Strider Returns: Journey from Darkness - Genesis / Sega Master System / Game Gear / Amiga / Atari ST / C64 / CPC / ZX Spectrum(1992)
Starting with the graphics, the game just looks like a pile of mud. The graphical style is bland, the animation is choppy, and the enemy designs are rather lame. Placed right next to the Genesis port of the original Strider, this game looks like it came straight out of the ass of a constipated walrus. What's worse is that Hiryu's awesome blue outfit is now an unremarkable white...wait a minute, Strider freaking Hiryu would never wear that crap. The shocking truth of the matter is that, according to the manual in the North American Genesis version, THE PROTAGONIST IS NOT HIRYU. You are forced into the role of Strider Hinjo, some random donghonker assigned to rescue Princess Lexia, whoever the fuck that is. This is supposed to be STRIDER, goddammit! Save this Mickey Mouse princess-saving shit for some lameass EC-rated title! At least good ol’ Meio's the main villain again, but I bet he's as pissed off for being in this game as I am for having played it.
The music is extraordinarily bland and primitive sounding. For a game that came out around the middle of the Genny's lifespan, it sounds like a first-generation game for the system. Considering that the Genesis port of the original Strider came out two years before this and it is by far a much better sounding game, that's not a positive comment. On top of that, the compositions aren’t very inspired or captivating. This is one of those games where I could just not give a damn about the BGM tunes and just listen to my own music on a CD player. That doesn’t really make the game any more fun to play, lamentably enough. There are several speech samples at the end of each, undoubtedly an attempt to mimic the cutscenes from the arcade game. They're cheesy, but they're relatively clear for a Genesis title.
How fun is it, you ask? It may be somewhat fun for people who have never played any other Strider game in their life. On the other hand, those expecting gameplay comparable to the original goodness of the arcade will not only be severely letdown, they will forever rue Capcom for passing the licensing rights to Tiertex and U.S. Gold and allowing them to go right ahead and fuck the franchise in the face. It wouldn’t be for a long six years that Capcom would save the series with Strider 2, but until then, it was thought that this game practically obliterated the whole series. It may as well have, because the gameplay, quite honestly, blows monkey cock.
Hiryu's... I’m sorry, HINJO’S cipher is powerful enough to chop through the enemies, sure, but the enemy placement just seems unfair at times. Not fifteen seconds pass before Hinjo is forced to climb trees with mechanical eagles floating above, and it's at that point that you wished your hero could attack upwards. That thought never crossed my mind in the original Strider, but in this game, when it came to the point where I was already screaming profanities by the middle of stage 1, I realized that enemies are cheap. We have these dangerous plants that are hard to see and spawn just as you are within proximity and explode, the aforementioned cheapass eagles (which prove that anything in an action game with wings has the potential to piss off any gamer), abd stationary posts which launch so many bombs that the only way to avoid pain is to destroy them immediately...and this is just the first level. This isn't even taking in account the speed of the game - the tempo has been drastically toned down from its predecessor, partially due to all of the slowdown that occurs through the simplest of actions. If you have any intent on making it past the first level, prepare to grab some alcohol and get smashed beyond sensibility, because that's only way you're ever going to tolerate it. The second level, featuring a maddening maze of purple lasers, is insane enough to drive a person to kill.
Most of the enemies are lame-ass machines, quite a few designs which are direct sprite rips from the original game. The bosses are rather boring too - at least everyone's favorite bounty hunter, Solo, is the end boss of stage 1, but he just isn’t as cool as he could be. All the rest of the designs I’ve seen are bland, uninspired mechanical thingies. I talked about the cheap enemies, right? Them, the fact that life powerups are rather sparse, Hinjo can only take three hits, and the ever-so-lucky gamer gets a mere three continues to play this game, the difficulty is more than likely to induce feelings of pissed-offedness out of gamers. If anyone out there in the vast reaches of this humble planet has somehow tolerated the utter bleeding shittiness of this game AND worked through its ridiculous cheapness, that person deserves a freaking medal.
I wish I could be fair about the judgment of Strider Returns: Journey From Darkness, but considering how it is essentially Capcom's fault for allowing Tiertex to go ahead and bukakke on their once sacred franchise, I have the right to be pissed off at the series’ creators, even if they didn’t make this Spectacular Crapfest (the appropriate name that the OPCFG has endowed to this "game"). Many inexcusable travesties have been spawned on the Genesis, and considering that this game thinks it deserves to share the name of one of the greatest games of all time, that in turn makes this one of the worst games of all time. Just don't bother with this, unless you want to take on an impossible task: finding enjoyment in this craptacular pile of dung. Good luck. You will need it.
