15 Years of Fame
For the past 15 years, I've contended that the 3 greatest pieces of music ever composed were The Beatles' "Hey Jude," Beethoven's 5th, and the score to the original Nintendo game Rygar. "Hey Jude" ended up catching on, and Beethoven already had a pretty big fan base, but like the social life of so many hardcore gamers, Rygar faded into obscurity. Until now.

Over the years the average age of gamers has climbed to a decrepit 28. Coupled with their newfound disposable income is a growing nostalgia for their youth. And the big game companies have taken notice. This holiday season, developers dusted off classic titles like Contra and Shinobi, dragging the traditional 2D side scrollers into the modern age and kicking them up a dimension. Tecmo's Rygar, a rather obscure action-adventure title, somehow snuck its way into that pack.

Soaring, sweet, haunting, beautiful, chilling.
On it's own, the original Rygar was a highly underrated, and rather sophisticated game for the time. The Greco-Roman inspired design was unique for each and every level, some boards scrolled sideways while others offered an overhead view. Even Rygar's weapon, the 'Diskarmor' was a departure from the usual fists and bullets fare. And the music, that music! Soaring, sweet, haunting, beautiful, chilling. Rygar set a standard for grand adventure titles. So what if it took 12 hours to beat and had no 'Save' feature? The world of gaming was forever… well, left unchanged. The title got edged out by Link and the others.

But Rygar is back, in Rygar: The Legendary Adventure, for the PlayStation 2. In the original, the primary goal was to save the fictional land of Argus from Evil. You killed things and moved on. There was something about a 'Door of Peace' which never made much sense. In the new version, the focus has shifted to saving the Princess Harmonia from her dreaded Titan captors. The stakes may not seem as high as before, but the game makers compensated for that by making the Princess really, really hot. The plot then goes on to say a whole lot about Gods, kingdoms, and demon legends. Or something. It's all very convoluted, and basically just gives you an excuse to destroy a whole lot of bad asses.

Diskarmor, mon amor!
So how does it stack up to the 1987 version? Rygar: The Legendary Adventure isn't a direct remake, but it does borrow heavily from the original. And it borrows in the right places. The Greco-Roman motif benefits greatly from the PlayStation 2's powerful insides. The game breathes intrigue. The worlds are sweeping and majestic, fantastic but realistic. Even the floating castles are believable. Rygar's weapon, the yo-yo-like Diskarmor, actually reacts to throwing and hitting as a real weapon would, with bounce back, deflections and momentum. The fighting and jaw-dropping scenery never relent. And when that grows tired the characters grammatically-horrific dialogue will keep you laughing all the way through your bathroom break. The games' only, though absolutely major, drawback? They dropped the original music! Tecmo bloated the budget by getting the Moscow Symphony Orchestra to record the soundtrack, then neglected to include, of all things, the classic music. I offer no explanation as to why. Sure, diehard fans of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra won't be disappointed, but I can hear it now though: "If the music to Rygar was one of the 3 greatest musical compositions ever, then why didn't they include it on the sequel?" Because it's too great to ever be duplicated, ok?

Still, by all accounts Rygar: The Legendary Adventure is a great game, and not just compared to the prehistoric original. However, is it Rygar? The Rygar that demanded every after school hour of your day? No. Frankly, it's better. But something was lost in the translation, and it's not just the 8-bit music. It's possible I was naïve expecting to be brought back to the good ol' days, but the je nais se qua is gone. Maybe that's what 15 years and finding your first issue of Playboy does to a guy. It's like abandoning your first old rustbucket of a car for a shiny new one. Sure, the new car runs, looks, and feels better, but it has no memories. The crevice under the passenger seat doesn't know where you hide your stash. The backseat doesn't know your first girlfriend's name. Regardless, I'm playing the game on a daily basis, but now when I take a break I head on over to vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/index-gr.html and scroll to the bottom, where the real surefire portal to that long-forgotten world still exists.