Cronus has created a portal called the Gate of Darkness between Earth and Hell and plans to rebel against the Gods by taking over Earth. In short, the world is split in two: Earth, controlled by the gods of light, and hell (or Tartaros), a banished land controlled by the evil god Cronus. As players progress, they amass informational tablets a la Resident Evil, which fill in bits and pieces of the causes of the rifts between the Gods and the Titans. The backstory is a little more complicated, a little weightier and at times confusing. The Titans create fissures in the Earth so large and devastating, Rygar falls in to one of them, only to find he has entered into an entirely different universe, where he must use the Diskarmor and learn its ways to escape from the underworld and, of course, to save the princess from ultimate doom. So, they naturally crash Harmonia's party. But the long-suffering Titans, evil gods banished to the underworld, have now broken free and are ready to create havoc where they see fit.

After numerous successful battles, Rygar receives a ceremonial wreath from Princess Harmonia to declare his valor to the public. Temco's insistence on using the idyllic countryside of Italy and Greece as backdrops for a game is an excellent notion, but its take on the myths is occasionally questionable. Story Following in the footsteps of the original, Tecmo situates Rygar in a fantasy-infused Greco-Roman storyline and lush agricultural landscape. And once again, in the grand scheme of things Rygar is a solid, likeable action game that should satisfy old fans and invite newer ones into deadly yo-yo combat. As far as remaking the game goes, Tecmo has managed its core elements well, bringing Rygar into the modern ages with nary a hitch. The action-adventure game weaves unusual combat and a healthy amount of exploration into beautiful 3D landscapes, and tells a rather classic tale which doesn't require players' pre-knowledge of the NES classic. In the large scheme of things, Tecmo's revitalization of one of its oldest titles is a good thing. Perhaps the oldest of the bunch, Rygar brings the once relatively sophisticated NES game into the 3D world retaining the game's most distinctive function, the Diskarmor. Konami has done it with a much needed revitalization of Contra: Shattered Soldier, Sega with the beloved Shinobi, and finally Tecmo with its very own Greco-Roman gladiator, Rygar: The Legendary Adventure. With the introduction of the current-generation systems, several old-school publishers have heeded their fans' call, rekindling the nostalgia for classics from as far back as the 8-bit days.

Rygar map