Rygar: The Legendary Adventure

A PS2 GAME THAT’S WII-LLY GOOD

» PLAYSTATION 2 » 2002 » TECMO Back in 2008 Tecmo released Rygar: The Battle Of Argus

for Nintendo’s Wii. It was an enhanced remake of Tecmo’s earlier PS2 game, Rygar: The Legendary Adventure and I’ve owned it since release… and completed it once.

Recently, I bought a US copy of the original PS2 game, despite the fact that it was triple the price of the easily available PAL edition, which only runs at 50Hz, and is considered graphically inferior to the later Wii game (which I’ll now be selling). Why did I do this? I’ll tell you why – because I wanted to.

Sure the Wii version does look nice, but the original game is no slouch in the graphical department either and can look great when it’s running on an OLED via a suitably powered upscaler like Mike Chi’s Retrotink 5X. It also has far better controls than the Wii version, which can make a huge difference when playing an action game of Rygar’s calibre.

That’s not to say that the Wii version is bad, but the PS2 outing gives you a level of control that’s missing on Nintendo’s console, where it feels like you’re waving the Wii remote about like a mad man. (Maybe that’s why I can’t get on with it.)

Although it’s incredibly short, clocking in at around the six-hour mark, there’s plenty to enjoy about Tecmo’s game. Your Diskarmor weapon is a genuinely versatile tool that can be used for both combat and traversing the lush environments, while there’s a nice range of mythological monsters to take down, including some gargantuan bosses like the one shown here. 3D navigation is handled extremely well throughout and we wouldn’t be surprised if Santa Monica Studio looked towards Tecmo’s game while working on God Of War as they share several similar aspects when it comes to traversal.

I may have paid over the odds for my copy, but it’s certainly staying in my collection. Now, does anyone want a copy of the Wii version?