Rygar

Rygar is a side-scrolling platformer in which the basic gameplay sees the player character move left to right, with the player able to jump, duck, attack, and climb ropes. Rygar's only weapon is his Diskarmor, a razor-sharp spinning shield that can be thrown some distance whilst staying attached to him, similar to a yo-yo . Available attacks are a standard front-facing attack that can be used when Rygar is either standing up or ducking down, a curved overhead swing, and an airborne attack. It is also possible for Rygar to briefly stun enemies by jumping on them.

There is no health in the game, and Rygar is immediately killed upon contact with an enemy (unless jumping on their head) or an enemy's projectile, or by falling from a platform. There are five categories of items that the player can collect; bonus points, power-ups , extra lives, additional time, and screen bombs (destroys every enemy on the screen). These items can be found in stones that spawn from the earth and are occasionally dropped by defeated enemies. Power-ups boost the player's abilities, but they are not permanent and are lost when Rygar is killed.

There are five different types of power-ups; Sun Power (a straight overhead attack to replace the standard circular attack), Crown Power (the ability to kill multiple enemies with one hit), Cross Power (temporary invincibility), Tiger Power (the ability to kill enemies by jumping on them), and Star Power (extension of the Diskarmor's range). Additionally, on rare occasions, a player may find an item with a question mark on it. Every time the player hits the item with the Diskarmor, the item changes into one of the above power-ups. Each level has a time limit and if the player goes over this limit, a powerful fire monster appears and aggressively tries to kill the player.

The longer the player evades him, the faster the monster gets. At the end of each of the 27 levels, there is a safe zone where the player's score is tallied. The original arcade game also featured what Tecmo referred to as a "Buy-In" feature. When the player has lost all their lives (of which they begin with three), a countdown appears onscreen but if they insert more coins before it reaches zero, they can continue playing from the point of their furthest progression rather than restarting the game from the beginning.

However, this option is only available in levels 1-20; during levels 21-27, if the player loses all their lives, they must restart the entire game. The reason for this was to prevent players paying their way to the end of the game by continually dying and resurrecting. Instead, Tecmo wanted to force players to develop the skills necessary to beat the last six levels. The game also utilised a hotseat mechanic whereby two players can play in turn, with each player's progression independent of the other's.