Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Worth playing"

Your best offense is a good defense. Literally in this case, as you use a shield for your primary weapon.
Rygar is a straight forward action title that will entertain, but not amaze you.

WHAT'S GOOD

The action - It's steady and it's fun to take on the bad guys. You get a decent selection of combos to build in your repertoire and execute. It's quick to say, but since it makes up a bulk of the game, it's important that it's fun, and it is. It's not revolutionary, or engrossing or amazing. It's good, and it's fun, but it didn't really draw me in or make me think it was awesome.

Platforming elements - Although I walked away feeling like this was primarily an action game, there is a decent amount of platforming elements in the game. For the most part however, the platforming is kept separated from the combat. You're either doing one or the other.

Shields & their Customization - If you find them, there are magic stones you can collect to increase various aspects of the 3 different shields that are available to you. You can use points to upgrade the effectiveness of your shields attacks. Each shield also provides a different attack strategy. One is good for close combat and hits really fast, one for long range and hits at a moderate speed, and one for attacking multiple enemies and covering a lot of ground with one swing but is rather slow.

Graphics - The landscapes and monsters look good as far as I'm concerned. I was particularly impressed with the look of the minotaur boss.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER

The camera - Even though it does pivot a little bit, it's essentially stationary. The camera angles change automatically as you move from area to area. For the most part the game is built to handle it very well, but there are times where it causes confusion or will change (or not change) at inconvenient times.

Longevity - Although the combat is fun, and you learn new combos along the way, things don't get mixed up too much. And although the environments look nice, they don't offer a whole lot of variety as you move forward. Some may say the game is too short, but given these items I say it was just long enough. The lack of intensity to me means that it would have gotten boring had it lasted any longer.

Backtracking - You have to do it. I'm not a big fan of backtracking, and in some cases I found it confusing with this game.

Length - Although I'm not dissuaded by short games, it's fair warning to say that this one is very short. It took me about 5 hours to complete, and I'll admit that I was dragging my heals on a couple of levels. It's a respectfully fun 5 hours, which to me is good because it's better than dragging on. Others however may wind up feeling short-changed.

FINAL WORD

A enjoyable romp in a Greek Mythology inspired world. Even though I wouldn't go spending a lot of money on a copy, I would still recommend picking it up, or at least renting it.

The developers do attempt to provide a reason to go back and revisit the levels once you've beat the game, however I don't think you'll feel the need to; at least not right away.

A welcome title in my library, it's a straight forward, simple, entertaining action, and I'd say worth a look - even if it will be a quick one.