Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (AKA Dragon's Curse and Monster World II Dragon No Wana in Japan) is a 1989 platform game by Sega and Westone. This game is a direct sequel to Wonder Boy in Monster Land and starts in the final lair of the previous game. It is widely considered among the best games produced for the Sega Master System.

Gameplay
The game begins at the end of the previous Wonder Boy game with the character all armored up. He will be able to traverse through the castle with the enemies hardly doing any damage to him. After he faces the Mecha dragon, he has been cursed and changed into Lizard man. His goal is to find the Salamander Cross so he can return to human form.

This game keeps features from the previous Monster World game, like buying equipment and using items. Unlike its predecessor it is not divided into a sequence of levels, but the character is allowed to go anywhere, as long as he has the right form or equipment. Upon defeating various dragon bosses, the character would be cursed and turned into another (were-)animal. He will go through the shapes of lizard, mouse, piranha, lion, hawk and finally his original human form. Each animal has different abilities, and switching between them is required to progress.

Hu-Man: This form has no distinct advantage.

Lizard-Man: Shoots flame with a reach longer than the ordinary sword.

Mouse-Man: Because his body is small, he can enter places other creatures cannot. He can also walk on walls and ceilings made of "mouse blocks".

Piranha-Man: Can swim freely in water.

Lion-Man: Attacks by swinging a sword in an arc. This will allow him to reach blocks that are too high or low for the other forms. (Note: was a Tiger-Man in the PC-Engine/Turbografx-16 version)

Hawk-Man: Has the capability to fly. However, he cannot swim and takes damage if he touches water.

Conversions
The game has been ported to the Sega Master System, TurboGrafx-16 and Sega Game Gear. In Japan, Master System and Game Gear versions were called Monster World II (although the game was actually never released in Japan for the Master System, but when played the cartridge in a Japanese region, it displays the Monster World II title). The Game Gear port in Europe names the title simply as Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (without the numeral, due to the European release of Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair for Sega Mega Drive).

Tec Toy, Sega's distributor in Brazil, altered the Master System game and released it as Turma da Mônica em o Resgate. Tec Toy replaced the boy with a young girl named Mônica, a character from Monica's Gang, known as Turma da Mônica in the original Portuguese version. This version uses Mônica's friends (also from the comics) as her other "forms".

A graphically enhanced version was released as Dragon's Curse on the TurboGrafx-16 with no reference to the Wonder Boy franchise. In Japan, it was known as Adventure Island, which has no relation to Hudson Soft's series of the same name, though Hudson worked on this version. Dragon's Curse was released on Europe's Virtual Console service on March 30, 2007 and in North America on April 2, 2007.

Arms list
Ten weapons can be found. Depending on your current form, their attack bonus may be better or worse. Some have an extra power.

Legendary Sword

Ivory Sword

Mithril Sword

Shogun Blade

Crystal Sword

Thunder Saber: allows you to destroy some blocks, even if unequipped

Magical Saber: allows you to create blocks when giving a swing over some background blocks

Lucky Sword: when held, increases the gold you earn from monsters or chests

Muramasa Blade

Tasmanian Sword: allows you to change form. To activate this power, jump and, while in the air, hold button 2 on the second controller and press button 1 on the first.

Armor list
Ten armors can be found. Depending on your current form, their defense bonus may be better or worse. Some have an extra power.

Legendary Armor

Ivory Armor

Mithril Armor

Shogun Lamellar

Crystal Armor

Goblin Mail: activates the 'create block' option. See below.

Samurai Armor

Dragon Mail: you take no damage from red lava.

Prince Armor

Hades Armor: brings you back at full health when you lose all life. Is destroyed afterwards.

Create block
You can create blocks anywhere if you use the following combinaison:

Equip the Magical Saber, Knight Shield, Goblin Mail, and Fire Ball. Every time you swing your sword, you'll create magical blocks.

Secret Human Code
While only meant to be playable in Mecha Dragon's castle at the start of the game, it is possible to play in Human form outside of the castle. In the original US instruction manual, under the password section there is a screenshot of the password interface with a code entered into it. Entering this code in the game starts the player in town in Human form. The player is then free to roam a large portion of the adventure area, though he cannot progress past certain sections of the animal specific stages as many of these require abilities specific to the animal forms. He can, however, fight each of the animal-stage bosses via secret invisible doors scattered throughout the main area ( which are only available if you have 99 charms ) which provide as shortcuts right to the boss fights. Defeating a boss in human form will, however, result in the unavoidable transformation into dragon form. If the player transforms into another form (by using a transformation platform) he cannot switch back into Human form. While in Human form any magic used does not get depleted. This ability makes the Human form nearly invincible as the player can repeatedly cast the lightning spell and damage all enemies on screen.

Name inconsistencies

 * There have been inconsistencies in the spelling of Meka or Mecha Dragon.
 * Except for the Japanese version, while the game is the third in the Master System, this game is actually the fourth in the Wonder Boy series, since the arcade game Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair appeared first, but is not considered a part of the canon series.