Over the years the Wii has had its fair share of last generation games ported across to the platform owing largely to its specifications which are more somewhere in-between this generation and the last. Some of them are welcomed and warranted owing to overhauled control schemes or additional content bringing old games to a potentially new audience; Rygar however is difficult to place as its justification is in limbo, because on the one hand a lot of people may not have played it being that it's a six year old PS2 game in origin but on the other hand, is this really what you bought your Wii for?

For most it won't be but that doesn't stop there being a slew of similar ports being available and this is just the latest in a long line. The plot is set in a mythological version of Ancient Rome and revolves around the lead character 'Rygar' who has to go on an epic quest to... yeah you guessed it, save a princess, of course there is more to it than that and the plot becomes more convoluted to reflect this, you can follow it closely if you wish but the poor lip-sync and low quality character models detract greatly from the overall level of immersion, hell it isn't even presented in proper widescreen.

But don't let that put you off as despite its technical shortcomings this is still a decent enough re-imagining of a once classic NES game; indeed it's Rygar's signature Disk Armour that makes the game, it comes in the form of a saw blade attacked to a chain and comes in three types each with their own abilities and creature summons. Using the weapon feels great and swinging it into a pile of enemies, racking up a combo in the process is a great feeling; even if it feels somewhat repetitive due to fighting many of the same enemy despite more having been added to this re-make.

The epic boss battles although fun can feel somewhat cheap at times especially when you feel like you have won through luck as opposed to skill, re-spawning enemies are also another bug-bear but at least it means you will always have something to smash. And speaking of breaking stuff, the destructible environments are relatively impressive as much of what you can see around you can be broken, indeed in some parts it's the only way to properly progress but it's satisfying nonetheless.

Many collectable items can be found which usually amount to increasing skills / power / life etc standard stuff really but obviously some of them are well hidden and so encourage exploration of the reasonably well detailed environments. Even so there isn't a huge amount of deviating from the set path but there is enough to make it feel adventure-like and while it doesn't have the immersing qualities of Zelda or even the speed to match God of War in the combat department it still manages to entertain and that's what matters.

Perhaps mercifully most of the controls work via button presses in the main adventure with 'waggle' being reserved solely for finishing moves, this might be questionable but it really is for the best despite a couple of misplaced buttons like using 'Z' on the nunchuk for jumping. However for those who just can't get enough of shaking their remote you may be pleased to know that the newly included Gladiator mode where you have to see how far you can advance through thirty tough enemies has a heavier emphasis on motion control and to its credit is done rather well despite wearing thin after a while.

Overall this is a solid effort and what you get for your money is an entertaining adventure that although dated is still very much playable despite its rough visuals, the accompanying musical score is fantastic as is the clanging of disk armour which is always satisfying despite it compensating for the rough voice-overs. If you're looking for an adventure titles then you could do far worse than this, admittedly you could also do better but as it stand it's a decent alternative to what's already available.

Sam Gittins
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