Genesis

Strider

Strider é um grupo de defesa no ano de 2048, cujos agentes são treinados até a extrema habilidade. A Terra foi dominada por uma força malígna, e só Hiryu, o mais hábil Strider, e sua espada de plasma pode libertá-la.

This is a marquee Genesis title which helped secure Sega's 16-bit success. Strider is nearly arcade perfect with all the levels and bosses intact. This game is still fun to play even nine years later. The anticipation of Capcom's forthcoming sequel for Dreamcast is building...

When this was loaded into the Megadrive, you could hear the sound of jaws dropping for miles around - it's an absolutely amazing, truly arcade perfect conversion. The graphics are stunning, with large, beautifully animated sprites and fantastic backdrops, and the sheer colour and variety is superb. The sound is also of a very high quality, with all the tunes and effects of the arcade machine! The game oozes playability, grabbing you as soon as you start playing, and keeping you at your Megadrive for hours on end. It's definitely one of the slickest conversions yet seen on the Megadrive - if you're the owner of an imported machine, make sure you get this now!

A simple white arc represents a swing of your sword, accompanied by a simple clang sound. Enemies you strike are split in half before they silently vanish. The lack of sound effects is glaring at times, but I do enjoy the elegant organ soundtrack. Most objects tend to be rendered with large sprites, and Strider himself makes for a rather large target. The difficulty is substantial, and you need an intimate knowledge of the stage layouts to avoid their many hazards. Strider can also smash pods to release mini droids that fight by his side - a novel concept for its time. Although the crux of the game involves slashing everything in sight, the stages exhibit remarkable variety. Each has a unique design and new set of enemies, so the action never gets stale. And you don't have to deal with those "repeating environments" which plague so many other platformers. With its graphic artistry and imaginative stages, Strider is one of the most entertaining platform games you'll ever play.

Overall, Strider is a nice effort and a lot of fun for someone who likes to travel through a dark future Earth killing everything in his/her path with a giant sword.

Strider is short; very short. We're talking about twenty minutes play time, tops. Not a good thing for a game that debuted at almost $80. Still, it's a fun ride while it lasts and I find myself going back to it periodically. I do miss the dramatic "All sons of old gods...die!" voice over that played as the millipede carried you to the final battle with the Grand Master, but other than that (and some sword-swinging animations), there really isn't much of a difference between the import and domestic versions. Either one is a great purchase and can be had for a great price. I lean towards the import for its cool box art (the domestic art is horrible) myself. Great graphics, sound, and gameplay make Strider a winner, no matter what region you buy it for.

Strider is intensely enjoyable - almost all of the time. The iffy control scheme as well as the slightly simplistic and ephemeral experience hurt it somewhat. It’s not really close to being as deep and involving as, say, Castlevania: Bloodlines. Still, if someone had told me of the prospect of an unlikely union of Rastan slashing, Mega Man sliding, with an atmosphere almost as singular and alien as Out of This World, I could barely envision a cohesive end result, let alone guessing it could actually work. But it works. Hiryu's adventure is evidence of that.

Strider's Achilles Heel is its length. After seven or eight play sessions, you get the rhythm down and can breeze through it in under an hour. However, the game can now be picked up on the Genesis for a fraction of its original hefty price tag. That makes it well-worth seeking, especially if you want not only a fun Genesis title, but a sterling example of the eye-popping 16-bit visuals that sent Sega's machine skyrocketing.

Freiheit für Riesensprites! Wurde Segas "Strider" für die Computerumsetzung noch in das enge Korsett eines Amigas oder STs gezwängt (und dabei gehörig "geschrumpft"), kann er sich nun auf dem Mega Drive in voller Körpergröße austoben. Der Automat läßt grüßen...