INTRO, or WHAT THE HISTORY BOOKS DIDN'T TELL YOU

Usually I try to start these reviews out with some sort of humorous anecdote surrounding the renting or purchasing of whichever video game I'm reviewing, but in the case of Rygar it was just pure desire to not study for finals. I would have just as happily grabbed the new Harry Potter game or Mario Party 23 if it would have ensured that I didn't crack a book. So instead of learning I spent a weekend emmersed in some sort of strange Greek/Roman mythological history game that, for all it's whistles and bells, only slightly beat out studying.

In Rygar you play, if you can imagine, Rygar, a gladiator turned war hero turned instrument of the gods. Your one true love, Princess Harmonium, is captured by the evil titans and you must rescue her. Throughout the game you'll meet up with historical figures like Cleopatra and Aristotle who have since become minions of evil or some such nonsense. Anyways, Rygar is armed with only the diskarmor sort of a yo-yo with spikes that decimates anything he comes across.


GRAPHICS or, WELCOME TO THE ANCIENT GREECE TOURISM CENTER

The game takes place on the mythical island of Argos, a former bastion of Alexander the Great's empire and now a land almost totally in ruins. The background landscapes have a great feel to them, as if you were viewing paintings of the Parthenon or ancient Alexandria. The colors are slightly muted and everything is textured to have the appearance of great age. The backgrounds are really the high point of the game, it's just beautiful.

As far as the character animations go, they're fairly clunky. Rygar himself is just sort of a vaguely defined tannish blur and the enemies are all fairly unimaginative looking carbon copies of one another; it's all the same three enemies in different colors. The bright spot for the characters is the enemy bosses. Extra time was put into making these bosses grotesque and unsettling, especially Thypons the dragon, whose 5 heads are actually giant disfigured baby fetuses, really freakish.


SOUND or, SHUT UP THAT BLOODY BAZUKI!!!

I really enjoyed the soundtrack for this game. The music is all mandolins and flutes; in essence, Greek folk music. With the strumming of the mandolin, you get a feel like you've really been thrust back in time to an age where civilization was just beginning. Normally, listening to 10 hours of the pan flute would irritate me, but the creators of Rygar, to their credit, made the music atmospheric and not obtrusive.

The voice acting in Rygar is actually pretty good. The fairly antiquated dialogue fits well with the time period the game is set in and the actors take themselves seriously enough that you don't feel insulted by some of the cliched moments of the game. There is a musical number towards the end of the game that is just ridiculous. After fighting gods and monsters for hours and hours, I don't want to hear some poppy video game song. Some games just weren't meant to be interspersed with love ballads, and Rygar is one of them.


GAMEPLAY or, BIONIC COMMANDO ANYONE?

Rygar is supposed to be an action-packed platformer but I have to say, it's pretty damned boring for a good three quarters of the game. There's a lot of running around, backtracking, trying to find secret areas and whatnot and not nearly enough actual combat. And the combat isn't even that exciting. Your weapon, the diskamor, is so clunky and unwieldy, after a while you don't even want to fight anymore, which is fine because before you know it,you're just running around like a nimrod again. Add to that the fact that eventually you can learn new skills like repelling, grapling or using your diskamor as a swing, so not only are you running around but you're jumping and swinging like an idiot. Although, to its credit, the fact that you could destroy almost EVERYTHING was a big plus in my book. Walls, pottery, columns, statues, it seemed nothing was safe before the onslaught of your spinning frisbee thing.

As far as replay value goes, there's not much. Once you beat it, all you get is a more difficult game, the option of viewing a few videos and, the chance to turn your weapon into either a guitar or a pizza. A pizza! Oh boy! Sign me up. See, it's funny because gladiators didn't have pizzas, especially not ones you could use as a weapon. Me oh my, how clever of them. Did you get the sarcasm? Because it's been dripping down my chin. What a dumb idea, using a pizza as a weapon.


CONCLUSION or, THE RISE AND FALL OF THE RYGAR EMPIRE

Normally I would put a "cons" section before I conclude the epinion, but I think I spent enough time ranting about it in the earlier sections. Now I don't want to say Rygar is a game totally devoid of anything good, because it's not. It's a beautiful looking game and the soundtrack is fits well. Granted the controls are a bit clunky and the stupid extras are just ridiculous, but this game is an all right rental. I did enjoy myself from time to time and any game which would garner me staying up all night to beat it must have some unspoken magic, and that's why I'm giving it the rating I am.


Recommended: Yes