Rygar: Battle of Argus - the only Wii game that matters?

The Wii, Nintendo's magic money machine, has been crazy successful. Every month it sells an estimated sextillion units, and its games are consistently best sellers. But as we pointed out recently, almost all of its titles for the rest of the year leave something to be desired. Ignoring Nintendo-published titles, almost every game is a cooking title that teaches kids math while you lose weight playing Sudoku on the balance board. Fortunately, there's at least one third-party game that you might be thankful for at year's end: Rygar: Battle of Argus, a pleasantly violent quest through Greek mythology to find a kidnapped girl. Let’s illustrate why Rygar could be the Wii's saving grace: 

1. No idiotic motion controls

This doesn’t mean there aren’t ANY motion controls; they’re just implemented sharply. As Rygar fights his way through the many Ionic pillars of the Greek isle of Argus, basic attacks with the Diskarmor - a bladed Frisbee on a chain - are executed with the A and B buttons. Conversely, waggle is used for completing more complex combos. That set-up makes good use of the Wii’s specialties, without forcing players to constantly wave their hands through every combat-heavy level.

2. But if you like waving your arms like a fool...

... Rygar does have a mode titled Gladiator, the point of which is simply to kill all the enemies on a level before moving on to the next - and you can only attack using different motions to pull off the moves. Beating all 30 levels seems like it might be tough, especially considering how tired we felt after flailing our way to level six.

3. Rygar pwns Kratos

Battle of Argus continues a series older than Final Fantasy, but from its setting, plot and gameplay, you’d think it was ripping off God of War. Rygar’s Diskarmor - a sharp object attached at the wrist - even plays a bit like Kratos’ Blades of Chaos. But the original 3D Rygar adventure beat God of War to market by three years. Who’s the imitator now?