Reviews

1987 US Gold (UK)
by Antony Lill

This is not the best arcade conversion I've seen,but it's incredibly playable.
The screen scrolling is excellently smooth, graphics are dull but do their job, and if you discount the first three levels, which are too easy to even be included in the game, the rest of the game is an absolute pleasure to play.

Really addictive conversion.
The program is not very sophisticated. At last quarter of 1987 one would hoped an smoother scroll and best animations. An attempt to imitate Cobra, even if only can be reached the quality of Gunrunner.. The game offers nothing with such technical care.

And while the game technically disappointing.. in gameplay department it works perfectly. Remembers the very good coin-op arcade and have the one more play factor.

Rygar [U.S. Gold]
by Antony R. Lil (Probe Software)

You're a tiny, badly drawn guy equipped with a razor blade yo-yo. You slaughter monsters. You jump. You run.
You have a time limit. It's not that horrible.
3,5/5

Converted from the Tecmo coin-op, Rygar takes its name from its main character, the one controlled by the player, that runs on each screen from left to right hitting his enemies with a peculiar weapon, a sort of round blade connected through a wire - much like a lethal horizontal yo-yo - and jumping over obstacles such as rocks, trees, pits etc. Power-ups make the weapon more lethal or able to do a 180-degrees swing. Each level must be completed within an allocated time, otherwise Rygar will be pursued by a giant, deadly skull which is very difficult to avoid.

The transition to the Spectrum of this well-known coin-op is unfortunately not of the highest quality. Rygar is a bland, featureless sprites and the backdrops are mostly repetitive. Sound is almost non-existent. The coin-op gameplay has however been retained to a certain extent, which is the main reason this Spectrum version is just passable as a whole. 3/5.