Trivia / Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap

• Ascended Fanon: The gold enemies of the Fan Remake by Vile1011 appear in the 2017 remake (Lizardcube are aware of that remake).
• Blooper: The maps traversed while walking on the pyramid to get to the sphinx and a Heart Container, and those inside the pyramid, are meant to be the same places, but are technically separate maps. One inconsistency gives it away: in one of the outside maps, a green snake can be seen idling inside the pyramid, but when the player explores the pyramid's interior, it is nowhere to be found.
• Divorced Installment: Dragon's Curse, the TurboGrafx-16 version, drops the "Wonder Boy" title and references to "Monster Land"/"Monster World".
• Dolled-Up Installment: The Brazilian release of the Master System version became a game based on local comic, Monica's Gang - but in a deeper treatment than with Monster Land: every form of Wonder Boy, the shopkeepers and even the final boss became characters of the comic.
  • After the remake came out, fans promptly created a Game Mod to re-skin it with the same Monica's Gang characters.
• Market-Based Title:
  • The Game Gear version in Japan was released as Monster World II: Dragon no Wana. While the Master System version uses the title Monster World II when played on a Mark III, Monster World II was never officially released for the Mark III in Japan.
  • The PC Engine version of Dragon's Curse is titled Adventure Island.
  • The English Game Gear version and 2017 remake drop the numeral and are simply titled Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap.
• No Export for You: An odd variant. The Master System version was apparently planned to be released in Japan, as the title screen calls the game "Monster World II" if played on a Japanese Mark III. While the game's text will remain in English, using the optional FM Sound Unit will enable enhanced audio (this version can be played in 2007's Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 29: Monster World Complete Collection) . The game didn't get an official release there until it was ported to the Game Gear, coming out a few months after its Mega Drive sequel, Monster World III.
• Official Fan-Submitted Content: The PC version of the 2017 remake supports at least twice as many languages as the other versions thanks to fans sending their own translations to Lizardcube.
• Permanent Placeholder: The Tasmanian Sword's ability to transform into other forms is believed to be a leftover debug feature, especially in the original Master System version where it not only required the second controller to input it, but cycled through all forms - including Hu-Man. This was changed in the Game Gear port so that it only cycles through the forms you've acquired normally, which was the version retained in the 2017 remake.
• Recycled Set: A lot of rooms, especially in dungeons, have the exact same layout with different props and enemies.
• Recycled Title: The PC Engine version is named Adventure Island, but had nothing to do with the Hudson series of the same name (which branched off from a remake of the first Wonder Boy).
• What Could Have Been:
  • The back of the original Master System box◊ has screenshots with minor differences compared to the actual game. The first screenshot shows the Meka Dragon fight without a "Dragon HP" indicator, suggesting that it may have been a late addition to boss fights. The second screenshot shows a different enemy (red giant cobras instead of a roper) near the beach house. The third screenshot indicates that gold could have been collected outside of the Meka Dragon during the prologue, which was implemented in the 2017 remake (however, as it shows the same amount of gold as the previous screenshot, 23, it might have been part of a debug feature). The fourth and final screenshot seems to show that the town tower's door originally had a red lock instead of a green one, indicating that the player always needed to collect another key.
  • Originally, the remake by DotEmu and Lizardcube was going to have a case of Writing Around Trademarks, titling the project as "The Boy and the Dragon". That was the case, stating that the PC Engine version was what they were going for if they could not get the "Wonder Boy" title attached. This idea can be seen in the Gallery after completing the main game, with Bocke's Hu-Man form resembling the original Japanese artwork as well as the PC Engine release.
  • Hu-Girl's hair was going to be either longer or be green much like Hu-Man's.
  • The remade Lion-Man was originally going to keep his sword by his side instead of dragging it.
  • As stated at AGDQ 2018, there was much internal discussion on what from the original game should change and what should be kept intact in the remake. In the end, programming oversights such as Lizard-Man's projectile limitation and Piranha-Man's "fish fly" were kept, but other things such as the Mouse Block physics were tweaked and the hitbox for Lion-Man's sword swing was altered to match the modernized animation over the retro one.

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