Other than the Genesis port, Strider Returns also got ports to the Sega Master System/Game Gear. Similarly, the controls are awful, the level design is pretty bad, and the graphics are quite mediocre. Hinjo can throw shurikens as well as slash his sword, but the game randomly picks which attacks it wants to execute. In addition to the console ports, Strider Returns also showed up on the all of the major European home computers of the time to inflict more pain. It also doesn't seem to have been released in Japan, so Strider's native land seems to have remained ignorant of this travesty.
Strider Returns (Genesis)
Strider Returns (Genesis)
Strider Returns (Genesis)
Strider Returns (Genesis)
Strider Returns (SMS)
Strider Returns (SMS)
Strider 2 - Arcade / Playstation (1998)
Yes, Strider Hiryu (not that Hinjo mofo) returns, looking even more badass ever with his awesome long red scarf to compliment his dark blue ninja outfit. The story, it seems, is that Mr. Evil himself, Grandmaster Meio, has somehow returned from his grave and is now about to assfuck the world. Not one to refuse the opportunity to slice an old enemy in half yet AGAIN, Hiryu takes off, cipher in hand, ready to do some serious damage. It's not much of a plot, but that hardly matters when the game itself is just so impressive. Still-shot cutscenes (with damn good artwork, might I add), help to augment the story, just like in the original game, but sadly, there aren’t any voices to go along with these.
Like the first game, Hiryu has to brave himself through five stages to get right to kicking Meio's ass. Unlike the first game, Hiryu can actually choose from the first four and pick which order he wants to infiltrate them. These stages include a futuristic cityscape, a technologically advanced castle, an icy outpost where evil experiments more than likely happen, and the reprise of the flying battleship Balrog (which, like the original game, is my favorite level). After beating them, our Strider has to return to the reconstructed Third Moon and eliminate the Grandmaster and any other evils that he may find.
In 1998, polygons were still a relatively new thing in the video game development world, but Capcom used them to their greatest extent to create some gorgeous objects and landscapes. The quirky thing about the graphics is that the characters themselves are not constructed of polygons, but rather, they are two-dimensional sprites (with very nice designs, might I add). Seeing 2D characters against 3D backgrounds is a very peculiar sight, to say the least, but I really love the unique style that this art method creates. I can best describe Strider 2 as a two-and-a-half dimensional game. This is a little hard to accurately detail, so bear with me. Hiryu can only move left, right, up, and down like a typical platformer, but the scenery actually revolves for him so gameplay can stay 2D. For example, when climbing to the top of a spire in stage 2, Hiryu sees a cannon in the background that he'll have to destroy, but instead of having to travel to the background, the entire screen turns so Hiryu can face the cannon on the same plane that Hiryu is standing on. It may take a little while for gamers to get used to this, but thankfully, it allows the game to keep its very unique and beautiful graphics while keeping the gameplay strictly 2D.
The sprites themselves contain good animation that would not look out of place in Japanese anime. Hiryu himself walks with dignity, runs with determination, and slashes with fury. Solo returns, and looks even more badass than ever, what with his giant energy rings that he flings at you. The Grandmaster's face can’t be seen, and he just looks like the perfect anime villain in my eyes. However, the really, really, REALLY big bosses are made of polygons, and they look pretty good for 1998. The animation can be a bit wonky at times, but I tell ya, that mechanical hydra in the Herzog Schlange fight is just freaking gorgeous. The bosses are even more awesome than they were in the original Strider, although the final battle is just too freaking cheap for words. Fight him to see just how cheesy that bastard is. Seriously.
