Re-played this bc holy fuck out of nowhere everyone started absolutely shitting on this game
It's sorta deserved????? Idk
Strider is kinda like Altered Beast in the way it screams cool factor over playability, on top of being a launch-era Genesis port with that dilapidated green/metal artstyle. It's short. and a lot of the opportunities for proper game design are sacrificed in order to justify its setpieces. But to be fair, its setpieces are really damn good, sloping seamlessly into each other (barring the freeze/loading on the genny version) and conveying a world and sense of verticality akin to an action movie. Strider actually debuted as a Capcom-funded manga a year before the arcade game - something that ultimately influences the game's direction for better or worse. Like, bosses have cool designs, but are either complete pushovers or bouts of luck. Platforming has Ghost-n-Goblins jumps, which works for the thematic weight its trying to communicate, but leads to a lot of annoyances and bumbling around. This game is a whole hodge-podge of 'ideas' that never get meaningfully expanded into assessable gameplay scenarios, but I don't think that makes the experience inherently 'flawed'.
Strider isn't good viewed under the same lens as other action game design testaments like Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania. I don't even know if I'd even say it's 'good' for the time, or 'good' for what it's trying to do. But I don't think the experience is mechanically taxing enough or long enough to take away from its concept and spectacle. I think the only thing that makes this game hard to stomach is that Genesis boomers spent DECADES online calling this the best game on the system. Not 'one of the best' - THE best. Better than Sonic 2 & 3, SoR2, Shinobi 3, Ristar, and Treasure's games. It takes an obscene amount of cope to rewrite history like that.
ADDENDUM: I only realized now that Sonic 2's Wing Fortress like, just steals everything from stage 3. All of it. It's insane
It's sorta deserved????? Idk
Strider is kinda like Altered Beast in the way it screams cool factor over playability, on top of being a launch-era Genesis port with that dilapidated green/metal artstyle. It's short. and a lot of the opportunities for proper game design are sacrificed in order to justify its setpieces. But to be fair, its setpieces are really damn good, sloping seamlessly into each other (barring the freeze/loading on the genny version) and conveying a world and sense of verticality akin to an action movie. Strider actually debuted as a Capcom-funded manga a year before the arcade game - something that ultimately influences the game's direction for better or worse. Like, bosses have cool designs, but are either complete pushovers or bouts of luck. Platforming has Ghost-n-Goblins jumps, which works for the thematic weight its trying to communicate, but leads to a lot of annoyances and bumbling around. This game is a whole hodge-podge of 'ideas' that never get meaningfully expanded into assessable gameplay scenarios, but I don't think that makes the experience inherently 'flawed'.
Strider isn't good viewed under the same lens as other action game design testaments like Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania. I don't even know if I'd even say it's 'good' for the time, or 'good' for what it's trying to do. But I don't think the experience is mechanically taxing enough or long enough to take away from its concept and spectacle. I think the only thing that makes this game hard to stomach is that Genesis boomers spent DECADES online calling this the best game on the system. Not 'one of the best' - THE best. Better than Sonic 2 & 3, SoR2, Shinobi 3, Ristar, and Treasure's games. It takes an obscene amount of cope to rewrite history like that.
ADDENDUM: I only realized now that Sonic 2's Wing Fortress like, just steals everything from stage 3. All of it. It's insane
2 Comments
You're right. I distinctly remember a lot of nerds and game shows in the mid 00's proclaiming Strider as the coolest thing on the Genesis. I remember people back then also thought Altered Beast was good, so...
Jenny
2 years ago