Strider is a hell of an odd game. I remember I utterly loathed it back in May when I first gave it a go, then declared it was garbage, and suddenly an avalanche of similar negative reviews came down. I eventually started to feel like I didn't give it enough credit, and then some evil spirit possessed me to replay this at 4 AM seven months later. I still think it kind of sucks as a whole, but I didn't really have much to say the first time so I might as well go a little more in depth now.
I've talked about how setpieces and cinematic flair can amp up the enjoyability of a game as a whole when I replayed R-Type III, and the same pretty much applies here. There's a handful of games on the Genesis that play out like a little action movie or OVA, such as Battle Mania Daiginjou or maybe El Viento, and this is a really early example of that. The atypical stage design further amplifies this, feeling more tailored to the setpieces rather than just playing like the average platformer at the time, if that makes sense.
Actually playing through the stages is...really bad. Strider controls kind of miserably, a lot of enemies are a chore to hit and there are various sections of the game where it is actively impossible to slip by without taking damage. There is a lot of this in the final stage in particular, and above all else it just makes me wonder: why? Sure, a lot of arcade releases around this time are insane with their quarter munching, but why wasn't the opportunity taken to sober up a little for this port? Even if unlimited continues were provided here, there's no satisfaction in slowly mastering the levels because for some of them, you can't! It really boggles my mind, and I think it's a big reason why I held such intense vitriol on my first playthrough.
This port was awarded Game of the Year by Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1990, which at first utterly baffles me, but really at the time there wasn't much if anything quite like it, even if the end result is shoddy. I can kinda see why some people have a soft spot for it today, especially if they grew up when it was newly released, but I have to wonder if even one playthrough is all it might take for someone in that position to reconsider. There's some pretty obscene design flaws here, as cool as the game may look.
I've talked about how setpieces and cinematic flair can amp up the enjoyability of a game as a whole when I replayed R-Type III, and the same pretty much applies here. There's a handful of games on the Genesis that play out like a little action movie or OVA, such as Battle Mania Daiginjou or maybe El Viento, and this is a really early example of that. The atypical stage design further amplifies this, feeling more tailored to the setpieces rather than just playing like the average platformer at the time, if that makes sense.
Actually playing through the stages is...really bad. Strider controls kind of miserably, a lot of enemies are a chore to hit and there are various sections of the game where it is actively impossible to slip by without taking damage. There is a lot of this in the final stage in particular, and above all else it just makes me wonder: why? Sure, a lot of arcade releases around this time are insane with their quarter munching, but why wasn't the opportunity taken to sober up a little for this port? Even if unlimited continues were provided here, there's no satisfaction in slowly mastering the levels because for some of them, you can't! It really boggles my mind, and I think it's a big reason why I held such intense vitriol on my first playthrough.
This port was awarded Game of the Year by Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1990, which at first utterly baffles me, but really at the time there wasn't much if anything quite like it, even if the end result is shoddy. I can kinda see why some people have a soft spot for it today, especially if they grew up when it was newly released, but I have to wonder if even one playthrough is all it might take for someone in that position to reconsider. There's some pretty obscene design flaws here, as cool as the game may look.
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"I can kinda see why some people have a soft spot for it today, especially if they grew up when it was newly released, but I have to wonder if even one playthrough is all it might take for someone in that position to reconsider."
I'm really not a fan of this mindset given I replay Strider every few years and frankly it's not about nostalgia blindness imo as I love mastering hard games and I played the game for the first time around 2013. That said I honestly do agree there are a few moments of outright fake difficulty even as somebody who generally despises that term. What they were going for with the gravity core in particular was "the player would be forced to take one hit, but they could heal mid-fight" and frankly it's pretty jank looking at it even at the time, but in the 1980s there weren't these tried and true standards everybody universally applied to games yet so in a way I still commend the ambition. It really can't be understated how influential the game was and while games influenced by it like Hagane, Osman, or Run Saber might be more mechanically sound, I can't say I found the setpieces, characters, or atmosphere nearly as memorable as in Strider.
Sometimes raw ambition and passion alone can overwhelm any feeling of how flawed a game may be to me; I respect that you don't feel the same way about Strider but I sincerely feel it's less nostalgia blindness and moreso how much some people are willing to let things slide and how much value they place in certain aspects of an experience.
That being said? SHINOBI 3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>
I'm really not a fan of this mindset given I replay Strider every few years and frankly it's not about nostalgia blindness imo as I love mastering hard games and I played the game for the first time around 2013. That said I honestly do agree there are a few moments of outright fake difficulty even as somebody who generally despises that term. What they were going for with the gravity core in particular was "the player would be forced to take one hit, but they could heal mid-fight" and frankly it's pretty jank looking at it even at the time, but in the 1980s there weren't these tried and true standards everybody universally applied to games yet so in a way I still commend the ambition. It really can't be understated how influential the game was and while games influenced by it like Hagane, Osman, or Run Saber might be more mechanically sound, I can't say I found the setpieces, characters, or atmosphere nearly as memorable as in Strider.
Sometimes raw ambition and passion alone can overwhelm any feeling of how flawed a game may be to me; I respect that you don't feel the same way about Strider but I sincerely feel it's less nostalgia blindness and moreso how much some people are willing to let things slide and how much value they place in certain aspects of an experience.
That being said? SHINOBI 3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>
this is pretty reasonable honestly i thought abt taking that sentence out bc it was too snarky but i was writing at llike 5 am lol
I think Ghouls n Ghosts and Forgotten Worlds on the Genesis are way better playing games, and I'm starting to think that's because the people programming them actually understood the difference between a home console and the arcade at a time when consoles were still a bit weaker on the hardware level. Both are still challenging games, but toned down just enough to be reasonable (especially forgotten worlds). With Strider, it's like having an "arcade hard" game at home with the only olive branch being unlimited continues.
Gare
1 year ago