Wardner

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NTSC-U NTSC-J
Wardner
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Visco (Japan), Mentrix Software (US)
Developer: Dragnet
Original system(s): Arcade boards
Developer(s) of original games: Toaplan
Sound driver: Dragnet/Kazuo Okabayashi
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1991-04-26 ¥6,300 (6,489)6,300e T-58013 US 1991-05 $49.9549.95 58016
Non-Sega versions Arcade Famicom Disk System

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Wardner, called Wardner no Mori in Japan and Pyros in its initial North American release, is a 1987 arcade platformer by Toaplan. Visco ported it to the Sega Mega Drive in 1991, removing Toaplan's name and publishing it in Japan as Wardner no Mori Special (ワードナの森ＳＰＥＣＩＡＬ). They would then license it to Mentrix Software for publication in the US as Wardner. The later developed Gods by The Bitmap Brothers shares some elements with this game.

Story

A boy and a girl are wandering about when they get lost in the Forest of Wardner. Suddenly, a green spectre comes and kidnaps the girl, leaving the boy to find her.

Gameplay

and jump. Jumping on vines will automatically latch you onto them to climb. crouches; you can jump while crouch and will need to do so to collect gold treasure, which serves as a currency. shoots fire to destroy enemies with. Defeated enemies drop money bags or orbs, which power up the main shot after you collected 15 of them. You lose a life with one hit, unless you collect a cape (absorbs one hit) or bought needle and yarn (absorbs another hit).

Stages

The game has a total of 6 stages, all of which end with a shop where powerups may be purchased.

	Stage 1 - Woods
	Stage 2 - Trap House
	Stage 3 - Lava Woods
	Stage 4 - Castle, lower section
	Stage 5 - Castle, upper section
	Stage 6 - Dungeon

Shop items

• Star - wave shot
• Moon - circle motion shot
• Sun - long beam shot, most powerful magic
• Cape - take one hit without dying
• Needle & Yarn - when in possession of the cape, take another hit without dying
• Clock - an extra 30 seconds once the timer runs out

Tips and tricks

By talking to the witch in stage 4, the timer will be reset. This can be abused to collect infinite score as certain enemies in this stage also reset. If this is also present in the Arcade version or not is currently unknown.

Versions

The game has been remixed for the Mega Drive port: Stage 2 got a new boss (was a reused stage 1 boss). Stage 3 got the Arcade version's Stage 4 boss (original stage 3 boss was also a reused boss). Stage 4 has been split up into stages 4 and 5, with new bosses added. These resulting stages also contain a few extra sections. The final series of rooms leading to Wardner has also been changed significantly, with the home port having the double amount of rooms and differing obstacles in them. The final boss had a safe spot just in front of his knee, allowing to defeat him with no effort. This has been fixed by changing his attack pattern. Various other changes exists such as different hidden bonuses, etc.

The graphical conversion left much to be desired. Parts of it, such as missing background details, world map and shop entrance graphics, can be explained by the small ROM size. Other changes however, appear to have been avoidable. Multiple stages have pig parts of the color palette unused (TODO attach Hivepal picture of stage 2 and 3 palette). All enemies aside from the floating skulls draw their colors from this limited pool. Color positions were swapped for unknown reasons, so that objects in the background appear brighter than in the foreground. (TODO attach picture of stage 1 wine and stage 3 bird statue).

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English (US)	Wardner	Wardner
Japanese	ワードナの森ＳＰＥＣＩＡＬ	Wardner no Mori Special

Magazine articles

Main article: Wardner/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #27: "October 1991" (1991-xx-xx)
also published in:

• GamePro (US) #16bit: "16-bit Video Gaming: February 1992" (1992-xx-xx)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1991-04: "April 1991" (1991-03-08)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication Score Source ACE (UK) 71 Ação Games (BR) 75 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) 68 Beep! MegaDrive (readers) (JP) 61 Famitsu (JP) 53 №130, [1] GamePro (US) 84 Games-X (UK) 80 №11 Hippon Super (JP) 40 №1991-04, p42 Joystick (FR) 83 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 43 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 48 №5, p95 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 53 №5, p95 MegaTech (UK) 75 Mean Machines (UK) 84 Sega Power (UK) 80 Sega Power (UK) 43 Sega Pro (UK) 54 Sega Pro (UK) 25 №18, p68 Sega Pro (UK) 48 №18, p68 Tilt (FR) 85

	63
Based on 20 reviews

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 30 ACE (UK) 71 ACE (UK) NTSC 75 Ação Games (BR) 75 Aktueller Software Markt (DE) 53 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 68 Console XS (UK) NTSC-J 48 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 74 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 53 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 84 Games-X (UK) 80 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 40 Joystick (FR) 83 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 43 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) NTSC-U 48 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) NTSC-J 53 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 55 MegaTech (UK) NTSC 75 Mean Machines (UK) NTSC-J 84 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 75 Power Play (DE) 72 Sega Power (UK) NTSC-J 75 Sega Power (UK) NTSC-U 43 Sega Pro (UK) 54 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-U 25 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 48 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 61 Tilt (FR) 85

	62
Based on 28 reviews

Wardner

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart PCB

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 1e369ae2 MD5 03fcaef50c6a5e889690a25b1433499a SHA-1 23bd6421f0e3710350e12f9322e75160a699ace8	512kB	1990-12	Cartridge (US)
✔	CRC32 80f1035c MD5 473332d97eb0bf9b16490379c57a1ada SHA-1 28844399b73628a3507ca38e855d0afe24c59f4b	512kB	1990-12	Cartridge (JP)