Innovative, challenging, varied, ahead of its time. Strider is one of the unsung heroes of gaming for many reasons. It was one of most influential arcade games of all time, if not one of the most influential video games period. The atmospheric level design, cinematic nature, surprising home port quality, extremely fast-paced action, variety of setpieces, and competent adaptation from its native medium all helped in forming one of the most unique games of the 1980s, one which would receive a fair share of imitators in the decade to come.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b-0XeU-6-A
Our journey begins with a screen of Hiryu slashing Grandmaster Mayo in half, foreshadowing events to follow. After pressing start, the player is greeted to a symbolic opening of Mayo holding the world in the palm of his hand, giving the player an immediate idea of how much is at stake even without reading the manual. As soon as the player leaves their glider, they are subject to a dozen enemies coming from all sides, and these villains are willing to sacrifice their lives for Mayo by suicide bombing the legendary super ninja in their desperate attempt to stop the last obstacle in Mayo's path to global domination.
Indeed, it takes only a minute to understand the sheer state of the world Hiryu inhabits. Major cities are overrun by terrorists and nigh-indestructible robots ranging from Ivan Drago lookalikes to giant mecha-monkeys. Even the demo screen makes it clear the player is the last ray of light in the world, through their control of Hiryu.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/790816265148694579/1014128664885080194/unknown.png
The player will need to harness every tool at their disposal to save the world as well as come to grips with Hiryu's physics. The Cypher swinging, sliding, wall climbing, and jumping are all very deliberate and flashy. Every animation from the player has vastly more frames than its home console platforming contemporaries of the NES and Master System. The spinning jump in particular is very reminiscent of ninja theatrics seen in martial arts cinema, to say nothing of Hiryu's recovery roll; even when the player is damaged, they take damage in style. When enemies are sliced, they go down in a fiery hot explosion of their own blood and a mini tokusatsuesque boom. It truly gets across the feeling of slicing everything in Hiryu's path with an unstable 1000 degree knife.
In a way, realism is what Strider is all about. Hiryu will slant across surfaces in a way few action-platformers would bother with, allowing for the player to build momentum and make last second jumps across minefields in the vein of an action movie star. Guards will patrol platforms by walking left and right periodically, which allows some to be stealth killed in true shinobi fashion. Voice clips weren't invented by Strider, but it had much more of a cinematic element than contemporaries by featuring fully voice acted cutscenes spoken in several languages depending on the character's nationality, with Mayo's iconic "STRIDER HIRYU WILL NEVER LEAVE EURASIA ALIVE" being the highlight for certain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3y0aFDkGUs
One interesting detail I was always iffy of was Solo. I found it rather peculiar Solo was built up as Hiryu's rival figure only to be mercilessly shredded in half by the player with no fanfare, but in hindsight it makes sense. The player recognizes Solo as the grandmaster's Strongest Soldier, but to Hiryu's knowledge he's just another obstacle in the way for your friendly neighbourhood super ninja.
The music can and will change at the drop of a hat within the same screen, something that was also rather unheard of at the time as platformers such as Mario would reserve this for occasions like going down warp pipes. The Genesis version of Strider in particular had brilliant music cues, such as the first stage playing a triumphant melody after notivandrago's death only for it to be shockingly cutoff by an ambush the instant the player could realize they were surrounded by enemy turrets and guards. Without a single word, Strider could express that the player wasn't safe no matter where they went.
And that's just what made Strider so special, the style and subtlety. The player could strike a fair amount of poses for an end level screen, sometimes to hilarious result. Airships could be pushed up and down depending on where or how the player landed on them. Capcom even included a special game over screen for the final boss fight to put into perspective how badly the player failed the earth, something unheard of for its time. There would be no game over jingle, as if the world was uninterrupted by the death of one more insignificant individual who dared oppose the grandmaster.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/790816265148694579/1014131649895735366/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/790816265148694579/1014131861313830922/unknown.png
All of this combines to make Strider a very memorable game for me and many other fans of 1980s arcade games. However, it is also a flawed game in several aspects. The powerups are rather weak compared to say, Ninja Gaiden's as they do not really give the player a new skill so much as simply add more objects on the screen to interact with enemies. Compare Strider's ninjutsu simply making him intangible or having a longer sword to the sort of ninjutsu Ninja Gaiden or Shinobi would provide the player to increase combat options. There are also a couple attacks in the game which are nigh-impossible to dodge, most notably the quadruple laser and the gravity core's thrusts; it is quite telling even with a turbo button I was never able to defeat a single gravity core without taking damage. However, these encounters can still ultimately be damage sponged so I do not believe they ruin the overall experience.
