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Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair Game Review

Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair is a 1988 platform video game published by Sega for Sega Genesis among other platforms. It’s a fun, but subpar platformer.

The third entry in the Wonder Boy series was first released for Arcades and eventually it would be released on the Genesis and I played the latter version myself. It is a game that did not quite stand the test of the time and is considered to be among the weakest installments in the series today. I would agree with that assessment as well.

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Unlike the later RPG entries in the series, this one is more in line with the original entry that was overall better as it was more inspired than this uninspired sequel. The only unique aspect to this entry is its addition of shooter elements, but the overall game failed to make proper use of these elements, making for a mish-mash that, although diverting, did not feel coherent.

The game has 14 rounds or levels. The structure remains the same throughout – one level is a side-scrolling platformer while the other is a scrolling shooter. I preferred the former over the latter as the shooting levels were way too easy to get through. They did not pose a challenge whatsoever. The enemies would basically follow the same repeated pattern every single time, making evading them incredibly easy.

The bosses were a bit more difficult, but even they were not all that hard to beat given that they would also follow the same pattern over and over again. The final dragon boss was a lot of fun, but most of the other bosses ranged from serviceable to downright forgettable.

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You fly on a dragon in those flying levels, which was fun visually speaking. But the better levels were the platformer ones that, although standard, were at least more demanding in terms of difficulty. As was the case with the original game, your vitality decreases and you will die if you do not pick up various fruit items scattered across each level.

This mechanic did make for some demanding platforming, which was also helped by the enemies that were actually quite interesting and not as easy as you’d think. Yes, the enemy placement was excruciatingly unfair at certain moments, but the game still gives you countless lives as it’s very generous in that regard.

But by giving you so many levels and by having rather short levels, Wonder Boy III ended up being a bit too easy and way too fleeting. I ended up beating the game in a couple of days basically, which was frustrating as I wanted more levels. The overall level design is pretty good, but hardly varied.

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As for its audio-visuals, this is a solid, if far from remarkable platformer. The score is very snazzy and fun with numerous charming tunes. The sound was excellent too. The graphical presentation was also pretty good with strong animations, solid world building and a pretty colorful color palette. The numerous weapons on your disposal made the game fun throughout, but a lack of variety hurt it in the long run.