I honestly can't describe the style of the music, but I can use two words to say what I think of it; "Damn good." Each BGM is extremely appropriate for their corresponding stages, and the incredible music of the city stage, which captures the feel of a nighttime city under siege, justifies this fact. I'm not doing very well at explaining this, but the best thing to do would be to play the game to see what I mean. The opening music to the castle stage is ominous yet dramatic, and the tune that plays while you're flying around the Balrog's airspace sounds perfect for aerodynamic action such as that. You can almost feel the clouds hit Hiryu's face! As for the sound effects, they are very well done, with all sorts of Japanese voices from numerous characters. They're not drowned out by the repeated slashes of Hiryu's cipher this time around! I just wish I knew Japanese so I know what everybody is saying, but it's still cool regardless
The gameplay is extremely fast-paced, and Hiryu slashes as fast as you press the attack button. He runs with a double-tap of the control pad, can double-jump to reach new heights, can climb walls as he did in the first game, and he even has a multi-slash attack that he can perform in midair. Besides the Attack and Jump commands, there is also a Slide and Boost button. Obviously, the Slide button allows Hiryu to perform a low dashing slide that Hiryu can combine with slashes to quickly decimate enemies. However, for me, the slide maneuver is not as useful as it could be. When things get iffy, pressing the Boost button will cause homing energy blasts to fly out of Hiryu's weapon that can obliterate surrounding enemies in a matter of seconds. That's good, as the screen will often have several enemies for you to dispatch, and if not, then your challenge comes from some tricky jumping, obstacle dodging, or boss fighting. You'll get a lot of that last one, which is why I think this game rules so much. I’m just a sucker for bosses, and S2 is rife with big battles! Each stage has at least three midbosses to get through before the end boss, and many of them provide a great challenge! My personal favorite is level four's ending battle against Admiral Wilhelm, an experienced swordfighter who challenges you while on an escape ship speeding away from a burning Balrog! There's just something awesome about a one-on-one duel taking place on a remote ship floating several miles above the Earth's atmosphere. Amazing.
At times, these battles can be just a little bit too challenging, and you aren’t endowed with a high number of bars in your life meter. The fast pace of the action can be overwhelming, and as a result, you'll find yourself obliterated in a matter of seconds in some of the game's rougher situations. However, you're able to continue infinitely in the same place when you died. Since this was an arcade game, this made sense in order to keep the players pumping in quarters, but it was never rebalanced for the Playstation home conversion. This makes gameplay a bit too easy, but on the other hand, it may just be a tad too painful to beat the game without having to use a single continue. I usually die at least once every stage (yes, even the first stage, as weak as that sounds), and as a result, I am shamed with a D grade at the end assessment of the level, which pisses me off quite often. So if I’d have to pick one major flaw with S2, it's the difficulty balance; too easy for serious gamers, too difficult for hardcore gamers.
That's really the only big flaw I have to discuss, though. The rest of the game just fucking rules. It's good to see that Hiryu is alive and well (despite Tiertex's "sincerest" efforts to pass off "Player 1 Hinjo" as a badass hero), and greater than ever. I'm hoping that a Strider 3 is in the works sometime soon. It is doubtful, but a geek can dream. Until then, I'm going to enjoy riding on the same mechanical dragon that I am supposed to destroy - and when the ride's over, I'll destroy it! It is not unusual to be envious of Hiryu, for the life of a Strider is very super-great indeed.
The Playstation port of Strider 2 is highly recommended. The title is misleading, as not only does it have the titular game, but it also contains a bonus disc with a perfect (except for long load times) port of the original arcade Strider! SCORE! Also, S2 itself has a few bonuses, such as an extra jungle level (unlockable if played with a memory card with a saved file of the original Strider on it) with a crapload of bosses to beat in the tunnel section of the stage, and the ability (unlockable after beating the game once) to play as Hiryu's rival, Strider Hien! Hien does not have a conventional slashing cipher, but two homing ciphers which he throws out at enemies that do all the killing for him! He cannot use Boosts, but why would he have to with the homing ciphers? It's considerably easier to neat the game with Hien than with Hiryu, and also quite fun. The Japanese version - in both the arcade and home versions - had fully voiced dialogue and narration. Unfortunately, Capcom never bothered to dub the game, so they just cut all of it out in the English Playstation release.
MP3s
Strider 2
Strider 2
Strider 2
Strider 2
Strider 2
Strider 2
Strider 2
Strider 2
Strider 2
Strider 2
American Cover
Strider Returns (Genesis)
Strider Returns (Genesis)
A Strider game not developed or endorsed by Capcom. Does that description sound as bad as the game that corresponds with it? I’m sure it does. The sad truth is that a Strider game developed by some European company named Tiertex, and published by US Gold, really does exist, and it ain’t pretty. It ain’t pleasing. Hell, it ain’t even good. This is just my opinion alone, but I’m sure that 99% of the Strider community can say that this game is horseshit in its purest form.
American Cover
Strider 2
Strider 2
Strider seemed to be long gone, thanks to that godawful Strider Returns pretty much obliterating the integrity of the franchise. Loyal Capcom fans who were once cheering for Hiryu have now moved on to Street Fighter as their number one game series from their number one company. Not to diss SF or anything, but Strider deserved better than that. After resurrecting Strider for their Marvel vs Capcom fighting game, the company realized his popularity, and decided to bring their futuristic ninja back to the video gaming world in full force. The result? Strider 2, one of the most awesome action games ever conceived.
