Dragon’s Curse is the American TurboGrafx-16 conversion of the classic Sega Master System game Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap. It was ported by original developer Westone and published by NEC in 1990 in North America and Hudson Soft in Japan in 1991. In Japan the game was confusingly released as “Adventure Island” (not to be confused with Hudson Soft‘s own Adventure Island series), and has a short intro sequence not seen in the American version.

Other than a different name, title screen and intro text it is essentially the same game as The Dragon’s Trap, but with some graphical and musical enhancements. It plays pretty much the same as the Master System original, which is fine because it’s a brilliant game.

After a brief, playable prologue the main character is cursed and turned into dragon. To return to human form again he must explore various scrolling levels; collect coins to buy some special armour and weapons; fight and defeat the “five beastly brutes”, and finally acquire the ‘Salamander Cross’.

What makes Dragon’s Curse interesting is that – on your journey – you gain the ability to change form into a variety of different intermediary creatures, each with its own special powers. Powers that allow you to get to places you otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach. So this serves as a mechanic for unlocking access to more areas in the game as you progress.

Each form has a default attack (fire breathing for the initial dragon form, for example), plus you can use secondary weapons (arrows, fireballs, boomerangs) that are collected from enemy drops and treasure chests. There are also keys needed to unlock certain doors and also shops where you can heal or buy upgraded armour.

Dragon’s Curse uses a password system for continuing where you left off, and you can save passwords to the game’s “file cabinet”, which saves time inputting passwords during the same play session.

Overall, Dragon’s Curse a must-play game on the PC Engine. It might look a bit “kiddy”, but this is a game with considerable hidden depth and is very enjoyable to play when you get into it.

Dragon’s Curse has been re-released on various online services, including on Nintendo‘s Virtual Console, and it’s a game still well worth playing today.

More: Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap on Wikipedia