Wizards and Warriors (video game)

Released in 1987 by Acclaim, developed by British company Rare, Wizards and Warriors features Knight in Shining Armor Kuros hopping through the kingdom, in search of his beloved (and nameless) Princess, abducted by token Evil Sorcerer Malkil. Along the way, he'll rescue any OTHER Damsels In Distress he happens to stumble over, along with picking up a variety of magical odds and ends, some of which may prove more useful than others.

Wizards and Warriors is essentially a platformer with dungeon-crawler elements and mild RPG elements. Players had to roam through large levels looking for enough gems to pay their way to a boss fight, and could collect keys, treasure, and special items along the way, while dealing with a 5-item inventory limit (with specific items using specific slots).

Would go on to spawn two NES sequels and one for the Game Boy.

The series provides examples of:

 * Beating a Dead Player
 * Boomerang Comeback: The Dagger and Ax in the first game.
 * The third game's second tier of the Knight class had a massive throwing axe that returned.
 * Bubbly Clouds: An eagle will take you there in the second game.
 * Cap: If playing the first game for score, the highest number the counter reaches is 999,999.
 * Contemptible Cover: The boxart of the second game features...uh...Fabio. No kidding.
 * Covers Always Lie: The cover artwork for all four games depict Kuros as a half-naked barbarian, despite the fact that he wears armor in the games.
 * Critical Annoyance: Getting low on health will trigger a musical ditty that most likely will cause you to promptly leap to your death.
 * Damsel in Distress: One at the end of each level. They're even labeled as such.
 * The third game had three of them, each holding a crystal that was required to access the dungeon level back entrance to the king's tower. The fourth was in possession of a three-headed dragon.
 * Death Is a Slap On The Wrist: While the sequels averted this, the original game was very forgiving regarding death. You come back to life on the exact spot at which you died, unless it was a boss fight, in which case you restart the boss fight. "Game Over" and continuing is treated as nothing more than just coming back to life again, and could be done infinitely.
 * Department of Redundancy Department: Feather Of Feather Fall, anyone?
 * Depth Perplexion: floating tree stumps in the forest of the first game.
 * Directionally Solid Platforms: Sometimes.
 * Disc One Nuke: The Boot of Force are the most powerful weapon in the first game. The developers were betting on your inadvertently trading them in later on, though.
 * Elemental Embodiment: In W&W 2, the bosses you fought were embodiments of the four classical elements (Wind, Water, Fire and Earth). In order to defeat them, you had to find a particular spell for which to enchant your sword.
 * Exactly What It Says On the Tin: The Dagger of Throwing, the Shield of Protection, the Boots of Lava Walk... Hell, just about every item.
 * Evil Sorcerer: Malkil.
 * Fake Difficulty: The platforming elements in this game can range from tricky (numerous sloped areas) to downright hellish (be prepared to lose a lot of lives trying to land perfectly on every floating platform in the 3rd wizard trial in the final game).
 * Fetch Quest: The four animal guardians in Ironsword really want their golden objects back.
 * Although in two of the cases said guardians appear to be too large to leave the room they occupy.
 * Fighter Mage Thief: The third game requires you to join all three guilds to proceed, complete with appropriate outfits.
 * Gaiden Game: Wizards & Warriors Chapter X: The Fortress of Fear for the Game Boy.
 * Gainax Ending: For the third game. Malkil explodes, leaving a Giant Swirly Thing. Kuros jumps into it and ends up in the future.
 * Giant Spider: One of the bosses.
 * Give Me Your Gems: The knight guarding the door to the boss in each level can only be placated by handing over the indicated amount of money. No, you can't kill him, no matter how much you may want to.
 * Coincidentally, this only appeases the guard, since the gems aren't actually subtracted from the player's total.
 * Guide Dang It: The cloud level of the second game requires you to bounce on the clouds to reach the upper reaches of the stage. There's no indication of how to do this in the game or manual.
 * Hyperactive Metabolism: Food heals in this game.
 * Not so much in the second game, since small chickens will restore health, but large chickens can kill a weakened warrior.
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests
 * Inverse Law of Utility and Lethality: Pushing the B button makes Kuros swing his sword with pathetically short range. His best attack strategy? Jumping. He keeps his sword extended during the leap, and any enemies that contact it are damaged.
 * Invisibility Cloak: One of the more infamous examples. You see, the Cloak makes YOU invisible. That is, your sprite becomes nigh impossible to see. The enemies, however, still manage to know exactly where you are...
 * Knight in Shining Armor: Kuros, though he's always shown as a barbarian type in cover art. And on TV.
 * Metroidvania: The third game.
 * Named Weapons: Kuros wields the Brightsword in W&W1, then the titular Ironsword in the sequel (after the pieces are collected).
 * The third game had the Silversword, a BFS that shoots some sort of magical bolts.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Malkil
 * Nintendo Hard: The first isn't particularly, due to infinite continues. The sequels, respectively, give you two continues, and NO continues.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: Accepting Malkil's offer at the end of Wizards and Warriors 3 treats you to a small cutscene of Kuros chained to the floor in front of Malkil's throne, wearing nothing but his knightly skivvies, as Malkil laughs. While that scene is the standard game over, the non-standard part of that is when you actually accept Malkil's offer. You walk over to the other end of the throne room, when Malkil blasts you with some sort of spell and says "Ha ha! The fool."
 * Powerup Letdown: In the first game, some items will replace other items. This may result in replacing the Boots of Force (which let you kick open treasure chests without a key) with the Boots of Lava Walk or vice versa. However, a major letdown is the Wand of Wonder, which freezes enemies in place... for less than one full second.
 * Even the Boots of Lava Walk are a let down, especially compared to the boots they replace. Lava boots: let Kuros ride the fire column but only in the lava stages, and provide less actual defense against standing on the lava than the manual (and item name) advertise. Boots of Force: lets Kuros open any chest you don't have the corresponding colored key for, and can kill enemies that your other weapons can't. And there's just something cool about killing giant spiders, bats, skulls, skeletons, and rock monsters, by your Knight in Shining Armor essentially using a karate kick (it works on bosses, too.)
 * This is much more apparent in Ironsword, since many of the items collected do absolutely nothing to improve Kuros' abilities.
 * Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: Why are there uncollected head-sized perfectly cut gemstones out in the open, is anyone's guess.
 * A Winner Is You: The second game's ending.
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: We've got plenty of damsels for you to rescue, though.