Ripoffs: Run Saber - Super Nintendo (1993) - Atlus
I’m placing this game alongside the Strider series because the flow and control of the gameplay is very similar to the first game featuring our favorite future ninja. As a matter of fact, not unlike Hiryu's arcade debut, Run Saber pits you against five stages of action! Thankfully, they’re all a bit longer than your average Strider stage, and the game does not end as quickly. The first level is fought at the Taj Base, a military stronghold overrun by Bruford's mutants. Tong City is next on the map, a futuristic-type Chinatown area where you first battle Kurtz. Taking a break from the industrial overtones of the game, stage three is set in Jod Valley, where the wrath of nature (and the occasional giant missile) will ravage your heroes. After that is the oddly-titled Grey Fac (I assume that they mean factory), where falling gears and conveyor belts await you, as well as a rematch with Kurtz. Finally, you stumble upon the mysterious hideout of Bruford, which is a very typical Giger-esque final stage that wouldn't look too out of place in a Contra game.
The graphics are reasonably good for a Super Nintendo game released around the middle of its lifespan. The use of colors in this game are a bit dull at times, but that compliments the atmosphere, which is that of a bleak, post-apocalyptic, industrialized Earth. They’re nothing exceptional, but they are more than adequate for the eyeballs of the gamer(s). A damn fine example of Mode 7 is displayed in the first boss fight, where you ride on a stealth jet that has baddies pop out of its very metal, and in the middle of it all, the damn thing somersaults, forcing you to hold on for dear life! After you destroy the last beast on the jet, you jump off it as it twists around in the background before exploding. Sadly, Mode 7 is only displayed here, on the third stage boss, and the map sequences in between stages. Needless to say, the graphics could have been better, but as they stand, they’re good enough for the SNES.
The sound isn't too shabby either. Like the graphics, it's nothing special, but I’m rather fond of the music that plays throughout each stage. The first level music sets the tone for the rest of the game with a fast-paced beat that gears you up for asskicking. My personal favorite music plays in Jod Valley, which is a primal rhythm that suits me for the jungle atmosphere given by the stage design. It's not exceptionally great, but I quite like it, and Atlus does have a good reputation for their tunes. The sound effects are pretty good too, with typical slashes and explosions, as well as yells and growls from some of the characters. Once again, nothing mindblowing, but good for SNES standards.
As implied before, the gameplay is practically a dead ringer for the arcade Strider game, but it improves on the original in several areas. For starters, we are given the choice to play as either Allen (who has the horizontally-slashing Thunder Saber), or Sheena (who has the vertically-slicing Ice Saber). They both walk at a decent pace and are even allowed to run by tapping the control pad twice quickly. They slash with their sabers as quickly as you can tap the attack button, and they can jump fairly high. They’re even allowed to climb on walls and ceilings, and by pressing a separate button, they are allowed to slide along the ground, which is suspiciously reminiscent of Hiryu. Allen and Sheena have a few abilities that the Strider does not possess, such as a rolling jump that surrounds them with energy in order to take out aerial enemies, a diving kick which allows them to bounce off the heads of antagonists, and when in doubt, another separate button can destroy everything on-screen with their special attack. Allen sends out a menacing green dragon to rove the screen and consume all enemies, and Sheena sends out a veritable blizzard of painful ice crystals.
And since there's two Sabers for play, that means two-player simultaneous action! SCORE! Any Contra fan should give RS a try for the ability to tear through Bruford's army with both Allen and Sheena at the same time. However, with one player or two, I’d say that the game's challenge remains more or less the same. And quite frankly, RS is not overly difficult. There are a few moments that will give you frustration (such as the aforementioned falling gears in the Grey Fac(tory)), and continues are limited, but unless you go into the options menu, set the difficulty to Hard, and the number of lives to one, you will never go overboard on screaming out obscenities. While they start out only able to take three hits, the Sabers can take up to eight hits, able to prolong their life bar with white and blue medkits, with the former restoring one unit of life and the latter adding two units. Blue saber powerups increase the range and power of their weapons, pink spheres give them an additional special attack, and representations of their heads give them a bonus life.
The level designs are good, full of enemies, traps, tricks, twists, and turns. Above all else, the bosses of Run Saber are the dominant feature of the game. I guarantee to you that every stage has at least three bosses, or your money back. One of my favorites starts out as a mere hawk, which is a pest to get rid of but can be easily taken out. However, after defeating the bird, its severed head remains as an odd robotic body snatches it and flies offscreen. Later, the hawk's head returns placed onto the robotic body, and now you have to deal with a kung-fu fighting robot hawk bird cyborg thingie! If you don't believe me, just check out the box art. Hell, Allen's right on there doing battle with the bionic bird. Some bosses are more challenging than others, but there are many innovative designs among the rogues gallery. Sadly, the powerful special attacks can make things a bit too easy at times, and I personally think that the final battle against Bruford, as awesome as he looks, is a bit disappointing.
