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Rygar: The Battle of Argus

• By Travis Moses
• September 29, 2008 15:37 PM PST
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Rygar returns to rescue the princess and battle epic bosses in an enhanced version of the PS2 classic.

I have to admit that I had never played a Rygar game before The Battle of Argus, which is coming only to the Nintendo Wii later this year. How did I miss this series, especially on the PlayStation 2? It's awesome. It plays like God of War with similar combat and platforming elements, and I love God of War.

Rygar, however, dates all the way back to the original NES, but you needn't be an expert on Rygar to enjoy the latest game in the series. In The Battle of Argus, you control Rygar and traverse the island of Argus armed with Diskarmor, defeating enemies, collecting powerups, and conquering bosses.

Get Ready for the Next Battle

Even though Rygar: The Battle of Argus is not an official sequel to Rygar: The Legendary Adventures on the PS2, it is enhanced in many ways. Much like Ninja Gaiden: Black is to Ninja Gaiden. The graphics are better, the theme has been changed to a more fantastical setting, new enemies and behaviors have been added, and you can use the Wii Remote to gesture and perform combo finishers. The environments and landscapes are going to feel somewhat similar, though, as they're based from the PS2 version.

One of the new enemies we witnessed was a towering death knight with a massive sword. The death knight is slow and lumbering, has a lot of health, and unblockable attacks (a first since The Legendary Adventures). Another new enemy we witnessed was smaller, but much faster than the death knight. This ninja enemy blocks attacks and uses group fighting tactics to flank Rygar. Whereas in the PS2 legendary adventures players could hack through enemies by mashing buttons, new enemies that block and have unblockable attacks add a new level of combat depth to the Wii version.

With the Discarmor as your primary weapon and shield, you can perform combos using the A and B buttons on the Wii Remote. Add a swing gesture at the end of combos to perform an extra strong combo finisher. There are three different types of Discarmor in the game: A close-quarter combat Discshield capable of dishing out faster attacks and high damage. The other two are long distance Discshields tethered to Rygar's wrist. One can only be swung directly in front of Rygar while the other swings in wide arcs capable of attacking multiple enemies in one fell swoop.

You don't want to be in the way when the cyclops goes into berserk mode.

Calling All Gladiators

The final addition to the Wii version of Rygar is the Gladiator mode. Gladiator mode pits you up against 30 waves of increasingly difficult enemies injected with a boss fight every fifth wave. In this mode, Rygar sports a special kind of Discarmor weapon and shield that only has two attacks, which are dependent on which way you swing the Wii Remote - Horizontal or Vertical. The strength of your attack is directly influenced by the strength of your Wii Remote swing.

If you've never played Rygar before, The Battle of Argus is the best game to get started with. It's the PS2 Rygar reborn on the Nintendo Wii, which makes it more accessible and easier to play for newbies. Rygar comes out later this year, and you don't want to miss the action.

Just another taste of what you can expect from Rygar's multiple bosses.

The boss battles in Rygar are epic to say the least.

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