Thursday, January 27, 2011

Game 44: Wizard Warz (1987)

Oh, good. Four-color graphics.





"Character creation."






How did the crown fit over his horns?



This was my last.

Phase 1 ended with an awesome cut scene:

No, just kidding.




MobyGames's entry on Wizard Warz is interesting. For something that looks like a barely-noted shareware game, it sure was ported to a lot of platforms: Amiga, Amstrad, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, and ZX Spectrum. Was there really that much demand for a light CGA action game by 1987? (Pirates! was available!) The developer is listed as Canvas, which also developed Airborne Ranger (1988), a game I remember playing with great joy on my C64, and incidentally probably much more a CRPG than Wizard Warz. [Edit: Canvas didn't develop Airborne Ranger, of course. They just ported the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum versions of it.]


[Edit: Many years later, I returned to Wizard Warz and won it. Read the updated entry.]


  1. Ys is another Falcom developed, japanese action-rpg. The Ys series is remembered fondly by many, though I suspect it might not do much for you.

  2. I remember playing Airborne Ranger as a child. It actually has quite entertaining gameplay. The only problem, if I remember correctly, is in order to successfully beat any level, you just had to hide in a bunker at the beginning of the game, and all the enemies in the map would eventually get bored, and run up to you and let you shoot them from the safety of a bunker. After that, beating each level was pretty easy, since there were no more enemies.

  3. I know it's against your rules, but as a composer I have to say that you should really try to play Ys on a TurboGrafx emulator, or buy it on Wii Virtual Console if possible. The soundtrack for this game is pretty famous for being amazing on some platforms and crap on others, and a quick search reveals that the PC version is one of the worst ones.

    The first 30 seconds of the video is the PC audio, the second 30 is the TurboGrafx audio:

  4. If you don't have the manual for Ys, the one thing you're absolutely going to need to know is that you attack enemies by walking into their sprite BUT NOT HEAD ON. Either attack from behind, the side, or if you must go head on, be half a tile off center.

    This one isn't very good... the PC-88 version was okay, but the game's sequel is a ton better. Plus the IBM PC version's music is horrible. Good luck!

    @Taylor: I know most people like the TurboGrafx version's music more, but I've always had a soft spot for the original PC-88 soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro, especially for Ys II.

  5. Not that it probably matters, but there was a graphical overhaul/remake called Ys Eternal released a few years back for PC. I think it may require a fan translation patch to be played in English, but I'm not sure.

  6. Well, let's see if Y's can make a good impression on you. I myself know nothing of the game series but that what has been stated in the comments (the gameplay sounds like it could be challenging in a good way, and I think I remember reading somewhere that your PC attacks by "football-tackling the enemy") and a DS Game that I saw reviewed on X-Play before DirecTV dropped the G4 channel.

    Also, thanks for the shout-out in PoR!)

  7. I'm not a graphics whore, but even back in the good ol' days I never liked CGA. I think I had one game with CGA graphics and avoided anymore like it. Instead I just stuck with the C64 until more games started coming out in EGA.

  8. Thanks for the advanced notice on Ys, everyone. First posting on that in a little bit, and the information about combat tactics was very helpful.

    Skavenhorde, I don't know if Wizard Warz is the last CGA game of the bunch, but it has to be close.

    Taylor, I hate to say this to a composer, but video game music does nothing for me. Even in games celebrated for the quality of the music, I usually turn it off. So it's not enough to make me mess with another emulator. Thanks for posting the video, though: the distinction is quite stark.

  9. @CRPG: I don't mind; some people don't care about game music and that's perfectly fine. It was worth warning you in case you did, though :)

    @Karnov: Sorry if I picked the wrong version to recommend; I didn't know which was the best one myself and just wanted to post something here about it ASAP.

  10. Wow Airborne Ranger! Good memories, pc version.. Very good action game of its time.. classic.. Didn't know it was from the same company as "Wizwarz" I think I thought the game or .exe was called.. Never could play it for more than like 5 minutes ..

    Never played Ys games.. though I liked both music sets from the above youtube link! If you've grown up with the PC, then you have to love the beeper, lol!

  11. I always confuse this game with Wizard Wars... Stupid Phantasy Spelling Fallacy!

  12. It seems that Wizard Warz actually looked far prettier on other systems, which could explain its PC problems. I assume you have noticed in your endless astounding meanderings that often games that looked and sounded* like dynamite on Amiga or even C64/Atari/Apple sometimes ended up in 4-color CGA with PC speaker sound effects and seemed like one of the worst games ever. Phantasie III always struck me as a particularly worrying example of an awful PC port of a fun game.

    1. The colors are definitely better on other ports of the game, but the graphics still aren't "good." But yes, it's often been pointed out that I'm playing the worst version.

      After I played this, MobyGames removed it as a "CRPG."