Despite the shortcomings in the challenge department and the very strong similarities to Strider that makes it come off as a ripoff, Run Saber is nonetheless a solid action title that's worth grabbing for the SNES. Hell, if anything, Strider fans should like RS based on the fact that it plays a lot like the arcade game! It's semi-obscure and may be a bit difficult to find. I was lucky enough to find a boxed copy with the manual, but even without the instructions, the game is easy enough to figure out. Ironically, RS certainly as damn hell makes a better Strider game than Strider Returns: Journey From Darkness! That should also be added incentive for Hiryu fans to play this game. Heh...
Run Saber
Run Saber
Run Saber
Run Saber
Run Saber
Run Saber
Run Saber
The result? Osman, one of the most fubared, obscure, and bitching platformers to be released in arcades.
Osman, which is known in Japan as Cannon Dancer, centers around a strong young man known as... well, Osman (named Kirin in Cannon Dancer), who sports baggy pants and a rat tail hairdo that makes him look like he's an MC Hammer devotee from the eighties. Not unlike Strider Hiryu, he presumably works for some organization who destroys criminals for the protection of the world... at least, that's what I gather. The plot is so ridiculous and confusing that I honestly have no idea what's going on, but I'll attempt to explain as much of it as I can. His boss, Jack Layzon (who just wears shorts to show off his muscular being in the opening cutscene for no adequately explored reason), assigns Osman to assassinate Abdullah the Slaver, an evil female sorceress who wants to take control of the world. He does a pretty good job of kicking enemy ass for a while until Jack betrays him for... umm... reasons unknown, and then he has to fight his way through all sorts of soldiers and beasts, as well as the "Elite Three," as I dub them. Our hero seems to have some connection with this creepy goddess statue that apparently commands him to kill and... yeah. You try and figure this one out, as I have NO FUCKING IDEA what's going on.
Oh well, it's an action-platformer and the plot means zilch to bupkis in a game such as this. I will now digress from the ridiculous story by talking about the fabulous graphics. I'd say that Osman is about as colorful, if not more so than Strider was, with vibrant shades of various colors that you could find in a large Crayola box. The level designs look damn good, ranging from a fortified cityscape to the harsh desert, from the high seas to a mysterious forest, and even the city of Prague, all ending with a fierce battle within ominous crimson skies. The character designers were no slouches either, as Osman has many frames of animation he could possibly go through, and the enemies look beautiful themselves. Early in the game, you'll see one soldier trapped between Osman and a pit, and the wuss puts his arms up as he cowardly winces away from the wrath our hero is about to bring. Joy! Besides soldiers, you'll also have to deal with tigers, statues, robots, and sandworms, and I haven't even ranted about the big bosses yet! The bosses look nothing short of impressive, but I'll get to them later. I do guarantee that they look friggin' sweet, like the rest of Osman. It's loaded with eye candy that's sure to please any old-school gamer.
I wish I could say the same about the music, though. It's not bad, it's just not my personal preference of asskicking platformer music. The main reason for that it's because it's... well, the background music is rather "mute." Compare it to the tunes of Strider, which are practically booming out through your speakers. The music's pretty weird too, and this one composition sounds like there's a chainsaw going off in the recording studio every few seconds. It's highly unorthodox, to say the least. However, there's this one bizarre piece of music that creeps the hell out of me, which involves Gregorian Monk-style chanting that often pops up when a giant statue appears. The sound is good, although nothing too outstanding. Osman makes all sorts of yells as he attacks, jumps, and dies. Explosions happen quite often, and enemies make all sorts of shrieks and screams. Goody!
The fast-moving gameplay is the primary subject of comparison of Osman to Strider, as the way Osman moves could cause anybody to mistake him for Hiryu's long lost brother. He's able to run down steep slopes extremely fast, climb walls with the greatest of ease, and holding down while pressing the jump button causes him to slide, just like Hiryu can. Osman's jump does one better than the Strider, as he can control himself in mid-air, wheras Hiryu suffers from jumping inertia, where he cannot fly backwards once he jumps forth. Osman isn't a total ripoff of the badass in blue, as he does not carry a cipher - or a sword, or even an axe. Yep, Osman is WEAPONLESS. You would think that "Hey, he can't do that, he'll get murdered within the first five seconds of his mission!"
Before labeling him a dumbass to take on a legion of bad guys without even a switchblade to defend him, note the fact that he is extremely athletic and has toned his body to be a weapon in itself, practically to the point of "Omigod, he's on steroids!" He mainly uses wind-fast kicks (and mixes a few punches in now and then) to crush his opposition, and considering the fact that he can cause robots to explode with his legs, I would say that he needs no armaments. Plus, he attacks as fast as you can press the attack button! There's even this bitching slam attack that he can perform on some enemies by pressing the jump button again while he's already in midair. And when all else fails, there's a special attack that Osman can perform by tapping forward twice and pressing the attack button (which there is no need to do in Cannon Dancer, as there is a third button devoted to the special), where he creates multiple clones of himself to dash about and obliterate everything on-screen a la Joe Musashi from the original Shinobi.
