I really didn't care for the original Legend of Zelda. It probably has less to do with the fact that I think the game was a cryptic slog, and more that I played games similar to it first. Some games I've reviewed before, like The Guardian Legend and Faxanadu were more fun to me, when it comes to open world action games on the grey 8-bit box. Rygar was one I also experienced beforehand, and it was one of the more ubiquitous Nintendo games of the era. It felt like everyone owned this back in the day.

Originally an arcade game in Japan released as Argo no Senshi ("Warrior of Argus"), Rygar was developed and published by Tecmo in 1986. The objective of the game is simple; bring five essential items to the five gods of Indora in different realms. You then must journey to King Ligar's castle in the sky for the final confrontation. 

As mentioned earlier, Rygar is an open-ended game, contrast to the arcade version, which was just a straight-forward side-scrolling hack'n'slash. For the most part, you can travel to most locations and complete objectives in any given order to proceed, not all of them. Structure-wise, I like to compare Rygar more to Zelda II: Adventure of Link (the BETTER 8-bit Zelda game) than the Metroid titles it's generally become lumped with as the years rolled on. 

No townsfolk to stop and speak to (save for gigantic buff beard dudes who give you clues as to where you should proceed), little in the way of opaque obstructions, you simply pick up the role as Rygar and proceed through the world of Golaz. Alternating between overhead and side-scrolling sequences, Rygar was one of those games that conceived the idea of "EXP" or leveling up in an action game. As much as the term "RPG elements" began to bug me over the years, it does adequately apply in an instance of how Rygar is built. With some items you can acquire to traverse the world easier, like the crossbow, grappling hook, and wind pulley, it's a pretty progressive game. For whatever reason, you can BOUNCE off of enemies. It doesn't kill them, but it's a handy way to avoid damage. It's a bit of a downside that while it can be beaten in one sitting (maybe an hour and a half if you bypass a lot), there's no battery back-up to save your progress, and it lacks a password feature. 

The visuals of Rygar are pretty good for what they do, some of the areas can seem a little samey when exploring. This is one of those NES games that has quite a bit of flickering and a bulky amount of lag when the screen gets cluttered. The monster designs look pretty cool, like creatures you'd see fighting in Jason and the Argonauts. It has bigger sprites than Faxanadu, so as far as presentation goes, it's got that over its contemporaries.

Overall, the use of colors and the scale of the world makes Rygar a sweet NES game to look at. Tecmo made one of the more awesome 8-bit titles that became one of the notable core Nintendo games, such as Ninja Gaiden, Master Blaster, and Adventure Island. Its gameplay remains solid and it's easy to pick up and play, the challenge is more than respectable 

Since a lot of modern games have built off the model of fast-paced, explorative side-scrolling action that software like Rygar established, the game holds up fairly well by today's standards.