In this side-scrolling action game, the player takes the part of Rygar, a warrior with a unique weapon; a spinning razor disk on a length of chain. Rygar uses this powerful weapon to slash his way through the hordes of monsters that inhabit his land, on the way to his confrontation with the final boss, a muscular giant with the head of a lion.
There doesn't seem to be any more to the storyline than that; Rygar simply must kill the monsters and defeat their boss. To reach the boss he must travel through 27 linear stages, each one offering an array of monsters and terrain-based jump puzzles. Movement is mostly limited to left and right, although occasionally Rygar must climb up or down a rope.
The game's controls are simple. A standard eight-directional joystick allows Rygar to run, crouch and climb. Of the two buttons, one causes Rygar to jump and the other causes him to attack with his razor disk. As is standard for platform games, the direction of the joystick dictates the direction of Rygar's jumps, but in addition, Rygar can switch directions in midair at will. Landing on top of most enemies after a jump will stun them for a short time.
The joystick is also used in tandem with the attack button. Rygar's standard attack sends his razor disk out in a straight line about one character length. From a crouch, Rygar attacks low (which is required to hit certain enemies), and with the joystick held up, he whirls his weapon in an arc over his head.
Rygar himself appears as a fantasy warrior in red pants who wears a small buckler on his arm. When he attacks, this buckler expands in size and explodes with spikes, thus revealing itself to be his weapon. The various stages consist of forests, caves, rivers, badlands, etc. The enemies come in a wide variety of forms, many of which are attached to a certain terrain type. Most enemies die with one strike of the razor disk, and occasionally they leave power-ups in their wake (most of which enhance the weapon's performance).
Rygar supports two players, who take turns each time a life is lost. Players start with two to five lives, depending on the game's dipswitch settings. A life is lost immediately when the player is struck by an enemy; there is no life gauge. Lives can also be lost to terrain, such as pits and water. Players may continue after all lives are lost by inserted additional credits.
~ Michael W. Dean, All Game Guide
Review: Overall
The arcade version of Rygar features a hero with a cool weapon, some very nice graphics and none-too-difficult gameplay, but somehow it just doesn't quite hit the mark. It is not a bad game, not at all, but somewhere, somehow, it lacks a certain something.
Let's start with the game's good qualities. Rygar himself is fast, agile and powerful, and his razor disk will pretty much ruin anything that gets in front of it. Although he has no life gauge and dies on contact with enemies, it can still be a lot of fun to send him careening through a level, laying waste to everything in his path. Occasionally Rygar gets interesting power-ups that give his weapon a little extra punch, but these are only good until you lose a life.
Graphically, the game is very well done. Rygar fights across a variety of terrain types, with dual-parallax scrolling backgrounds that range from interesting to striking. (Check out the gorgeous late-day sun on level eight and the electric blue cavern on level nine.) The enemies are strange and grotesque and there is a good variety of them, and when they die they often leave a skeleton that stands there for a moment before crumbling into the ground.
Control is excellent and intuitive. There's no guesswork involved in whether Rygar can make a jump or not, and the razor disk is fast as summer lighting. Indeed, a big part of what makes Rygar so fast and powerful is the responsiveness of the controls.
The game's main failing is its repetitiveness. The levels are basically linear, broken up with the occasional climbing rope and simple jump puzzle. Otherwise, it's the same thing every time: run to the end and kill anything that gets in your way. There's not much strategy to it, as new monsters pop onscreen constantly, and standing still for a moment is asking them to swarm over you.
The game also pours on the difficulty as you advance through the levels. The tendency of the monsters to constantly swarm at you from all angles can turn a simple jump puzzle into an unavoidable deathtrap, and certain creatures must be dealt with the moment they appear or they will surely kill you. If you are otherwise engaged when they drop in, too bad! The learning curve in the higher levels leaves almost no room for error.
The final boss is pathetically easy to beat, a real letdown after twenty-seven levels of blood, sweat, and tears. He's impressive to look at, but all he does is jump back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. It takes no time to figure out his pattern, and after that, it's just a matter of button pushing.
The game's sounds are pretty good overall, although Rygar's high-pitched battle cry, uttered every single time he swings his weapon, does get a little tedious. The background music is not overly memorable, but there's nothing wrong with it.
Overall, Rygar is a decent title, but it's decidedly less than captivating. The outstanding control and fun graphics do not make up for the repetitive and difficult gameplay.
~ Michael W. Dean, All Game Guide
Review: Enjoyment
This game is fun for about your first quarter, but it gets old fast after ten or twelve levels.
~ Michael W. Dean, All Game Guide
Review: Graphics
Very nice, with interesting enemies and pretty backgrounds.
~ Michael W. Dean, All Game Guide
Review: Sound
Nothing remarkable, and you'll probably wish Rygar would leave off with the battle cries after awhile.
~ Michael W. Dean, All Game Guide
Review: Replay Value
Odds are you won't be moved to even try to beat this game, and if you do, you're not likely to want to beat it again.
~ Michael W. Dean, All Game Guide
Review: Documentation
The instructions are very detailed and give a good overview of {%Rygar}'s attack options.