There are power-up containers (the gray capsules with the P on them, duh) that contain either a red, green, yellow, or blue power-ups. Osman can take a maximum of four hits before losing a life, and he receives three special attacks per life. The green P-ups will restore one life bar, a rare blue one will bring back all lost life, and the also rare yellow ones will permanently add one extra life bar to the life meter. The most common P-ups are the red ones, which change the color of Osman's parachute pants - but that's not all! One red capsule will transform Osman's normal blue pants into purple, which will cause him to leave behind a phantom double where he attacks! Fans of Ninja Gaiden will appreciate the usage of these shadow duplicates, but sadly, they aren't as smart as the ones Ryu Hayabusa had tagging along. Osman's doubles will only stay in place where he was standing when the attack button was pressed, and they will remain in that location until approximately three seconds have passed before returning to Osman. Careful positioning of these doubles could make or break your victories against bosses, as the real Osman can hang back, safe from enemy attacks, while the invulnerable double kicks the boss's ass. Another red P-up changes the pants from purple to red, which allows two shadow doubles on the screen at once, and another one changes it from red to white, which allows four (!) doubles to attack. The maximum level is black, which doesn't add any doubles, but gives Osman's kicks a big power boost, increasing their range with green slashes that make his limbs seem like blades. This bonus power doesn't last forever, and Osman will go back to white after he makes about fifteen attacks while in black pants-induced maximum overdrive.
Unfortunately, despite all these boosts of strength, the difficulty can be punishing at times, even when you're not dealing with the bosses. Sometimes, the amount of regular enemies can be overwhelming, and this especially becomes apparent in the forest level, where jetpack guards swoop about erratically while letting loose with their machine guns. What's worse is that Osman loses a power level each time he is hit, so if he was at the red level of power, getting hit will have him regress to the purple level. Obviously, once his life runs out, he will go back to the default blue power, regardless of his level before dying. Around the later levels, you'll probably have to get used to a lack of doubles to help you out. I didn't even mention the pain of fighting the incredible bosses!
Let's see - there's Gamran, a huge robot armed with a buzzsaw and flamethrowers. Speaking of flame, there's Herio, a man made entirely out of fire who floats about while dumping flames and has green hands floating about looking to grab you. The next three bosses are fought in random order over the third, fourth, and fifth stages, and I like to refer to them as the "Elite Three." There's Tianon, the female bombshell who can kick as fiercely as Osman and throw him about, not to mention the ability to create explosions. The ridiculously-named Willf (which sounds just a tad too much like MILF, methinks) looks a bit like Zamza from Streets of Rage 2 and utilizes his sharp claws to shred you, and if that fails, he can always toss the floating platform that he rides at you. The most dishonorable of the three is Cannons, who just teleports around the arena while his gigantic helper mech in the background sends various body parts flying to smash you. I won't spoil them all for you, but I guarantee that the bosses can be extraordinarily tough.
The difficulty of this game can be really high at times, but that's essentially nullified by the ability to resurrect right where you were after you died, not unlike Strider 2. As a matter of fact, this game suffers from the same difficulty balance as S2 does, where the challenge doesn't matter much to those who just want to finish the game, while those who want to beat it on one continue will find MUCH difficulty. There are actually a few points in the game where you must go back to a certain point after dying, and the last level actually disallows continuing on the spot, but Osman's extremely strong special attacks is the one thing that ruins the challenge of the boss battles. Just one can slap off 80% of a big baddie's life, and he gets three of them per life. You will almost become dependent on them to get through the aforementioned final level, which makes the last battles seem anticlimactic.
The broken challenge curve shouldn't put you off to what is one of the least-known platformers on the face of the planet. Osman definitely deserves more recognition than it has ever received, which isn't much, considering the lack of arcade units released and the general obscurity of the title. Hell, I only just heard about it a few days ago, and what I also heard was that it was finally compatible with the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME, that is). I just had to try it, and I certainly was not disappointed. Osman is fun, fast, furious, and fucking awesome. Who cares if it can be blazed through in a relative matter of minutes? Like Run Saber, it definitely puts Strider Returns: Journey From Crapness to much shame. If you ever wanted to know what playing through Strider without a weapon would be like, take a walk in Osman's hyper-strong shoes and kick some ass right through Death's door. It's a good way to release aggression, trust me.
