by Tecmo for the Nintendo Famicom. It was released on April 14, 1987, in Japan and later that year in the United States for the NES. A European release came in 1990. The player sends the title character through a number of fantastic settings with the ultimate goal of defeating the evil King Ligar in order to restore peace to the realm of Argool (Argus in the Japanese version). To accomplish this goal, the Warrior must visit five Indora gods who present him with essential items needed for completion of the game. Each of the Indora gods is located in a different realm, and is almost always guarded by a boss. The player can choose the order in which some stages are played, but since certain items are required to reach new areas, choices are somewhat limited. After playing through the five major realms of the game, he must journey to King Ligar's flying castle for the final confrontation. The main character, his weapon, and many of the enemies remain the same, but the gameplay is quite different. While the arcade version is more of a standard side-scrolling action title, the NES's Rygar is an open-ended action-adventure game like Metroid (see Metroidvania), which was also released at the time. At the beginning of the game, Rygar has access to some of the worlds, but as the game progresses, new areas open up as the result of finding items such as the grappling hook, crossbow, and wind pulley, which lets him cross previously impassable obstacles. The NES version of Rygar was also more of an action role-playing game with a nonlinear open world map in Garloz. It was particularly notable for its permanent power-up mechanic, which at the time blurred the line between the power-ups used in action-adventures and the experience points used in RPGs. This version of Rygar did not allow for game saves as it lacked a password feature and the cartridge did not contain a battery. It did however have unlimited continues. The American NES version replaced some of the soundtracks from its Famicom counterpart but is otherwise graphically identical, save for the title screen and language. The music for both the NES or Famicom versions was composed by Michiharu Hasuya who would later reuse one of Rygar's tracks on the title screen of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Bug in the PAL Version The PAL version of