The game pits the player character as Kid Hero Dover, whose girlfriend Mia has been turned into a crystal ball and kidnapped after one of Wardner's henchmen, Terragon, has tricked them into joining him on a journey to Fantasia from the town of Niknik, and it is up to Dover to rescue her.
Ports of the arcade and FDS versions are available as a DLC add-on in the Compilation Re-release Toaplan Arcade Garage: Hishou Same! Same! Same! (which also includes Sky Shark and Fire Shark), which was released in Japan on April 28, 2022 for PlayStation 4note and Nintendo Switchnote .
Tropes appearing in this game:
- Adaptation Expansion: The Genesis version, titled Wardner no Mori SPECIAL in Japan, expands Stage 4 and divides it in half, and lengthens the final stage. It also expands the story by including more concise dialogs between the characters.
- Antagonist Title: Wardner is the final boss.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: "Wardner" is actually supposed to be "Werdna".
- Body Horror: The spider monsters have a gruesome animation where extra limbs burst out of them, leaving their dress covered in blood.
- Boss Rush: Added to the Genesis version. Towards the end of the final level, you fight all the bosses from the previous five levels again.
- Evolving Weapon: Dover starts out tossing pitiful fire balls at enemies, but after collecting enough glowing crystal balls it will become a long beam of flame.
- Giant Spider: The seemingly innocent trapped maiden in the second stage turns out to be one of these.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The first thing the game asks when you insert your coin is "Let me know your name" and allows you to enter a three letter initial. Guess what's the most common entry. And yes, it does get spliced into the dialog at several points in the game.
- I Fell for Hours: After climbing the Wardner's castle in the next-to-last level, Dover falls down a shaft all the way into the basement.
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Featured in the second stage.
- The Lost Woods: The first stage; the third stage is a mixture of this and Lethal Lava Land.
- Market-Based Title: The Arcade version is released as Wardner no Mori in Japan, Pyros in the US, and just Wardner in Europe.
- Malevolent Architecture: Spinning blades and other traps are common in the indoor levels.
- Mood Dissonance: The game has dark horror elements and its color palette is predominantly black, brown and gray. However, most of the characters look very cutesy — with Dover in particular looking like a doofus whenever he takes damage, and some of the music giving the impression that he is just taking a walk in the park.
- Money Spider: Enemies will often drop money.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Dover, except in the Famicom Disk System version. Can be subverted - see Single-Use Shield below.
- One-Winged Angel: Final Boss Wardner's real form is that of a hairy cloaked demon.
- Outside-the-Box Tactic: Wardner's second phase can be a Zero-Effort Boss if you have two fairies and then get the second one to fly where the monster spawns. He'll die in just two seconds.
- Peninsula of Power Leveling: In the second level there is a spot where you can repeatedly kill a bunch of easy Respawning Enemies. If you know where the level's hidden clock is and you have the equippable one at hand for extra time, you can get a lot of money and fire power with this trick.
- Save the Princess: Mia gets kidnapped in the intro.
- Single-Use Shield: Dover can find or buy a cloak that protects him from being hit once. There is also a sewing kit that protects the cloak once.
- A Winner Is You: After killing Wardner, his castle crumbles to reveal the Niknik scenery from the beginning of the game. Dover and Mia then wave their arms around as a little Victory Dance. "Congratulations!"
