Rygar: The Battle of Argus (Wii)

Who says the Wii is a system for shovelware, tacked-on motion controls, and poorly-made ports? Rygar: Battle of Argus proves that the console is perfectly capable of...a six-year old, repetitive PS2 port with tacked-on motion controls. Tecmo has a hard sell with this title, as the game wasn't spectacular six years ago, and it certainly doesn't stand the test of time with its basic combat and aged graphics.


The God of War, Devil May Cry, and Ninja Gaiden series have all raised the third-person action genre to new heights of visceral combat, intuitive controls, and great storytelling. Rygar has none of these. While the combat isn't broken, it's unbelievably basic when you put it up against the aforementioned series. It's repetitive and too offense-based, and it all seems horribly dated in 2009.

One thing the game does have going for it is a large variety of environments. Your combat experience may get repetitive, but at least the world around you is always changing. Unfortunately, the camera angles often give you a very odd or inconvenient view of the action, so you might not get the best vantage point for the combat or environments.

Rygar seems to come from the "early Resident Evil" school of cutscenes, voice acting, and character development. Everyone is a cookie cutter character with voice acting on par with Dracula at the beginning of Symphony of the Night.

There's no real reason to recommend this game. It's not a broken action game, but its age is blatantly obvious. The genre has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last six years, and Rygar seems downright archaic by today's standards.

Graphics: 4.0

Sound: 3.5

First Play: 6.0

Replay Value: 5.5

Gameplay: 6.0

Overall: 5.5


Shelby 10 years, 8 months ago

RYGAR? Wow, I never thought I'd hear that word associated with a NEW game. That's messed up. When did that come out on the 8-bit Nintendo, 1986?

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