A shame these older Strider games have such crappy programming (I applaud anyone who can master the wall jump in this Micronics tier NES game sloppiness) because they have some interesting ambitions narratively. You could say it's because the game is also very ambitious gameplay wise due to its metroidvania nature, but they didn't need to do a Super Pitfall-esque huge level which is stored in memory but fails to be smooth when Capcom already made the NES Captain Commando which also was very ambitious for its time.

It's also ridiculous this NES game drops the fact you are trying to rescue your sister when even the crappy Sega Genesis Strider II remembered that at the end

Reviewed on Jan 23, 2024


3 Comments


6 days ago

I was 13 when Strider came out. Back then we just had to power through all the BS., But in the case of NES Strider, I'm glad we did. Yes, the collision detection, especially with the triangle jump is lousy, however, once my friends and I got the hang of it (it's all in the wonky timing), it became instinctive. We had an absolute blast plowing through the rest of the game after that. But that was 1990. With so many other games to choose from now, it's understandable that you abandoned it. I'd really love for Capcom to remake it, but I seriously doubt that'll ever happen.

6 days ago

@JayLucien Hello, had you played Ninja Gaiden from 1988 before? (You would have been 11 when that was released and I wouldn't be born for 14 years XD). It doesn't exactly have the same thing with the timing here in the wall jumps since you could grab onto the walls but the little sections were you had to jump between them felt much smoother

The cinematic feel it brought to the console in its cutscenes (an evolution from the clunky arcade beat em up it was based on) was what I was searching here knowing the arcade game followed its own path of being memorably cinematic with its level designs (but which also had clunky movement)

6 days ago

You bet I did. The original Ninja Gaiden Trilogy was brutally hard but very awesome. You mentioned the cinematics, which were graphically amazing for the time (and still are for the NES). But they were also very well written. All 3 games were. Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, is my favorite. It happened to launch on (or the week of) my 14th birthday, and my Mom took me up to Children's Palace, where I picked it out. Great memories. If Strider could've managed the polish of the Gaiden games, I think there's no doubt it'd be looked back on with more fondness. Which is actually kinda strange to say because the vast majority of the Capcom NES library is the epitome of polished excellence.

*Btw, if you don't know what Children's Palace was, they were a chain of toy stores that were a rival to Toys 'R Us back in the 80's & 90's. In fact, they were basically a clone of Toys 'R US for all intents & purposes.