Rygar: The Legendary Adventure Review

Rygar: The Legendary Adventure shares the name of its predecessors, which appeared in arcades and on the Nintendo Entertainment System, but other than a few references and the main character's yo-yo-like weapon, the latest incarnation of Rygar shares very little in common with those two games. Similarly, Rygar: The Legendary Adventure's thoroughly mediocre storyline and relatively short length are almost antithetical to the epic Greek mythology that the game is loosely based on, but the allure of an action platformer that plays reasonably well and looks and sounds excellent will more than likely serve as a blindfold for observing any such shortcomings.

Rygar: The Legendary Adventure has very little in common with the two previous games.

Despite its setting amid ancient Roman and Greek architecture as well as its colorful cast of mythical beasts, Rygar's story is anything but epic, and it essentially adheres to a series of generic plot templates that include kidnapping, amnesia, and a variety of other themes that have been used in dozens of other games. In this case, Princess Harmonia is kidnapped by the Titans, the ancient gods led by Cleopatra and a winged-demon character named Aristotle, who are attempting to release the evil spirit of Cronus. Naturally, Rygar--who has been training as a gladiator and conveniently doesn't remember anything before his time as a warrior--runs off to rescue Harmonia, and in the process, he learns of the history of Argos (the island where the game takes place) and himself. The story is told primarily through cutscenes, complete with melodramatic voice acting and horribly misspelled subtitles. Additional details about characters in the game unfold through documents and tablets that Rygar finds along his journey, but they have little bearing on the game. Obviously, there isn't a particularly high standard set for plots in action platformers, but Rygar's is especially shoddy, and you'll either cringe or laugh at its attempt at an engrossing narrative.

In either case, it's certainly worth wading through to get to Rygar: The Legendary Adventure's gameplay. Like in the Rygar games of old, your main weapon is the diskarmor, a spike-encrusted shield that Rygar can throw and retract like a yo-yo, but unlike in the previous games, this diskarmor is much more dynamic, allowing you to execute a variety of moves based on different button combinations. There are also three different versions of the diskarmor in the game, each of which has a unique set of moves and attributes, making them tailored for specific situations. The default diskarmor had average speed, range, and power, whereas the second diskarmor has the longest range and the most power but the slowest speed, and the third diskarmor has the fastest speed but also has a very short range and little strength in comparison to the others.

The storyline is pretty generic and fraught with poor voice acting and misspelled subtitles.

Each diskarmor can be upgraded in strength with experience points (which are gained when Rygar secures a purple orb) and modified to give Rygar bonuses when they're equipped in any available slots that particular diskarmor might have. Further, Rygar can summon a mythical creature that corresponds to the equipped diskarmor to dish out a heavy attack either against a boss or a group of enemies. As you might have guessed, this weapon plays a very important role in the game, and Tecmo has done a great job not only of giving each version a different feel, but also of making every diskarmor useful and fun to use. You'll likely spend a few minutes just playing around with some of the more entertaining moves, such as the ensnaring move that lets Rygar twirl an enemy over his head before hurling it back at his foes or the attack that creates a small whirlwind on top of the diskarmor, trapping anything that comes within a few feet of its circumference.

As such, it's somewhat unfortunate that there isn't a greater variety of enemies in the game. There are approximately four or five different types of enemies in the game--a few have minor variations and appear later in the game--and most of them can be easily defeated using basic diskarmor combinations. In fact, it's almost detrimental to try complicated combinations because they simply take too much time to execute, leaving Rygar open for a counterattack. The same almost holds true for the spectacular boss battles in the game--though the bosses are much larger than the average enemy, you'll tend to rely on the most basic attacks to defeat them, even during the final confrontation. However, it's worth reinforcing that the differences in each diskarmor are still relevant because of unique enemy movement and attack patterns.