Strider's influence can be seen in many of my favourite games. The Mega Man games would borrow multiple gimmicks, including Gravity Man's stage in 5 having similarities to the Battleship Balrog or the wall crushers in Mega Man X2 borrowing from a certain segment in Strider's 3rd stage. The Ninja Gaiden series would go on to give Hayabusa a proper wall climb in 2 and even copy Hiryu's Cypher in NG3. Flatout imitators such as Run Saber, Osman (by the same director no less) and Hagane would come out in the years to follow, and while they would expand the combat options of Strider, they never became as iconic nor had the amount of sequels. Strider has even been cited as an influence in the hack n slash genre.
https://www.eurogamer.net/strider-1-2-review
Furthermore, Strider demonstrated what a licensed game could be, adapting only a few elements from its source manga to create a digestible experience for those who were unfamiliar with the original story. This was in stark contrast to the NES game which had a condensed version of the manga's story which did not click with the North American market it was aimed for. In an era where licensed games were generally seen as low quality, Capcom did a great job pumping out games such as this and Disney's titles which could stand on their own merits.
If I had to choose one version of the game as my favourite, I would say the Genesis port. In the early years of the Genesis' lifespan, Strider was a system seller due to breaking new ground in the public eye as to what an arcade port could be. The first stage was reworked to make the turret ambush more surprising, enemies were altered to render machine gunners or spiked wall enemies less annoying, stages became more approachable as there were now more ways to clear obstacles such as the first vine in stage 4, the ceiling being removed from the laser boss resulted in an actually dodgeable attack which no longer obscured the player's view, the doomsday weapon was given a darker atmosphere with muted colours replacing the bright pallet of the arcade, and even the music was slightly reworked to make the fall of Balrog more intense. Some sound effects were compromised (mainly during the cutscenes) but I simply can't pass over a version that gave the game an actual ending sequence with a whole ass cast roll to boot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7iWY3quVLM
In the end, I don't believe Strider is the greatest ninja action platformer of all time. I would argue it was far surpassed by the original Ninja Gaiden, as well as Shinobi 3 and Hagane. However, it still has its place at the table as it brought one of Capcom's most iconic characters into the public eye worldwide. Marvel VS Capcom 2 just wouldn't be the same without the blessed Hiryu/Doom power couple, now would it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cREri3qeKc8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b-0XeU-6-A
Our journey begins with a screen of Hiryu slashing Grandmaster Mayo in half, foreshadowing events to follow. After pressing start, the player is greeted to a symbolic opening of Mayo holding the world in the palm of his hand, giving the player an immediate idea of how much is at stake even without reading the manual. As soon as the player leaves their glider, they are subject to a dozen enemies coming from all sides, and these villains are willing to sacrifice their lives for Mayo by suicide bombing the legendary super ninja in their desperate attempt to stop the last obstacle in Mayo's path to global domination.
Indeed, it takes only a minute to understand the sheer state of the world Hiryu inhabits. Major cities are overrun by terrorists and nigh-indestructible robots ranging from Ivan Drago lookalikes to giant mecha-monkeys. Even the demo screen makes it clear the player is the last ray of light in the world, through their control of Hiryu.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/790816265148694579/1014128664885080194/unknown.png
The player will need to harness every tool at their disposal to save the world as well as come to grips with Hiryu's physics. The Cypher swinging, sliding, wall climbing, and jumping are all very deliberate and flashy. Every animation from the player has vastly more frames than its home console platforming contemporaries of the NES and Master System. The spinning jump in particular is very reminiscent of ninja theatrics seen in martial arts cinema, to say nothing of Hiryu's recovery roll; even when the player is damaged, they take damage in style. When enemies are sliced, they go down in a fiery hot explosion of their own blood and a mini tokusatsuesque boom. It truly gets across the feeling of slicing everything in Hiryu's path with an unstable 1000 degree knife.
In a way, realism is what Strider is all about. Hiryu will slant across surfaces in a way few action-platformers would bother with, allowing for the player to build momentum and make last second jumps across minefields in the vein of an action movie star. Guards will patrol platforms by walking left and right periodically, which allows some to be stealth killed in true shinobi fashion. Voice clips weren't invented by Strider, but it had much more of a cinematic element than contemporaries by featuring fully voice acted cutscenes spoken in several languages depending on the character's nationality, with Mayo's iconic "STRIDER HIRYU WILL NEVER LEAVE EURASIA ALIVE" being the highlight for certain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3y0aFDkGUs
One interesting detail I was always iffy of was Solo. I found it rather peculiar Solo was built up as Hiryu's rival figure only to be mercilessly shredded in half by the player with no fanfare, but in hindsight it makes sense. The player recognizes Solo as the grandmaster's Strongest Soldier, but to Hiryu's knowledge he's just another obstacle in the way for your friendly neighbourhood super ninja.
