Game:

Wardner (1987)

Duration: 9:18

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15

Wardner is a bit of an odd duck. Originally developed by Taoplan and released in Arcades in 1987 by Taito (which was known as "Pyros" in the U.S.), the game was pretty popular and one of the better Arcade games of the 80s, seeing considerable success in Europe. It was later released for Nintendo's Famicom Disk System and, after almost three and a half years, was ported to Sega's Genesis/MD (where it's also known as "Wardner no Mori Special") in 1991. It was released in fairly limited quantities in the U.S. by the small publishing group, Mentrix Software, who also published the equally uncommon (but not as good) "Caliber .50" and fun "Championship Bowling" before quietly closing shop. This game was apparently never ported to Europe, making it a bit of a collector's item, though I don't know why since it was more popular over there.

Nevertheless, it's a great adaptation of the Arcade game with only some minor loss in color and detail, and it plays great, but it definitely shows its age. The game was ambitious for its time due to the multitude of secret items to collect, variety of enemies, and tight play control, but it was dead on arrival when it released here since it was easily passed over for the more cutting-edge titles on offer at the time. The game wastes no time setting up the plot: You are Dover, a magician. Your girlfriend, Tia, is kidnapped by minions of Wardner, a more powerful, evil magician. You gotta go save her. Yup.

Players can grab a few power-ups like clocks for additional time and mantles to protect them from harm once, but most upgrades must be bought; players can find and earn gold which can be used to purchase aforementioned goods as well as magic upgrades (Star, Moon and Solar/Sun Spells) which improve your firepower and thread to sew your mantle up if you get hurt, effectively protecting you from harm twice. You can also find a fairy which can protect you from projectiles, proving to be quite useful in certain circumstances.

Once you learn how to get around, the game is pretty straightforward and very short, and you can become very capable quickly if you ace the first level, but that's not to say it's a total cakewalk. The game has some tricky platforming segments (and you can only jump so far before plummeting downward), a few mean baddies to contend with and even some traps here and there, but the game is logically designed and seldom cheap or unfair. This is a good game to speed-run and it's fun while it lasts, but it's more of a curiosity than anything else. This video shows a few things in action (Spell, Mantle / Thread effectiveness, etc.). Enjoy.

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