Wardner

US flyer

**Wardner**, also known as **Wardner's Forest** (ワードナの森, *Wardner No Mori*) and **Pyros** is a side-scrolling platformer game developed by Toaplan and published by Taito in 1987 for arcades. It later received ports for the Nintendo Famicom Disk System in 1988 and the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991. The Mega Drive port was developed by Dragnet and published by Visco, with no involvement from Toaplan. In 2022 the game was added as a bonus DLC in the *Flying Shark! Shark! Shark!* compilation by M2.

## Story

In the afternoon, a boy and a girl are talking in the garden. Suddenly, a witch in a robe appears and invites them to follow. When he noticed, he was in a deep forest. There, the girl is turned into her crystal ball and she is taken away by the dragon. The boy runs in search of the girl in the direction the girl was taken away. There were wizards and strange people who had never seen them waiting for the boy. As the boy fought desperately, he saw an old building, and although he didn't know what he was selling in front of it, there was something like a store. However, a dragon instead of a guard dog is waiting in front of the store. The boy was crazy about defeating the dragon, and he rolled into the store. As expected, there were a lot of things the boy wanted, but he couldn't buy all of them, so the boy decided to buy as much as he could and leave the store.

When he left the store, he was inside the old building that he had just seen. When you look at it, you can see a blade wheel that spins around with a sharp blade, and something like a press machine that crushes everything. It seems that the foothold is also moving. The boy desperately sneaked through those machines and continued to move forward. He carefully walked through the building so that he wouldn't step on a dangerous foothold, and there was another store. This time he was able to buy more things than before.

When he left the store, it was a dead forest. There are some seas of fire, perhaps because of the eerily burning volcanoes and the lava. Skeletons wearing cloaks are flying around, and the enemy seems to be quite tough. But before he knew it, the boy got better at magic and didn't think he was too scared. On the way, the boy picked up a whistle like Ocarina. When he tried to blow it, it was a bird whistle, and a big bird would fly. The boy took the plunge and grabbed the bird, and the bird carried it to the next store. He didn't know what kind of enemies will come out in the future. The boy decided to buy as much as he could have here.

When he left the store, it seemed like the entrance to the castle. He's sure the girl is somewhere in this castle. He decides and steps inside. He seems to be in a maze. The boy was in danger there many times. If you're not good at climbing a ladder, stones have fallen from above. When he managed to get out of the maze, there was something like a passage leading to the basement. But there is no entrance. He climbs up to the top of the castle, wondering if he might. After all there it was. It's the entrance to the basement! Suddenly a huge dragon appeared from the flames. He defeated the enemy before he knew how he fought. At the entrance to the gaping underground, the boy jumped off with all one's might...

## Gameplay

The player controls the main character with an 8-way lever and two buttons for shooting and jumping. The game consists of 5 stages and is completed in one loop. Players can enter their names before the game starts, and their names are automatically recorded in the score ranking upon clear or game over.

At first, the player can only fire one shot of "flame magic," the standard weapon available to players. Taking 16 small item balls or 1 large item ball, which can be obtained by defeating enemies along the way, increases the magic flame by 1 and powers up the shot. Up to 10 consecutive shots are possible, and their status can be checked by the matrix of weapons and at the bottom of the screen.

Gold can also be accumulated by collecting gold nuggets and money bags that appear at key points in the stage or after defeating enemies, and the gold can be used to purchase special weapons, cloaks, and other items at the item store when the stage is cleared. The item store can only be visited once after clearing a stage, and items can only be purchased four times, once at the start of each of the second through fifth stages. Therefore, a certain amount of planning is required to purchase items in order to clear all aspects of the game.

If you are attacked by an enemy without a cloak, you will die. If the cloak is equipped, the attack can be prevented once, and the cloak can be repaired only once if a needle and thread are purchased at the store. In addition, falling into a hole in the middle of the stage and time over will also result in a loss of a life. In the normal setting, the game is over after three lives are lost. The factory default setting for extending the score is to add one extra player for every 30,000 points. If a player loses a life, all purchased items are forfeited and the game starts over from a specific point. However, any shot power-ups and special weapons that have been confirmed by the time of the life lost will remain in effect.

