
Argos no Senshi - Legendary Warrior © 1986 Tecmo.
Argos no Senshi is a horizontally-scrolling hack 'n' slash game set 4.5 billion years after the Earth’s creation, in which the player takes on the role of the Legendary Warrior, a previously dead warrior who has risen from the grave to try to defeat King Ligar, an evil villain who has taken over the land of Argos.
The hero's weapon is the Diskarmor; a spinning blade on the end of a chain. When using Diskarmor, the player has two types of attack available: a left or right 'fling' attack or a circular motion attack. The latter attack is activated by pressing the attack button and UP on the joystick and is useful for attacking flying enemies or enemies positioned above the hero.
During the game, players can acquire five special power icons to assist them with their attacks. These are:
* Star Power Icon: Provides a longer chain to hit the enemy from a greater distance, almost covering the width of the screen.
* Crown Power Icon: Provides the hero with a stronger Diskarmor to hit multiple enemies with a single attack.
* Tiger Power Icon: Provides the ability to jump on any enemies except Death and kill them instantly. Jumping on the heads of some characters will award bonus points.
* Cross Power Icon: Provides a temporary shield lasting from 10 to 45 seconds.
* Sun Power Icon: Allows players to fire the Diskarmor vertically upwards, offering more precision when attacking enemies situated above the hero.
As well as the performance ratings, the temple areas also offer a clue to the next round. An example of this can be seen at the end of round 01; above the temple area is clue suggesting that players will find at least one Screen Bomb in Round 02.
As well as the five power icons, other artifacts can also be found hidden inside stones, trees, the ground and other objects. To find these items players must either shoot them or jump at a specific location to reveal them. The items include:
* Repulse Stone: These are either shot out of lava pits or hidden inside stones. They add to the player's repulse bonus, which increases based on the number of enemies killed.
* Small Gem: Found inside any object and worth 500 points
* Large Gem: Found inside any object but only after the player has collected four of the five power-ups and is worth 1,000 points.
Unlike many games in the genre, Argos no Senshi has no end-of-level boss fights. After successfully completing each of the game's 27 rounds, the hero will visit a temple area to have their performance rated and, if they were good enough, earn a promotion in rank.
The players 'repulse' bonus, timer bonus and rank is calculated. A repulse bonus of 130 will see the player promoted to Rank Two. To reach Rank Three, an additional repulse bonus of 240 - bringing the total to 370 - is needed. From hereon, to achieve Ranks Four, Fix, Six and BEST, players will need to earn an additional 250 repulse bonus points for each Rank.
As well as the performance ratings, the temple areas also offer small clues to the next round. An example of this can be seen at the end of round 01; above the temple area is clue suggesting that players will find at least one Screen Bomb in Round 02.
Game ID : 6002
Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz)
Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Attack, [B] Jump
Argos no Senshi was released in May 1986 in Japan.
The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Warrior of Argus - Legendary Warrior'.
Export releases:
[US] Rygar - Legendary Warrior
| * Enemies | |
| 1) Ape | 350 points |
| 2) Blue Monkey | 150 points |
| 3) Cave Bat | 330 points |
| 4) Crab | 200 points |
| 5) Cave Lizard | 100 points |
| 6) Death | Invulnerable. |
| 7) Dragon | 1250 points (with or without rider). |
| 8) Dragon Rider | 0/230 points |
| 9) Drone | 100 points |
| 10) Giant Flying Fish | 150 points |
| 11) Giant Demon | 2000 points (killed normally) |
| 12) Giant Worm | 100 points |
| 13) Griffin | 230 points |
| 14) Mutant Tribesman | 230 points |
| 15) Mutant Frog | 200 points |
| 16) Mutant Villager | 200 points |
| 17) Mutant With Tentacles | 220 points |
| 18) Lava Man | 230 points |
| 19) Rhino (small) | 150 points |
| 20) Rhino (large) | 760 points (1000 points with rider). |
| 21) Snake | 500 points |
| 22) Swooping Bat | 250 points |
| * Artifacts | |
| Coin | 200 points bonus. The ones that shoot out of fire pits on some levels can be shot instead of collected but doing this gets you only 100 points. |
| Blue item | 500 points bonus. |
| Round blue item | 1000 points bonus. |
| * Temple bonuses | |
| 1) Repulse Bonus | you get 200 points for each enemy destroyed. Up to a maximum of 12.800 points. |
| 2) Rank Bonus | you get the points for whatever rank you're currently on. |
| 3) Timer Bonus | you get 100 points for each remaining second. |
| * Rank bonus | it's based purely on the number of kills you've made in total per rank, regardless of dying. After you get promotion count the number of kills from zero again. As you can see the stripes start off pretty inconsistent but end up just being another stripe per 50 kills. If you kill an enemy with the Cross power's force field (i.e. you run into it, not shoot it) you get the points but nothing counts towards your rank. If you die and continue you keep your rank, but not your score. However, I have just found out that if you set the bonus lives to any other values other than the default 50k/200k/500k the amount of baddies you need to kill is effectively doubled. |
| 1) 1st rank | |
| Score awarded in temple | 0 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe. The minimum score for this rank is 1000 points. |
| Number of kills for stripe | II = 20 Kills, III = 50 Kills, IIII = 90 Kills (promotion to second rank on 130 kills. Count kills from 0 again) |
| 2) 2nd rank | |
| Score awarded in temple | 5000 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe. |
| Number of kills for stripe | I = 40 Kills, II = 90 Kills, III = 140 Kills, IIII = 190 Kills (promotion to third rank on 240 kills) |
| 3) 3rd rank | : |
| Score awarded in temple | 10.000 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe. |
| Number of kills for stripe | I = 50 Kills, II = 100 Kills, III = 150 Kills, IIII = 200 Kills (promotion to forth rank on 250 kills) |
| 4) 4th rank | |
| Score awarded in temple | 15.000 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe. |
| Number of kills for stripe | I = 50 Kills, II = 100 Kills, III = 150 Kills, IIII= 200 Kills (promotion to fifth rank on 250 kills) |
| 5) 5th rank | |
| Score awarded in temple | 20.000 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe. |
| Number of kills for stripe | I = 50 Kills, II = 100 Kills, III = 150 Kills, IIII = 200 Kills (promotion to sixth rank on 250 kills) |
| 6) 6th rank | |
| Score awarded in temple | 25.000 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe. |
| Number of kills for stripe | I = 50 Kills, II = 100 Kills, III = 150 Kills, IIII = 200 Kills (promotion to 'BEST' rank on 250 kills) |
| 7) BEST rank | |
| Score awarded in temple | 30.000 points |
| Once you get the 'BEST' rank, your rank is actually still increasing by 1 stripe/1000 points for every 50 kills. For some reason the programmers decided to continue the ranking system but not to include any more graphics. But, if you get it to 64,000 the next bonus goes back to 1000 points!!! On the high score table the rank badge loops around and displays the first rank onwards. I would have thought that they'd have changed the colour of the wings or something. It looks very strange to finish the game with 4.000.000 points and have the first rank! | |