Argos no juujiken is Tecmo's Master System port of their own Arcade game "Argos no Senshi" (known as Rygar in the West). It is one of only two Mark III games in Japan that wasn't published by Sega, and is known as a "Silver Cartridge" instead of the regular "Gold Cartridge". Also, it is a Japan-only game, as it was, for some reason, never released in Europe or America. Naturally, I never knew it existed until I started using Internet and emulators, but still, it wasn't until today I decided to really give it a go.

I've been playing it for a couple of hours now, and so far my impression of it isn't that great. It looks very appealing at first sight, as it has excellent graphics, good music and reminds me very much of other Master System games from the same era and that I grew up with. So far, I have to say it's been really frustrating to play it though. It's simply far too difficult with enemies everywhere - in front of you, behind you, above you, below you... And they all move in different ways, making it even more difficult to keep track of all the enemies that are attacking you at the same time. Sometimes they are so many it's simply impossible to avoid them. I guess it could be that I need some more training with this game, but so far I have to say the game has been a little too stressful to enjoy.

It would have been much better have you had a health bar. Instead you die the first time one of the monsters you are fighting touch you, and you only have three lives (I think). The only good thing is that you can select "continue" an unlimited number of times when you die, which is the only thing that makes it possible to advance in this game. On the other hand, it's also a bit stupid, as it's sort of like having unlimited lives, which I don't like.

The other thing that happens as soon as you touch an enemy and die, is that you lose all the special items you have collected. They make your weapon much better, and with the improved range of the thing that you're throwing at your enemies, the games becomes much easier and much more playable. So having to lose it just because you touch an enemy sucks!

So, although there are some things I like about this game, it is simply too difficult. With a health bar and less enemies it could have been a great game, though. Someone should make a hack...