Rygar (NES)

Rygar

NES - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Tecmo Publisher Tecmo Published 1987-04-17 Platforms NES, PlayChoice-10 Genres Beat 'em up, Metroidvania, Platformer Themes Adventure, Fantasy, Wilderness Series Rygar Distribution Commercial

Rygar is a Metroidvania developed and published by Tecmo for the Nintendo Entertainment System on 1987-04-17. The game is a reworking of the arcade original, turning it into a long adventure and adding sections that use a top-down-view. It's also the second in the Rygar series.

The land of Argool has fallen into chaos since the evil monster Ligar has taken over. You play the legendary hero Rygar who must travel through the lands of Argool, defeating monsters and proving yourself worthy to the Indora gods who will bestow mystic equipment upon you. Using these tools, you must fight your way to Ligar and defeat him in order to bring peace back to Argool.

In the US release, Rygar is the hero's name, but, in the Japanese original, the hero is nameless. The name Rygar comes from the end boss Ligar, (with the incorrect L and R swapping common in Japanese translations).

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes.
Finished	2022-05-24.

Growing up, none of my friends had Rygar and my only experience with it was from the lengthy guide in The Official Nintendo Player's Guide. It looked interesting, but not enough to convince me to seek it out. It wasn't until NES emulation became popular that I tried it. I assumed the game over screen upon my first death was a real game over, so I didn't make any attempt to beat it. Knowing that it had a cult following, I would occasionally try it again from time to time, but couldn't get a feel for it. When my friend Rob wanted to put his music transcriptions of the game's music online in the VGMPF, I decided I should probably play the game to see where all the songs are played, and then I discovered the game gives infinite continues, so I played it through.

Review

4	4	5	5	4

Best Version: NES

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• I like that the game offers infinite continues where the only setback is being put back a little. However, it would have been nice if the title screen actually made it clear that you are continuing and not restarting.
• If you find the game too difficult, you can grind and become more powerful. By the time you max out your Tone and Last, the game is quite easy. In fact, there are several safe places early in the game where you can just sit and slay forever-spawning monsters without even needing to move (although this is quite dull).
• Though the foregrounds are dull, a lot of the scenery pixel art is really good. The sprites are pretty good too. Also, by building it up with sprites and setting it to background priority, the game fakes parallax scrolling with the sun, a very nice trick.
• Although severely limiting himself with the hardware (the triangle and DPCM channels are ignored entirely, and the noise channel is only used in the ending theme), Michiharu Hasuya wrote a soundtrack which fits the game's epic theme.
• Adding top-down sections was a nice way to change up the pace of the game and prevent it from becoming boring.
• The Diskarmer is a cool weapon.
• I enjoyed the miniature boss rush near the end. Seeing how powerful I had become and wiping out the bosses that gave me a hard time earlier was very satisfying.

Bad

• Most of Garloz is just wandering around empty canyon walls which is boring. There are sections of other maps that are similarly empty. The designers should have added something to liven up these areas.
• Recovering your health after you die takes a long time. There are only a few places where you can refill your health quickly, so traveling to them takes awhile. Otherwise, you have to grind monsters until you get enough Mind to use Recover. Once you get the Coat of Arms there are several new places, but that doesn't happen until much later in the game.
• There is noticeable slowdown whenever a lot of sprites are on the screen.
• The same enemies are used all throughout the game. Even in maps far from the beginning, you're still fighting with Pragokelis and Rolphers. And, in the Den of Sagila, you fight Sunyougi and Ammolum which are just reskins of the former. While this was common at the time, Metroid, which was released months earlier, did this, but still managed to have much more variety.
• Having monsters despawn when they near the edge of the screen, only to respawn again as you move forward, is annoying. A similar problem existed in Ninja Gaiden and, just like that title, you can abuse the mechanic by letting enemies move away from you to despawn them.
• I found the bosses to be poorly calibrated. The first boss took me several attempts, but I killed the second without ever taking a hit. They zig-zagged in difficulty throughout the rest of the game.
• The abstract names for all the locations made it difficult for me to identify them. "Garloz" and "Garba" just aren't very memorable.
• A lot of the dialog from the gods is vague and unhelpful. "It's 2 AM and time for the monsters to awaken." WTF?
• Rygar's rope climbing animation looks dumb.

Ugly

• The hit detection is pretty terrible throughout the whole game, but especially with the wind pulley, where a miss means death. If you approach the rope slowly and near the mid-section of Rygar, you'll usually succeed, but it definitely should have been more accommodating.
• There are a lot of noticeable graphic glitches with sprite handling. For example, if you pause the game while the diskarmer is out, it remains partially visible in the menu.
• For as long as it will take the average player to beat the game, it really needs a password system. Battery backups were still new on the NES and quite rare, but passwords were more common.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The Famicom cover gives the game a manga feel, very different from the tone of the arcade original. The art is very cartoony with the hero looking akin to Astro Boy and the monsters in the background equally as childish. Even the subtitle lettering is manga-esque.

• 

  The art used on the US release is lacking a proper background, but gives the game an older comic book vibe. Rygar is a muscular adult and his diskarmer is now a flaming blade. The lettering shows the game's iconic sunset, and the tag line "Over ¼ million sold in Japan" is hilariously deceptive. The art is still lacking, but I prefer it. The European box used the same art, but used a slightly different layout.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - USA.

• 

  Poster - Japan.

• 

  Poster - USA.

• 

  The Official Nintendo Player's Guide - Part 1.

• 

  The Official Nintendo Player's Guide - Part 2.

• 

  The Official Nintendo Player's Guide - Part 3.

• 

  The Official Nintendo Player's Guide - Part 4.

• 

  The Official Nintendo Player's Guide - Part 5.

• 

  The Official Nintendo Player's Guide - Part 6.

• 

  The Official Nintendo Player's Guide - Part 7.

• 

  The Official Nintendo Player's Guide - blurb.

• 

  Tecmo ad.

Maps

• 

  Sueru Mountain.

• 

  Gran Mountain.

• 

  Garloz.

• 

  Rolsa.

• 

  Eruga's Forest.

• 

  Primeval Mountain.

• 

  Den of Sagila.

• 

  Primeval Mountain - Sunset.

• 

  Palace of Dorago.

• 

  Ragua Sando.

• 

  Lapis.

• 

  Tower of Garba.

• 

  Sky Castle.

Videos

Review - NES Works.

Longplay - Famicom.

Longplay - NES.

Play Online

Famicom, NES (Europe), NES (USA)

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no women.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are no women.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	All the characters appear white.
Queer character?	Fail	None of the characters appear to be queer.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Rygar
Japanese	アルゴスの戦士 はちゃめちゃ大進撃	Arugosu no Senshi ~Wa Chamecha Dai Shingeki~	Argos Warrior: Makes a Huge Advance

Link