Rygar: The Battle of Argus Reviews

I, personally, enjoyed the original Playstation 2 version of Rygar. It had its flaws, but it was fun for its time. Since then, however, games like God of War have hit store shelves and really evolved the gameplay found in the original Rygar into something truly great. When I heard that Tecmo was porting the PS2 Rygar to the Wii, I thought we’d see some vast improvements in the design so that the reception of the game wasn’t as mixed as it was when it was released on the PS2. Well, the reception isn’t quite as mixed this time...Unfortunately, that’s not a good thing.

Rygar: The Battle of Argus is almost an exact port of the PS2 version of Rygar...Meaning that the outdated gameplay of the 2002 game is unchanged. That could be looked passed...But add in the awkward Wii controls and lame motion-sensor poop just slapped in there so they could say it takes advantage of the motion sensor capabilities, and you’ve got the makings of a poor game. Granted, you will get used to the awkward controls after a while, for the most part, but still. Including the option to use the Classic controller...or even the Gamecube controller would have helped out.

Next is the camera. There are some very weird camera angle changes in the game that can disorient you if you’re not completely paying attention. You could be walking into a room, the camera changes suddenly and now the direction you’ve got the analog stick pressed in is suddenly the direction to go back from where you came, making you unintentionally backtrack to the previous screen. This little annoyance never really gets you in trouble in the game, but it’s still a pain to have to deal with...And you’ll deal with it way more often than you’d like. The camera is also static; if you need to move the camera angle to set up an attack better, too bad. These little issues should been fixed...But, alas, they weren’t.

One of the only real changes in the game is the addition of Gladiator mode. If you could hear me as I type this you would have heard a groan of disgust. Gladiator mode is a mode where you just battle a bunch of enemies in a small space and the only way you can attack is by using the motion sensor controls. You can’t use the basic attacks like you can in the main game by pressing a button...Instead, you’re forced to only use the special attacks, which are done with the motion sensors. These attacks require little animations before the attack lands that only last a second, but that’s enough time for an enemy to hit you and cease your attack. This is a real pain. Also, a pain is the fact that half the time when you swing the remote to do the attack you want, it registers it as a different motion, making you execute an attack that you didn’t want to perform. This is also the only mode where you can control the camera....sort of. Your ability to control it is so limited and poor that a good chunk of time, you likely won’t even see your targets on the screen and they’ll attack you from behind while you constantly struggle to reposition the camera so that they’re visible as they move around. It almost feels as if you’re better off blindly attacking off screen at times....It’s almost more effective to do it this way, too.

Graphically, Rygar pretty much looks like the PS2 game. Personally, I don’t necessarily find that to be a bad thing. I kind of liked some of the environments and such on the PS2 original, and while they could’ve been touched up, they’re a lot better than the graphics on many other titles for the Wii, even if they can get boring and bland at times. Did they take a shortcut with the graphics? Yes. But, they’re passable, unlike other aspects of the game. I’m not even going to mention the horrendous re-design of Rygar, the character. In the audio department the voice acting is absolutely awful. It’s not the worst I’ve heard in a game, but that doesn’t make it any less bad. I can deal with the voice-overs...But when they’re this awful it almost makes me wonder why they didn’t just leave them out and save some cash while they saved our ears.

Rygar: The Legendary Adventure on the Playstation 2 was a decent game that could easily provide some fun to folks who played it. Seven years later, with no improvements, a shoddy motion control gimmick tacked on, and an extra mode that’ll produce more frowns than smiles, Rygar: The Battle of Argus is unacceptable. If you’d like to experience this game, pick up the PS2 original. It’ll cost less and it’ll give you fewer headaches...And despite the fact that The Battle of Argus is basically a direct port of the original, it actually feels inferior in nearly every way. This Rygar is way below par...Hey, that rhymed.