Columbus Circle the makers of aftermarket retro gaming accessories and other reissues of rare and previously unfinished games has recently announced on their YouTube channel that a reprint of the Sega Mega Drive version of Toaplan’s Ghosts ‘N Goblins style platformer “Wardner no Mori” will be released later this year with the license from Tatsujin Co. Ltd a small company owned by Masahiro Yuge who worked at Toaplan years ago and now owns all their IPs. The Sega version was not made by Toaplan. It was outsourced by Visco Corporation and was previously released as “Wardner no Mori Special” back in 1991. It did get a North American Genesis release under the name “Wardner” and it is the only home port of the game released in the west for many years. The reason why this was called “Wardner no Mori Special” is because this was a reworked version of the original arcade game with a different stage order and some additional boss fights.
For those who are unfamiliar with Wardner it is very similar to other arcade platformers at the time like Ghosts N Goblins, Karnov, Toki, etc. You play as a young fireball hurling magician and you’re on a quest to save your female companion from a spooky villain hiding in a forest. It’s VERY challenging. 6 stages full of levels with quirks and traps. You upgrade your character at a shop between each level. It is good fun and one of the hardest Sega games most of you never tried.
This reissue will have brand new cover art designed by manga artist Bkub Okawa. Release date in Japan is TBA.
David Medina is a hardcore gamer and Japanese import collector owning dozens of systems and games from Famicom to Nintendo Switch. He has an active YouTube channel called "The Karnov Jr Show" and posts retro gaming content there weekly showing off collections, random store tours, and gameplay clips.
David Medina is a hardcore gamer and Japanese import collector owning dozens of systems and games from Famicom to Nintendo Switch. He has an active YouTube channel called "The Karnov Jr Show" and posts retro gaming content there weekly showing off collections, random store tours, and gameplay clips.
