VG Music: Dragon's Curse / Wonderboy III

It's been over 3 years since I first posted the first article here, Lifting the Dragon's Curse. Like many Turbo classics, this game has a rockin sountrack, and Imphnk's video nicely splices every track into one 7:25 video.

I'm almost certain the Sega Master System shares the same music as well.

Lifting the Dragon's Curse

Yesterday I beat Dragon's Curse. The final scene transpired exactly how a good video game should: my jaw was clinched and my hands gripped the wiimote. The last dragon was a sword swipe away from death, but only a half-heart of life separated me from a game over screen. All or nothing, baby. I slew the dragon, and the precious Salamander Cross was finally mine. Victory was never sweeter.

Listen to me when I say Go. Play. This. Game. With a 6 buck price-tag on the virtual console, there is little excuse not to treat yourself to this gem. You deserve it.

Gameplay rundown: fight boss, get transformed into a monster. Rinse, repeat. Over the course of your journey you will be transformed into a lizard, mouse, piranha, tiger, and, finally, a hawk. Each form provides you with a special power/ability, which will allow you to access a new area of the map. It's pretty standard metroidvania stuff, but considering metroidvanias have never really been a huge market, it comes as a welcome addition to the all-too-small "niche genre."

An interesting fact about this game, is that it was originally a Wonder Boy title. The Wonder Boy series is confusing, convoluted, and amazing (I'll be sure to cover the entire series in a future post). As Wonder Boy, it was released on the Sega Master System and Game Gear, but for the Turbo Grafx 16 port they changed the characters up a bit, and left us with Dragon's Curse. No worries, however, Dragon's Curse has improved graphics, and no sprite flicker.

I've always been a fan of the side-scrolling adventure. The genre embodies all of the cool aspects of video games. You have Mario-style platforming, but without the hop-and-bop. Instead you're given a sword, spells, and plenty of abilities. Throw in a grander scale than Mario, longer levels, non-linear gameplay, better music (well, debatable)... and these aspects come together in an amazing way, that provides the "epic" quality of RPGs; giving the player a goal, and watching as the goal treks progressively closer, while cutting out the menu-based non-action in favor of real-time battles.