Osman
Osman
Osman
Osman
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Osman
Osman
Osman
Osman
While he was weakened in the sequel, Strider Hiryu still remains one of the best characters in the game. Hiryu was meant to appear in "Capcom Fighting All-Stars", a 3D game featuring a whole slew of other Capcom characters, but the game was cancelled, and morphed into the mediocre 2D title Capcom Fighting Evolution (sans Strider, unfortunately.) Strider also appears in the Capcom arcade quiz game Capcom World 2, and as a playable characters in Namco's strategy RPG Namco X Capcom.
MP3s
Marvel vs Capcom - Theme of Strider Hiryu
Marvel vs Capcom
Marvel vs Capcom
Links
Strider Island Moralos
Run Saber
Run Saber
Run Saber
Ripoffs: Osman / Cannon Dancer - Arcade (1996) - Mitchell
A little known platformer for the Super Nintendo known as Run Saber went under the radar when it was released. Perhaps its obscurity is for the best, as Capcom could have sued Atlus for veritable gameplay bootlegging. RS plays a lot like the Strider games, which probably explains why it's a damn fine game. In RS, crazy scientist Gordon Bruford mutates himself with a big load of radiation and creates a lot of mutants with this radiation as well. Other scientists team up for the Run Saber project in order to create super soldiers to foil Bruford's plan for world domination. One of the Sabers, Kurtz, becomes defective and runs off in a state of homicidal insanity. The remaining Sabers, Allen and Sheena, are sent into the fray to stop Kurtz and Bruford before the Earth is royally boned. While not the most original of plotlines, this isn't a friggin’ RPG. Who gives a care about the plot just as long as we can slash us some mutants? Trust me, there will be plenty of that!
Osman
Osman
Osman
The Return of Strider - Marvel Vs Capcom: Clash of the Super Heroes
Gaming companies seldom keep all of their founding members on the team. Some designers and programmers leave because a better job comes along for them, they're fed up with their co-workers, or they just get tired of the programming life. Some of them even join entirely new companies, which I'm sure would make their original employers rather pissed, but if it didn't happen, we would never have the awesome games produced by Treasure, who is a large part of former Konami members. I bring this fact up because some people who were formerly working for Capcom moved on to work for the much more obscure Mitchell Corporation. They apparently did so sometime around the early nineties, which I find to be extremely baffling. Who would want to leave around the time when Street Fighter II, arguably Capcom's greatest bestselling title ever, was beginning to catch onto gamers like a contagious disease? One thing's for sure, though: Some of the members that left were on the design team for Strider (including Isuke, the original game planner for Strider), and they decided to take their talents with them to Mitchell.
Osman
The third in Capcom's "Versus" 2D fighting series, wherein various Capcom characters faced off against Marvel superheroes, the whole game was gigantic fan service for follows of Capcom, starring favorites like Megaman, and with cameos by Arthur from Ghouls and Ghosts, or the Lost Soldier from Forgotten Worlds. Far and away one of the best new characters was the one, our favorite, Strider Hiryu. One of the fastest characters in the game, Strider can double jump, hang on the side of the screen, and pull all kinds of crazy acrobatics, leaving opponents on the sharp edge of his incredibly powerful cipher. His special attacks call upon the various power-ups - the rotating orbs, the bomb-dropping orbs, the ravenous mechanical tigers - to attack foes. Strider's theme music starts with the memorable "Stage 1" intro from the original arcade Strider before breaking into an original synth guitar rock piece. His ending is exactly the same as the arcade game as well - he takes his hanglider, flies out to the ocean, and lands on a whale, with the music from the Amazon level playing. One of his win quotes, "Take me to your boss!", is also straight from the original. The Ong Pooh, the Chinese acrobats from the end of level 3, also show up as helper characters. Hiryu's popularity in Marvel vs Capcom eventually convinced Capcom to make a true sequel, which became Strider 2.
Marvel vs Capcom - Ending - Strider Hiryu
Namco X Capcom - Strider's Theme
From his humble beginnings as a manga character, to the uber-bitching arcade classic, to the Nintendo epic based off of his manga roots, to the inexcusable crap not endorsed by Capcom, to the clone that's a much better game than the inexcusable crap, to his rebirth among mascots against the Marvel universe, to his glorious resurrection in two-and-a-half dimensions, Strider Hiryu has led an impressive legacy in the world of video games. Ryu and Ken may still be kicking each other's asses, while Leon S. Kennedy blasts the heads off of zombies in a secluded village, and Mega Man continues to wage his war against Wily or Sigma or the Bonnes or whoever the hell he has to deal with in Battle Network. And yet, despite all this, I eagerly gaze at the night sky, praying to a shooting star that Hiryu will still be holding his cipher and set out for adventures bigger than anybody could possibly conceive for many more years to come.
The Light Sword Cypher Mainframe
Strider-Otaku
OPCFG - Run Saber: The Lost Strider?
Sega-16 - History of Strider
