Arcade ports were one of the biggest factors in the early success of the Genesis console. The biggest support came from Sega themselves with nearly perfect versions of their coin-op classics. Many third parties stepped up as well, but the biggest one was Capcom. One of the early arcade ports they released on the Sega Genesis was Strider. This was a side scrolling action game, and although it never became an annual franchise like so many of their others the game is still held in high regard by hardcore players even today. I never played the game back when it was new, but because it was so highly regarded I just had to add it to my collection. Despite it’s ghastly boxart (which was common for the era) this stands out to me as a true classic. While Strider may be a little overrated it’s still one of the best action games of its time.
Strider takes place in a distant and dark future where the world is ruled by a wizard of sorts named the Grandmaster. He’s trying to change the evolutionary track or something like that, and it’s up to our protagonist; a ninja named Hiryu, to put an end to his plan. Unfortunately he resides in the Soviet Social Republic, and it won’t be easy to infiltrate. What’s really unique about this game is its setting and style. The stage motifs change drastically; in the first area you’re scaling Kremlin like buildings in Russia only to fight your way through an airship in the next, and eventually you’re battling dinosaurs in the jungle. It doesn’t make much sense, but somehow it works. The gameplay is strictly side scrolling action fare; you move Hiryu either left, right, or vertically with his crazy jumping ability. The only weapon at your disposal is a plasma sword, but it has a long reach so it almost feels like you’re shooting beams. You can collect power-ups to enhance its reach, and after a few the blade can stretch across the entire screen which is a very cool effect.
There are a number of things that separate Hiryu from your typical video game protagonist. For one thing he’s quite the gymnast. He can easily flip through the air, and had the ability to grapple on to most surfaces. He is extremely agile, and although things can get chaotic I’m really surprised at how easy he is to handle even with all of the gravity defying mechanics. He’s also very fast, and can run downhill at speeds almost comparable to Sonic the Hedgehog. It’s a good thing too because he’ll need to move quickly to beat each of the five levels before the timer runs out and this is not always an easy task. Should the seconds count down to zero you lose a life, and there’s no way to add additional time to it. At least when you lose a life you restart from the last reached checkpoint, and the game can be completed in under a half hour so it’s not even a big issue that there’s no password system or battery backup. Strider is super tough and you’ll likely need to start again several times before being able to finish the story which makes the length excusable.
The developers put a lot of effort into designing the levels here. With Hiryu’s aforementioned abilities the game has a wonderful sense of verticality. You will need to scale buildings, jump on to narrow platforms, and dodge a hailstorm of oncoming enemies. The game throws some crazy challenges at you throughout the course of the main game. While scaling walls and dangling from the ceiling you will still need to battle against against foes and dodge them despite your available actions being limited. Hiryu has a very short life bar, and this holds especially true when you take into account how busy the screen can get when you’re up against multiple enemies. The boss fights in particular are even more difficult than the main game. One in particular has the ability to disrupt gravity resulting in Hiryu being flung around the center of the room as you try desperately to hit your target. The others are pretty standard (though tough with difficult attack patterns) but this one in particular stood out to me. Strider requires significant precision and good reflexes.
Strider doesn’t look particularly impressive in screenshots, but in motion it’s really amazing by early Genesis standards. Hiryu animates wonderfully, and though it feels like frames are missing (he sometimes flickers) it doesn’t mess with the gameplay in the least. The enemies, when attacked, also lack detail and tend to just disappear. The framerate also takes a hit when the screen is full of activity which is actually uncommon for a Genesis game. I figure it’s the big sprites that are the culprit here. The art style is really interesting. As I mentioned earlier you’ll be scaling Russian buildings in one stage, and in the next fight your way through a dinosaur ridden jungle. The enemy designs are generally a little weird with off-key soldiers, amazonian women, and mechanical dinosaurs/apes/tigers but it’s not a big issue. The soundtrack however is awful. It sounds to me like someone brought a synth keyboard into a giant tin can and just started banging on random keys. It’s extremely unpleasant, and I’d rather the game be mute than be subjected to this horrible assembly of musical notes. The sound effects are also rather grating with screeching for your sword and unrealistic samples for everything else. Just press mute.
Strider is tough as nails, and the action is frequently chaotic and hard to follow. With that said there’s an unspoken charm to this game, and I found improving my skills to be an incredibly rewarding process. Unfortunately Strider is extremely short. Given the type of game it is I don’t blame them for the length, but it’s still disappointing the five levels can be completed in just under half an hour. It will take longer than that to get the hang of it, but no matter how you look at it Strider lacks significant content. It still deserves a place in every Genesis collection though.
