega Master System. The Virtual Console game was simply entitled Dragon's Curse, and was a graphically enhanced version of the game I knew from the Master System, but released for the TurboGrafx-16 . I did play a few games on the TurboGrafx-16, but never came to this enhanced version.

The gameplay and mechanics were all the same as I remembered. The colors, and the art are great, very imaginative. The unique element in this game was the “Dragon's Trap” or “Dragon's Curse”, which transforms you periodically throughout the game into a Dragon-Man (breaths fire), a Mouse-Man (cute and tiny with a small sword, and can climb walls), a Piranha-Man (can swim), a Tiger-Man (can swing his sword in a large vertical swipe), and a Hawk-Man (can fly). These variously cursed animal warriors have their own abilities which allow them to access different parts of the game world. Unfortunately that is not the only element you have to factor in, which I found out the hard way.

When I was young I distinctly remember progressing to the Hawk-Man, but not beating the game. I guess I don't know what made me think that I was going to beat it this time given the greater challenges: having other games to play, and not being breathless as to what the next screen may hold. This time through I played without much consideration to my stats. You collect and upgrade arms, shields, and armor. These affect your defense points, your attack points, and most crucially your charisma points. I was able to successfully play through the Dragon-Man, Mouse-Man, and Piranha-Man before hitting the stone wall of charisma points. I entered a vicious cycle of not having strong enough stats to beat the next dungeon, but not having enough charisma points to buy implements that would increase my stats. That forced me to grind backwards through the game to collect pieces that I just didn't need at that previous time. It was a little frustrating, but I still had fun doing it. It was at this time I absolutely had to begin consulting gamefaqs.com. I certainly use it occasionally on last resort, or much frustration,and I've read a few of the ascii text walkthroughs there. I have to commend John Yamine a.k.a. Jornibo for writing that thing, because it is invaluable. He also seemed to write it with a good sense of humor. Even after getting all my gear up to speed, and making it as Tiger-Man to the house with the ninjas and samurais, it bested me. That game is tough-as-nails.

Some of those retro games have the logic and difficulty of a dream. Try playing one of your nighttime dreams sometime...and see how far you get.