GOTD 5/27/2016: Rygar (NES)

[celerystalker]

Today has been a crazy day for me, having not one, but two separate flat tires to go with a family situation for one of my siblings, so I needed to decompress with one of those video game comfort food games. Most players have some of those games that they've been playing for years and years, and they know like the back of their hands... those games where you just soak in the atmosphere and relax, turn off your brain, and let your hands do what they've had years of practice building muscle memory for... and for me, one of those games is Rygar on the NES.

I know I just recently did a post on the arcade Rygar, but this NES version is an utterly different game, not a port thereof. Gone are the stages and points of the arcade adventure, replaced with an open world and experience points called "Tone." Killing monsters now builds Rygar into a stronger warrior, enabling him to challenge the evil Ligar for peace in the land of Argool. His quest is now more akin to a Zelda/Zelda II hybrid, though just a tad shorter, and he must search the breadth and depth of the land in search of the treasures of the five Indora War Gods. These items allow him to access new areas, letting him discover new areas, bosses, and secrets.

I say Zelda/Zelda II hybrid because Rygar utilizes both overhead and horizontally scrolling perspective during the course of its game. Although the game begins at Gran Mountain, the Valley of Garloz serves as a sort of hub that connects the different regions of Argool. Rygar has the same move set regardless of perspective, using his Diskarmor to attack, jumping, using his items such as a grappling hook or pulley, and if he has saved up enough stars, special moves like a general temporary power-up, a whole screen attack called "Attack & Assail," or a total life bar recovery. He can also reduce damage taken with armor and gain the gods' Coat of Arms, which is a recovery potion.

Graphically, Rygar captures the spirit of its arcade predecessor well while effectively working within the system's limitations, and it looks very good for an NES game of its era. Backgrounds are colorful and detailed with even a few scrolling effects, sprites are detailed, and it avoids obvious tile appearance. It's only real weakness on that front is some pronounced flicker and minor slowdown at times when the screen gets cluttered. The music, though, is easily one of my favorite NES soundtracks. Everything has a sort of dark, yet intrepid flare, and really sets the mood for an adventure. Oddly, the Japanese soundtrack is very different, sharing only about half of the songs of the US game. I much prefer the US soundtrack, but both are interesting.

The NES Rygar is one of my favorites for the system, with an adventure that will probably last a first-time player a few hours, though an experienced player can do it in about an hour. It would have been nice if it had had a password system in order to continue later, but it does offer unlimited continues , sending Rygar back to the beginning of the area in which he died. It may not be the score-fest that is the arcade game, but it makes a great companion piece as a console adventure to supplement the arcade action. Which is better is subjective, but I personally am a sucker for these sorts of horizontal action adventures.

Played this one?

[celerystalker]

[Edmond Dantes]

Seriously guys? Nobody had anything to say about freaking RYGAR?

That would be like if I started a topic about Doom on a PC gaming forum and nobody could think of a thang.

Damn that trolley though. For the longest time I thought there was some button combo you had to do to hook those lines, but one of my uncles who knew the game told me how it really worked.

[Niku-Sama]

sorry I was playing overwatch, decompressing my self

Rygar was always a NES rental but never a buy for me. in fact I still don't think I own it.
I actually found it maddening that it goes from side scroller to top down.

[Edmond Dantes]

In my case, Rygar is actually not an NES memory, but an NES *emulation* memory. Yes, this was one of those games I actually discovered thanks to Emulation.

How I discovered emulation was actually weird in itself: The year was.... I want to say 1998, but it was probably much later than that. I mentioned elsewhere that I used to be a Warcraft II player via Kali, which was basically a precursor to Battle.net, and had a sort of chatroom function where you met with other gamers. All the sudden someone asks me if I have any Game Gear ROMs. I had never heard the term "roms" used in this context before so I assumed he meant cartridges, and at the time I did have a few. Then he said "no no, ROMs." This guy wound up explaining to me, right then and there, about these things called emulators and how you could play console games on your PC using them. So effectively I learned about emulation thanks entirely to some random guy on a chat program happening to tell me about them.

For awhile the only system I emulated was the Sega Genesis--I'm not sure why--but soon I found a site called "tsr's NES archive" and started reading it up. I'm not sure this site still exists, but I hope it does because it was awesome. Anyway it got me interested in NES emulation, since I was hearing about all these NES games that apparently every kid in the country but me grew up playing.

