Way back in 2002 (which feels positively retro by today's standards), a little game came out that wasn't as legendary as its name suggested but was still an enjoyable enough action romp update of the Rygar arcade game. Fast forward six years and Rygar: The Legendary Adventure was reborn as a Wii port in the US last year. Now dubbed The Battle of Argus and finally upon European shores, can a seven-year-old PS2 game really lop down its competitors as easily as its titular hero decimates his own foes? Probably not, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's not worth a look...

Things start off well with a classic premise, as Battle of Argus takes place when the Roman Empire ruled a significant part of the world. The story revolves around the fate of Argus, a little known Ancient Egyptian city that, as the game opens, has fallen under Roman jurisdiction. This is a wondrous setting, a time when men, women and children were absolutely convinced that gods, monsters and demons roamed the planet, ready to punish those who angered them.

While a bucketload of evil creatures do exist for you to pummel during the course of your adventure, the story fails to live up to its potential. The plot bears a remarkable resemblance to the Zelda series and even the comical Super Mario Bros. Rygar, the pointy-haired hero who you control, is fond of a certain princess and, being such a well muscled do-gooder, he is duty bound to protect her. A handful of demons - unfriendly types called Titans who claim to be the rightful rulers of this world - burst out of the ground amidst your knighting ceremony, kidnap the Princess and knock you down a big hole. To rescue his damsel in distress, Rygar must kill everything in his path, and while it's not clear exactly where you're heading until later on in the game, here's a hint: bad people love to lock kidnapped princesses in castles.

Unfortunately, the gameplay is a bit of a letdown as well. Battle of Argus is a pretty standard action adventure, where you play as the gargantuan but extremely agile Rygar, running around crumbling dungeons, collecting items and killing monsters. However, the emphasis is definitely on the action rather than the adventuring; the combat is surprisingly deep and feels a lot like a beat 'em up, featuring combination attacks after rapid button presses and requiring critical timing to strike your opponent when his (or its) guard is down. It isn't just your foes that will fall before your might, either; urns, stone blocks, sparkling lumps of rock, fallen pillars and even damaged walls can be smashed into dust to reveal hidden paths and handy items. Occasionally this physics-based destruction is used in puzzle solving too; for example, strategically collapsing a column can bridge a gap that's too wide to jump, while breaking a supporting beam can bring a whole structure crashing to the floor, allowing you to grab the previously out of reach power-ups.

The destructible environment is also a marvellous tool for showcasing the power of enemies; you know you're in for a tough fight when a Cyclops bursts through a damaged stone wall, dust clouding your view as he strides out with his massive hammer in hand and ominous single eye staring at you intently. Other enemies have also been designed with great care, my favourite being the very tall mechanical knights which are exquisitely detailed and armed with a whacking great sword. There is only one niggle I have with the combat, and that is the lack of a lock-on feature to automatically target opponents; as it is, you have to manually line Rygar up with his foes before hitting the attack button. This is not too much of a problem for the slow moving big guys such as the mechanical knights and Cyclopes, but for the nippy small ones it becomes rather annoying with the super sensitive control stick.

When it comes to the end of level bosses, these behemoths do not require any namby-pamby, wall-demolishing entrances to show that they mean business; their immense size is enough! The first major boss that you face demonstrates this spectacularly, a grim conglomeration of a fire breathing horse and two giant, angry people, one with a hideously huge club and the other with a massive sword. The best part is that this is a stone statue, possessed and animated by evil Titan blood. Any seasoned gamer would recognise his stone skin and look for a weak point, but disappointment sets in when you discover that simply hitting this stone monstrosity anywhere decrease its health. The fight then degenerates into a hokey cokey type affair, but with less shaking it about and more whacking as you dodge in and out, landing as many blows as you can while avoiding fire and weaponry. Without the need for any real tactics, it just seems to be a question of luck as to whether you defeat a boss or not; sure, the extreme difficulty makes you feel triumphant when you finally win, but something as major as a boss battle should be fun as well as visually impressive.

Given the twitchy controls that I alluded to earlier, it's actually a godsend that most of the game revolves around beating up the outlandish enemies that stand in your way (giant caterpillars, flying potatoes equipped with clawed gauntlets and goblin/plant hybrids that fire bursts of orange energy balls are a few of the most interesting). The problem is, even though Rygar is a big lad, it seems nigh on impossible to make him walk at a steady pace with the oversensitive controls. He's too agile for his own good as he flits about uneven terrain, making it difficult to negotiate narrow bridges and line up correctly before a jump. Thankfully, the developers have excluded places where falling off a log leads to instant death, replacing any falls with short, safe drops; there is always a way back, even if it can require you to run an irritatingly long way.

With the Wii being the weaker of the three leading consoles in terms of graphical brute force, the visuals aren't up to Xbox 360 or PS3 standards; but for a PS2 port, Rygar's world certainly still stands out. The environments are well designed, with a large amount of eye-catching detail. Outdoor locations are brightly coloured, contrasting superbly with the rundown, dark interiors - and there are even some tremendous, awe-inspiring vistas to behold. The character detail is top-notch for Rygar and several notable enemies, particularly the bigger ones and the bosses, which look fantastic! Some, such as the flying potato things do appear a bit bland [Maybe they need some salt and vinegar after you slice them up? Just a thought... Hunger-Ed] but this just manages to increase the wow factor when you come up against the real monstrosities. The character animations are also seamlessly smooth; in all my time playing Rygar I'm yet to see any nasty clipping problems, which is a welcome rarity. A particular highlight of enemy animation is the large mechanical knight, which staggers around slowly, fittingly jerky with exaggerated, robotic motion - it's great fun to watch!

The audio is equally impressive. Effects such as the knight's clanking as he trundles and enemies scraping their clawed metal gauntlets along the ground match the action perfectly, while the music that provides the backdrop for most of Rygar's adventuring is all fairly dramatic, with grand trumpets and booming drums. It's also kept quiet enough so that it never becomes too distracting during periods of violence, although it can get a bit irritating when you are forced to listen to the same old theme during long treks after mistimed jumps.

The Battle of Argus is a long, long game with a story mode that will happily eat away hours of your time. This longevity boost doesn't really make up for the lack of multiplayer support, however; the Wii has a reputation for being a more social gaming platform that allows multiple players to join in against one another or on the same side. The addition of a cooperative adventure mode or even the chance of gladiatorial combat between two or more players would have greatly improved the fairly repetitive hack and slash gameplay. It's a shame that the developers didn't include a similar game mode to add value to the updated version.

Instead of any multiplayer action, there is the single player Gladiator Mode, which is a simple battle for survival; select a difficulty level and try not to die as you fend off thirty waves of increasingly tough baddies, with your ranking awarded when you succeed or die. What are you complaining about? It was all the rage in 2002!

Rygar: The Battle of Argus is a mixed bag of highs and lows that tries to fit a lot in and only partially succeeds. Its complex formula has produced a fairly well executed game that is playable and enjoyable in parts, securing at least an audience with genre fans. A long lifespan, polished graphics and impressive sound effects are all major attractions, although the gameplay can be a bit irksome at times due to an uneven difficulty curve and twitchy controls. The Battle of Argus is reasonably entertaining in short doses, but there's nothing revolutionary or truly engaging to keep you coming back for more - it's just a competent port of an old PS2 game whose mechanics and design are really showing their age.

Reviewed by Tom Clark for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).