User Reviews

One of those games I played a lot back when the NES was the cool system. Featuring a warrior and based on an arcade game of the same name, this one would be revamped into its on deity on the NES. Good thing too, the arcade game is insanely difficult and nowhere near as fun as this version is that has flaws, but overall is still a fun game. It is on the short side, but good thing as there is no password or save system so if you give this one a go, you're going to have to win it in one sitting or leave you NES on all night like I did one time playing it. Of course, my most recent play through was on an emulator so I was able to use a save state.

The story, the land of Argool is under siege from evil! Evil in the form of a statue with wavy snake arms residing in a floating castle. As Rygar, you must traverse the land in order to collect the necessary tools to make your way to the castle to fight Ligar! Or, statue with wavy snake arms. You will be assisted by muscular bald dudes who give you righteous clues and by dudes with bigger foreheads who will give you the items you need to succeed!

The game play can almost be described as Metroidvania as you must get certain items to keep progressing through the games; however, this game does not have the depth of a Zelda or Metroid game as it is on the short side. It does have more depth though than many other games and it is nice they changed it up from the arcade version. You use the disc armor as your weapon, a shield with spikes that spins and kills! You have to battle bosses which are absent in the arcade game to collect items like grappling hooks to continue on your quest and the more monsters you kill, the more life you are rewarded. You also get to go through side scrolling levels and overhead ones so you have a bit of variety and the music is rather good too.

So, this game is fun and I enjoyed it even today though I was surprised by how quickly I got through it. I guess things just seem lengthier when one is a kid. Also, over the years I have played many role playing games so leveling up felt like it took no time, but when I was a kid it felt like forever!

Sometimes with consoles there are what are called indirect arcade ports. This surprised me because usually with arcade ports they would replicate (if not one hundred present accurate) the game directly but this game they decided to take a whole different direction which is being an action RPG though now considered "Metroid Vania" and surprisingly it turned out to be a good direction.

The game is a childhood gem of mine as it was one of the very first NES games I've rented out (though I do own now for the record) I remember the first time I saw it that cool cover of the main hero using his shield weapon but also just simply the fact that I finally was going to play an NES version of one of my favorite video games in the arcade, despite not quite what I had in mind I still had some fun with it.

The graphical presentation is good it's nothing mind-blowing, there are a few rough spots this game was after all one of the first video games Tecmo released for the NES. The enemies are solid looking and there is a good variety of them from a bunch of flying bat creatures to some that looks like an undiscovered dinosaur species, and even like the bosses that are all unique which consist of an unusual giant creature with two snake heads that shoot fire; their all slightly easy to beat.

Even the backgrounds are good as each of the areas you always run toward and exploring are always something different which give you the feel that you really are exploring a broad fantasy world. This helps in retaining interest and keeping the game a little fresh as each of the section always present not just a new environment waiting to be ventured but also a new challenge to conquer. Though I also like that they reused some of the backgrounds from the original arcade game just to keep the game slightly true to its roots.

Music is decent it's nothing memorable as most of the time it's a repetitive short beat but it's still serviceable as it retains the adventure feel of the game.

Gameplay is solid, they pretty much keep the same run and gun like action from the original arcade game on constantly moving while slinging your shield in the direction you need it to. But of course, they added some things to fit this game.

For one thing there are certain places where the game completely switches from the two-dimensional platform view to the overhead view, which I'll admit seems a little strange at first but makes sense from this game being an action RPG but it actually helped keep the game interesting and helped with the exploring aspect.

And, for you character like in any RPG you have certain items to find and use as you go along, like a grappling hook and even a hang glider for the diagonal ropes. But also, your character can level up in both lives but also in attacks like your shield weapon has more power in it's hits and even the sling becomes longer than before.

The game is also on the short side as there is no passwords or save function, it's kind of one of those one go action RPGs, so you actually can finish this game in about an hour that is if you know all the secrets and where to go and do.

Though the game does have it's miss swings, one of the problems with the game is the same fundamental problem that certain other NES games have (Goonies 2 and Castlevaina 2 notably) where the clues on where to go and what to do can be a bit vague, destination and other clues they contain can be a little too far apart which can make you easily lost; which is why it's a shame early games like this never thought having a video map was a good idea. But this also can cause you to do some backtracking which I always though was a pain in the butt sometimes because it meant slowdown. So, you may need a guide to help get though most of the game.

Other problem is it can be kind of redundant in places as in areas some of the same enemies can pop up over and over. There needed to be a bit more variety in places just to keep things interesting.

Overall, this was a good game for anyone a fan of the original arcade game or just a fan of vintage action RPG's it's worth a swing.

Rating: 3 stars.