Nostalgic Vacation: 1986 - Rygar: Legendary Warrior

On 09/16/2014 at 02:36 AM by KnightDriver

I went through a bunch of lists for this year and came up with some titles to consider for my visit to nostalgia land. For NES it was: Commando, Ghosts n' Goblins, and Gradius. Sega Master System it was: Alex Kidd, Space Harrier, and Alien Syndrome. Arcade it was: Return of Ishtar, Arkanoid, Bubble Bobble, Out Run, Rygar, Gauntlet II, Darius, Ikari Warriors, Jackal, Joust 2 and Victory Road (the sequel to Ikari Warriors). PC/Mac it was: Star Flight, Wizard's Crown, Space Quest, Might & Magic Book 1, and Dark Castle.

rygarcab

I finally decided on arcade game Rygar: Legendary Warrior because I'd recently gotten the Wii Rygar game and the one on PS2. To find a port I had two choices: Tecmo Classic Arcade for Xbox and Wii Virtual Console. I really wanted that Xbox Tecmo collection but I couldn't find it locally, so I went with Virtual Console. I had points there left over too, so it didn't cost me anything new.

rygarblade

That's a long chain there.

Rygar is a side-scrolling action game. You wield the Diskarmor, a shield attached to a long chain. The game has faintly Roman references, but the land his called Argool. You're up against Evil King Ligar and his minions. You travel through five realms to visit the temples of the Indora gods who give you items to continue in the game. You fight off a large variety of monsters most of which are similar to various animals. There are some robots too.

I found this game really appealing to look at and full of interesting enemies, but it is, like a lot of arcade games, darn hard. You just get swamped with enemies from every direction. It's absolutely brutal. I got pretty far with infinite continues but I finally quit out of frustration at seeing myself die over and over again. I think with some tweaks to the numbers of enemies, this game could be really fun.

rygar

Could I be any more surrounded?

While watching this I realized I wasn't swinging my shield around like

this guy. I think I missed something in the controls.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

09/16/2014 at 02:57 AM

never played the arcade version, but I got to the last boss on NES, died, and never played it again.

KnightDriver

09/16/2014 at 03:26 AM

The NES version is apparently very different from the arcade version, but I'd try that sometime if I come across a copy.

Cary Woodham

09/16/2014 at 07:49 AM

My friend and I rented the NES version. A while later we saw the arcade one only once and noted it was different than the NES one. And that's all I remember. Tecmo made a 3-D Rygar game on the PS2. It was kind of fun, but most of what you did was smash Greek buildings, so it made me think of Rampage.

09/16/2014 at 03:07 PM

I heard that PS2 version, then ported to Wii, being described like God of War, so I picked them up. It got me interested in the series even though I haven't played the new one yet. I'm finding from this arcade Rygar that I really like the world and gameplay.

Alex-C25

09/16/2014 at 11:18 AM

As noted, the NES version is apparently different and much better. Couldn't know because i've never played Rygar.

09/16/2014 at 03:13 PM

Man, all this talk of the NES version makes me want to play it now. I'll have to keep my eye open for a copy next time I'm at my retro store Jay Street VG.

Super Step Contributing Writer

09/16/2014 at 11:41 AM

I played the NES version once and all I remember is it looked a lot more plain than that video.

09/16/2014 at 03:16 PM

I noticed all the arcade ports to NES this weekend. My friend Mark has a whole case full of them. They're good, but noticeably lower quality than the arcade versions across the board. I think consoles finally caught up to the arcades when CDs happened in '95.

NSonic79

09/16/2014 at 12:28 PM

I tried this out once at a local laundrymat long ago. I was taken aback on how different it was to the NES vesion that I'd played and beaten before. I'm still debating to on which version to get as well. The Wii's VC Acrade seems like a solid go but I'm still hoping to find the Xbox Tecmo collection sometime soon. Plus I already hoped to get the VC Arcade game of Ninja Gaiden if only to complete all the NG games I already own thanks to VC.

09/16/2014 at 03:31 PM

I got a Wii because of VC. It's getting some good use now finally.

I love having collections, so I really want that Tecmo one. It's not expensive either. I just gotta get a Amazon card sometime.

goaztecs

09/23/2014 at 10:30 AM

I never knew it was an arcade game. I always thought it was an NES game, learn something new. As for the game itself, I think it was one of those games that we used to be in the stack of games my friends and I would play whenever we brought our games together at someone's house.

09/23/2014 at 04:22 PM

It was news to me too. I'll have to try the NES version sometime.

PixlBit