Strider

 Strider

Type	Hack-n-slash platform adventure
Single or multiplayer	Singleplayer
Developer	Double Helix Games
Publisher	Capcom
Fun	4/5
Difficulty	4/5

 

Strider – a reboot of the SEGA game from the nineties, with lightning fast action which requires equally fast reactions. This means I haven’t been able to finish it and I got super frustrated, just like with all the games of this type.

  

The graphics are stylized and very nice to look at. There is also a barely visible sort of vertical grid, which I guess is included to be reminiscent of the old console games and the screens they were played on. Other than that, the basic enemies all look similar, with a few exceptions, such as elite soldiers, bugs, and giant robots.

The backgrounds in some levels are impressive, I have to say, and give the impression that you are playing a level in a much bigger world than the game really has. The sound is satisfying as well. Hits and slashes sound good, and so do the death screams of defeated enemies. The music is appropriately epic, but nothing too spectacular.

The gameplay is, like I’ve mentioned, quite fast, but the game introduces it in increments. When you begin, you can only jump and attack at close range. As the game progresses, you unlock the slide, double jump, dash, range attacks, and all the other moves which are the staple of action platformers.

In no part of the game do you feel bored, but there are a few major problems with the game that made me rage quit a few times. First, the game starts off too easy. It literally takes one hit to kill most enemies, which lulls you into a false state of safety.

As you progress, however, this starts to change quite a bit. The enemies become more resilient, armored, and shielded, their weapons become overpowered (plasma rifles, I’m looking at you), their behavior becomes too annoying (those damn bugs!), and the game itself is pretty much impossible by the end, when you are in the elevator and the enemies just pile up on you. Perhaps this is just due to me being bad at these types of games, which is a possibility I’m not denying.

The boss fights, paradoxically, are almost not hard at all. Once you get the pattern down, they just become exercises in following their movement and avoiding the attacks. The animations are fun to look at, at least, and the bosses are all quite different, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes even fun to fight. All, except for the Gravitron. That thing can go die with other annoying game bosses.

 

The story is ludicrous, but befitting a game that was created at a time when an Italian plumber jumping on mushrooms was an acceptable plot. The titular Strider is a typical manga ninja cyber assassin, who holds his sword behind his back when running. He has the task of eliminating Grandmaster Meio, the ruler of Kazakh, an evil country that is totally not Soviet Russia. You will fight, among others, a mad and eccentric scientist, four martial arts ladies with huge thighs, and a general who wears a fur hat on his bearded head, talks with a thick accent, and runs around on robot raptor legs. If that is not enough to entertain you, I don’t know what might.

One thing that this game succeeds is actually making you feel like a ninja. You’ll do a double jump and dash to grab hold of the underside of a platform with your daggers. Then you’ll jump up, slice the enemy in two, and slide into a ventilation shaft. On the other side, a flying machine will try to attack you, but not before you throw shurikens at it, and use your sword to deflect the laser from the turret. The game is full of moments like these.

All in all, Strider is a fun, albeit increasingly hard game, that verges on impossible for me. It had some really intense and interesting moments, and it had me screaming and cursing as well. If you like these kinds of games, and you excel under pressure, go play Strider, and be a ninja cyber assassin who saves the world from an evil Grandmaster and his lackeys.