Release Date: 1987
Developer: Tecmo
Publisher: Tecmo
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) has more than its share of classic titles. I loved playing them all, but I much preferred discovering games that, while not heralded as absolute classics, I still enjoyed playing for hours on end. Tecmo’s Rygar, a cult classic among NES fans, fits that description for me to a tee.
Rygar started life as a 1986 side-scrolling arcade game. In it, you played the role of an unnamed “legendary warrior” bent on saving Earth from the evil being named Rygar or Ligar (there are honestly two spellings in Japan and both are correct; the Japanese katakana for the syllables “Li” and “Ry/Ri” are the same). The game was standard action-arcade fare: run through multiple levels, killing enemies and collecting bonuses. It was substandard for its time and didn’t do all that well Stateside.
Tecmo only ported Rygar to one home console in North America: the NES. There was a port for the Sega Master System, but it only saw a release in Japan. There was also a Commodore 64 port available in North America, but it was a direct port the arcade port. With the NES port, Tecmo changed the gameplay style. Gone was the arcade gameplay; in its place was action-adventure gameplay with light RPG elements like item upgrades and power-ups similar to character levels. The game also has a world progression system similar to Metroid. Your character initially has access to only part of the world, but finding certain items unlocks new areas. The game’s story also saw some changes during localization to the States. Rygar is now your character’s name, the boss is named King Ligar, and the world name is changed from Earth to Argool.
One thing that didn’t change, though, is the character’s weapon. Rygar’s signature Diskarmor is carried over from the arcade game virtually unchanged. It is essentially a spiked shield on a chain that Rygar flings into enemies like a medieval yo-yo. The Diskarmor is as iconic to Rygar’s character as Kratos’ Bkades of Athena and Link’s Master Sword.
Gameplay on the NES is smooth. As you explore the lands of Argool, enemies pop up from the ground around or above you. Simply kill jump over them and move on. The amount of enemies can get a bit overwhelming at times, so sometimes jumping and running are best. You will also have to jump over pits and across terrain, as well as climb mountains via rope or platforming. There are also top-down areas that are usually traversed using special items in order to proceed. Occasionally, you will find rooms where sages will give you clues to help you along.
Your primary goal while adventuring is locating the five Indora gods, who will help you progress by each giving you an item. All five gods are guarded by a boss character who you must first dispatch. After collecting all five items, you must journey to a flying castle where the final confrontation with King Ligar awaits.
The gameplay is excellent but challenging. This game will punish you at first as you learn the mechanics and the enemy tendencies. Later levels can be even more grueling, forcing you to fight multiple enemies from all sides while navigating difficult jumps. This game is a long grind for gamers, made worse by the fact that there is no way to save progress. There is no password system, and the game did not include a battery backup for saving your last position. Players can look forward to either suffering through a long marathon, as I did back in the day, or keep the machine on overnight so as to not lose their place.
Fortunately, the game isn’t as vicious as other NES games like Battletoads, which limited the amount of continues you have, or LJN’s Terminator, which granted you no continues at all. Whenever you die in Rygar, you can continue indefinitely. You are simply returned to the start of the last area you were in, progress and inventory intact.
The graphics are good for the NES. The different areas all have varied landscapes, and the enemies are well-drawn and decently animated. The NES does chug a bit when there are numerous enemy sprites onscreen, and there can be some annoying screen flicker, but the visuals get the job done respectably. The same cannot be said of Rygar’s music and sound effects. The music gets monotonous quickly, and the various sound effects do nothing to raise the game’s audio palette. I suggest muting the game and playing some Metallica.
Does the game still hold up? Remarkably, yes. The gameplay’s challenge will test even seasoned retro gamers, and it’s an undeniably fun challenge to boot. Games like Metroid and Castlevania III do the gameplay style better, but this game is still a blast.
If you want to play Rygar now, you are limited to either buying the cartridge or emulating it. The Atari Lynx port, the version included in Tecmo Classic Arcade for the original Xbox, and the Wii Virtual Console version are all ports of the inferior arcade version. For those retro junkies who have an NES or a compatible system, Rygar is a great cart to have in your library.
Good: Great, challenging gameplay; colorful, detailed graphics.
Bad: Music and sound effects disappoint; no saves or passwords.
Final score: 8.5/10