## Weaponry

* Standard weapon (no official name): A fire spell that parabolizes forward and falls, with the lowest power, size, range, and shot speed. It disappears when it reaches the ground. It has a short range, and if powered up, it is the only weapon with an excellent gap between shots. If you purchase a special weapon from the item store, you will not be able to use it anymore. If you do not purchase a special weapon, you can continue to use it, but it is very difficult to clear the entire game with this weapon due to the bosses after the second level and the composition of the final level.
* Star Sword: Can be purchased from the item store. A long, thin, red flame magic weapon, larger than the standard weapon, that moves forward while oscillating up and down from the center of the ship. It flies to the edge of the screen. When the standard rate of fire is low, a gap is created while the shot remains in the screen, but many players purchase this weapon in the early stages of the game because it can reach the edge of the screen.
* Moon Sword: Can be purchased from the item store. It is a large circle of light magic that is fired from a position slightly above the player and flies to the edge of the screen in a spinning trajectory. It is more powerful than the Star Sword, and its high speed makes it difficult to miss. However, because of its unique shot characteristics, it is a weapon that some players do not purchase.
* Sword of the Sun: The Sun Sword can be purchased from the Item Shop. It is a so-called laser that shoots a high-speed light magic like a white missile forward from the center of its own body. It has no penetrating ability. The highest price in the Item Shop is not only true, but it is also very powerful and is almost indispensable for the enemies in the last stage of the game. It tracks up and down according to the position of the player, but if the firing ability is not high, it will leave a lot of gaps, just like the star sword.
* Cloak: The cloak can be purchased at the item shop, and can also be used on the road. It can be purchased at the item store, and there are also places along the way where it can be obtained.
* Thread and Needle: Can be purchased from the Item Shop. Can be purchased only when the cloak is equipped. Therefore, the first time you lose a life, it is always consumed from here.
* Clock: Can be purchased from the Item Shop. If the time reaches zero while in possession of this item, one minute will be added to the time limit displayed in the lower right corner of the screen, and the time will be consumed. A relief item.
* Ocarina: Can be purchased from the item store on certain surfaces. If you have it in a certain place, it will be used automatically and you can call the firebird. If caught by the firebird, you can skip much of the way while staying in the safe zone on the screen.
* High Jump Shoes: Can be purchased from the item store on certain surfaces. When equipped in a springy area, they allow you to fly high.
* Fairy: A flying fairy that tracks the trajectory of your player and attacks enemies. It is a de facto barrier equipment and can be equipped up to 2 people in total. Since there are usually only two of them on the road and they are lost when the number of remaining planes decreases, the player is inevitably forced to make an all-out no-miss play in order to bring two of them to the final plane. There is a place on the final surface where the difficulty level decreases dramatically when equipped.

## Features and Techniques

The player is characterized by the fact that during the fall, the player cannot adjust the fall point by using the left and right levers. Therefore, to take the cloak on the first side, the player must go to the right once, descend from a high place, and then go to the left. The cloak or "thread and needle" absorbs the player's damage. However, the invincibility time after that is extremely short (about 1 second), so it is common to die by taking damage in rapid succession.

The gap of one block at the same height as when the player crouched down can be entered by moving the lever up and down, which is necessary to get fairy items on the fourth floor. If the player moves backward while climbing the ladder, the fairy can be brought in front of the player. This can be used to remove the attack judgment of stones falling from the ladder on the fourth floor.

## Enemies

* Gizar
* Bocur
* Fire
* Spike
* Zombie Head
* Carriage
* Decaton
* Nuraguchi
* Taiho
* Kinto
* Mondoroon
* Puruf
* Iwauon
* Zombie
* Takanon
* Mage
* Skeleton Knight
* Untares
* Ghost
* Harpie
* Rainbow

## Gallery

FDS coverJP Mega Drive coverUS Mega Drive cover