The music can and will change at the drop of a hat within the same screen, something that was also rather unheard of at the time as platformers such as Mario would reserve this for occasions like going down warp pipes. The Genesis version of Strider in particular had brilliant music cues, such as the first stage playing a triumphant melody after notivandrago's death only for it to be shockingly cutoff by an ambush the instant the player could realize they were surrounded by enemy turrets and guards. Without a single word, Strider could express that the player wasn't safe no matter where they went.
And that's just what made Strider so special, the style and subtlety. The player could strike a fair amount of poses for an end level screen, sometimes to hilarious result. Airships could be pushed up and down depending on where or how the player landed on them. Capcom even included a special game over screen for the final boss fight to put into perspective how badly the player failed the earth, something unheard of for its time. There would be no game over jingle, as if the world was uninterrupted by the death of one more insignificant individual who dared oppose the grandmaster.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/790816265148694579/1014131649895735366/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/790816265148694579/1014131861313830922/unknown.png
All of this combines to make Strider a very memorable game for me and many other fans of 1980s arcade games. However, it is also a flawed game in several aspects. The powerups are rather weak compared to say, Ninja Gaiden's as they do not really give the player a new skill so much as simply add more objects on the screen to interact with enemies. Compare Strider's ninjutsu simply making him intangible or having a longer sword to the sort of ninjutsu Ninja Gaiden or Shinobi would provide the player to increase combat options. There are also a couple attacks in the game which are nigh-impossible to dodge, most notably the quadruple laser and the gravity core's thrusts; it is quite telling even with a turbo button I was never able to defeat a single gravity core without taking damage. However, these encounters can still ultimately be damage sponged so I do not believe they ruin the overall experience.
Strider's influence can be seen in many of my favourite games. The Mega Man games would borrow multiple gimmicks, including Gravity Man's stage in 5 having similarities to the Battleship Balrog or the wall crushers in Mega Man X2 borrowing from a certain segment in Strider's 3rd stage. The Ninja Gaiden series would go on to give Hayabusa a proper wall climb in 2 and even copy Hiryu's Cypher in NG3. Flatout imitators such as Run Saber, Osman (by the same director no less) and Hagane would come out in the years to follow, and while they would expand the combat options of Strider, they never became as iconic nor had the amount of sequels. Strider has even been cited as an influence in the hack n slash genre.
https://www.eurogamer.net/strider-1-2-review
Furthermore, Strider demonstrated what a licensed game could be, adapting only a few elements from its source manga to create a digestible experience for those who were unfamiliar with the original story. This was in stark contrast to the NES game which had a condensed version of the manga's story which did not click with the North American market it was aimed for. In an era where licensed games were generally seen as low quality, Capcom did a great job pumping out games such as this and Disney's titles which could stand on their own merits.
If I had to choose one version of the game as my favourite, I would say the Genesis port. In the early years of the Genesis' lifespan, Strider was a system seller due to breaking new ground in the public eye as to what an arcade port could be. The first stage was reworked to make the turret ambush more surprising, enemies were altered to render machine gunners or spiked wall enemies less annoying, stages became more approachable as there were now more ways to clear obstacles such as the first vine in stage 4, the ceiling being removed from the laser boss resulted in an actually dodgeable attack which no longer obscured the player's view, the doomsday weapon was given a darker atmosphere with muted colours replacing the bright pallet of the arcade, and even the music was slightly reworked to make the fall of Balrog more intense. Some sound effects were compromised (mainly during the cutscenes) but I simply can't pass over a version that gave the game an actual ending sequence with a whole ass cast roll to boot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7iWY3quVLM
In the end, I don't believe Strider is the greatest ninja action platformer of all time. I would argue it was far surpassed by the original Ninja Gaiden, as well as Shinobi 3 and Hagane. However, it still has its place at the table as it brought one of Capcom's most iconic characters into the public eye worldwide. Marvel VS Capcom 2 just wouldn't be the same without the blessed Hiryu/Doom power couple, now would it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cREri3qeKc8
3 Comments
Hiryu's strongest Strider
Great write-up luring me into playing it (and I hope to do it!), but man it is funny how divisive the reputation of Stryder is on Backloggd
Reddish
1 year ago
soldierstrider