My own childhood was.... well, unusual. I was one of those kids who preferred the "fake" Ghostbusters over the real one, after all. And when other people's parents bought them Castlevania, Contra, and Mega Man, mine bought me Dino Riki, Destination Earthstar, To the Earth, Rock n' Ball, Bad Street Brawler, Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle, Blaster Master.... actually Blaster Master, the two Zeldas and the three Super Mario Bros. are pretty much the only "standard" NES titles I was exposed to growing up... well, also Excitebike and Metroid. Point is, I mostly discovered unusual games, not always good, but definitely interesting sometimes. I actually still have a soft spot for Destination Earthstar. That game makes me feel weird....

So yeah, for me emulation kinda became a game of playing catch-up with the classics (which sort of defines my entire life really. Everyone else sees a hit TV show when it airs, I see it a decade later on DVD), and one of them happened to be Rygar.

This feels kind of weird to me, because in an odd way I felt like I still lived in the eighties even when I'm playing an actual cartridge. At the same time though, sometimes games I discovered via emulation... seem to play best.... via emulation. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for the form I found them in.

I wound up finding an actual cart at a Pawn Shop for like $3, on the same day I also picked up Castlevania IV for Super Nintendo, and IIRC Shinobi III on Sega Genesis. Remember when it was actually possible to find good games in pawn shops for non-stupid prices? Yeah.

[celerystalker]

Great story! You should write something or do a video on Destination Earthstar sometime. I have it, but it's not one I've really fallen into in any meaningful way. I'd love to hear about your story with it.

[Steve W]

I rented Rygar from my local Curtis Mathes rental shop something like three times before I beat it, after spending six hours on it and finishing it at 1am. It was one of the times I had a true sense of accomplishment when I reached the end. I never cared for NES chip tunes that much, but Rygar's music was pretty outstanding.

[celerystalker]

I rented Rygar from my local Curtis Mathes rental shop something like three times before I beat it, after spending six hours on it and finishing it at 1am. It was one of the times I had a true sense of accomplishment when I reached the end. I never cared for NES chip tunes that much, but Rygar's music was pretty outstanding.

I have a soft spot for games I rented as a kid. I have picked up copies of all of them over the years, as they remind me of hoping we'd get to rent a new game while shopping at the grocery store.

I agree about Rygar's soundtrack big time. One of the best on the NES. Heck, the whole reason I bought the Famicom version was to hear the different music.

[Emperor Megas]

As much as I love the arcade game -- and I LOVE the arcade game -- I've never played the NES version. As a kid I was put of by the fact that it was a completely different game, and that just didn't appeal to me. Only now as an adult can I appreciate that it's another standalone title and a part of an established series (with the PS2 installment), but I have yet to even boot the cart.

[Gentlegamer]

Great game with a fatal flaw.

[BlastProcessing402]

Great game with a fatal flaw.

I'm assuming you mean the lack of a save or password function. Not that it can't be beat in a sitting, but it's pretty long for its time.

Also, some glitches in the end area could trap you inside the walls. If that happens, guess what, hit power or reset and start all over from scratch. Yes, that actually happened to me once. Fortunately it wasn't my first time through the game.

A really good example of a "pre-metroidvania" style that the NES had quite a few of. I so wish it had gotten a real sequel, I know there was a redo in the 3D era, but that's not what I mean.

I will admit, when I first got the game and turned it on, I was a little disappointed that it wasn't the arcade game, but I quickly came to enjoy it for what it was. And in hindsight, it's a lot better than the arcade.

[Tron 2.0]

I played the nes version first before the arcade original.I'll just say,prefer nes rygar over it.I just find the arcade rygar not having enough variety where's the nes one has it.

[Steve W]

The Lynx version is a strong port of the arcade game, but I never managed to finish it because my batteries would run out of power on the three times I attempted to reach the end. I can't motivate myself to play it all the way through again, even with emulation... it brings back bad memories of fading LCD screens destroying my sense of hope.

[Terminusvitae]

I really enjoyed the NES Rygar, even if I was completely lost and completely terrible at it as a kid.

As well, someone else rented games from a Curtis Mathes dealer back in the day? Holy crap. I wonder if we may have been renting from the same store...probably not, though.