Exploration? In *my* Rygar? It’s more likely than you think.
Tecmo released Rygar, known elsewhere as Warrior of Argus, to Japanese arcades in 1986. In Rygar, you play as a guy named Rygar. He used to be dead, but now he’s not. He’s pretty cool. You know how people use shields to protect themselves? That’s now how Rygar uses shields – he prefers a more Captain America-ish approach.
Sweet. Strangely, in the Japanese version, “Rygar” is actually the name of the antagonist. That feels like a pretty huge mix-up, honestly.
While most NES versions of arcade games are mostly just watered down versions of the originals, Rygar is a rather fascinating exception. The arcade version is the typical side-scrolling action game that you’d expect from these screenshots, many aspects of the NES version are completely different. The In general, it’s far more open-ended, and offers permanent power-ups and branching paths – it plays a lot more like Metroid or an old school Zelda than, well, the original Rygar. It’s pretty cool!
There are a bunch of varied environments (and even different ‘camera angles,’ as seen above), cool enemies (again, above), cool music, and surprisingly good graphics for a game from 1987. None of these aspects are a complete home run, exactly, but the game definitely does everything well. Well, almost everything.
What’s really, really unfortunate about Rygar having this sort of gameplay is that it has no save or password system whatsoever, so you have to experience its big, open world in one go. This is such a huge shame – I feel like this has the potential to be one of the NES’s unsung classics if this weren’t the case. As it is, it’s a fun and ambitious game that very few people are going to be able to experience in full. It’s like the game equivalent of Infinite Jest, or that two-foot hot dog they sell at Minnesota Twins games.
Humanity, you don’t need to make things like this. No one is making you do this. Please, just think about it.
As is the case with the original Metroid, Rygar offers a big, cool world, but no real way to keep track of where you are or need to go next. If you play this one, I recommend either having a map handy or making one as you go, like cool 80s kids presumably did. I found it pretty easy to get lost. There are, thankfully a handful of rooms where you can get little hints or piece of advice – this is sort of a fun trope of games in this era, and I’m really glad they’re in this one.
Ugh, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve been told this. So frustrating.
This part doesn’t actually matter, but I also really enjoy the cartridge art for this one, not because it’s especially great or anything, but because when you put in a top-loading NES, it looks like Rygar is shoving this bad guy down into the console:
Now that’s badass. Don’t mess with Rygar, or he’ll shove you into an old gaming console. What are you gonna do about it?
Anyway, Rygar can be had for less than $10 pretty much anywhere, and despite a couple of very frustrating flaws, it’s a decent addition to any NES library. There’s also an Atari Lynx version (which is more like the arcade game), and a sort-of remake on the PS2, which plays a bit like a prototypical God of War. It’s not bad.
We’ll be staying on the NES for next week’s game, which seems quite a bit like some of the others we’ve covered recently, but possibly better? I guess we’ll find out.