Strider Hiryū (Strider)

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Strider Hiryū (Strider) for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[CaleumLucus]

I would have first played the arcade version of Strider when I was about 8 or 9 years around the late 90's. I remember the pixel art being very good and really liking Strider as a character.

I wouldnt actually replay the game until I would be gifted a Final Fight arcade 1Up machine. One of the games on it was Strider. The cyber ninja asethetic is still as cool as ever and the pixel art is actually better then I remembered. A stand out was the boss battles which I really enjoyed. The controls felt a little weird though, I imagine newer versions of the game may tighten those up but I have only experience with the arcade version.

That being said revisting the game again for the show was very pleasent. I was able to play it with my 7 year old son and sit with him at an arcade cabinet. It was simple enough he could slash his way through and be very cool doing it, but I did end up soloing until the credits as the game is quite tough. I can't recommend some buy an Arcade One 1Up for this same experience but I do think it is worth playing, especially if you are a fan of hack n slash games and want to experience their origins. Or if you just love being ninjas.

[Alex79]

Despite having played Strider many times over the years in various ways, I'd never sat and tried to play through the whole game until now. I started with the arcade original via Evercade, and found the game to be a lot of fun, if a little frustrating in places. The arc of the players jump is non-negotiable mid-flight, meaning I lost a fair few lives to falling in to the abyss. The game looks and sounds excellent still, with the music really standing out to me. The game is fairly challenging but actually wasn't too difficult to complete on one credit after a bit of practice and I'd say I enjoyed it. Not one of my all time favourites, it certainly wouldn't make my top 20 or anything like that, but an enjoyable few hours.

I also finished the Megadrive game today and thought that visually it's a really impressive port. The audio is a bit lackluster and there's an annoying pinging noise to accompany every attack in place of Strider's grunt in the arcade game. The game plays virtually identically to the original, although suffers awful slowdown in places with frequent millisecond pauses, also. I'm not sure if this was present in the original cartridge version or it's an issue with the emulation on Switch, but it was just enough to be bordering on annoying. Still a solid port though with minimal differences aside from the final boss which I think was a lot tougher than in the arcade original.

I had a look on YouTube to see if any other ports were worth a look and aside from the reboot PS4 game it doesn't really seem like any of the other versions did the arcade game justice, so I think my journey with Strider has come to an end for now.

THREE WORD REVIEW: Random Jurassic Stage!

[ratsoalbion]

Ok Alex I am confused. The grunt is present only in the Japanese versions of both the Mega Drive and original arcade game.

You can play the Japanese version on Switch by downloading the Japanese MD client from the Japanese eShop.

What confuses me though is that the ROM that's preloaded on your Evercade should also be the grunt-free US ROM, with - AFAIK - no way to flip regions. So I have no idea how you're hearing the grunt on that, unless your Evercade is different to mine.

You can flick between JPN and WORLD arcade ROMs on the Capcom Stadium version btw. I actually prefer the grunt-free version myself.

Those pauses in the MD version are perfectly emulated, not a glitch. I think they are caused by 'unpacking' data. There are similar pauses in the arcade version, though less pronounced.

[ratsoalbion]

Oh, and there are two more authentic ports than even the MD version; near perfect conversions for both Sharp X68000 and original PlayStation.

[Alex79]

Ok Alex I am confused. The grunt is present only in the Japanese versions of both the Mega Drive and original arcade game.

You can play the Japanese version on Switch by downloading the Japanese MD client from the Japanese eShop.

What confuses me though is that the ROM that's preloaded on your Evercade should also be the grunt-free US ROM, with - AFAIK - no way to flip regions. So I have no idea how you're hearing the grunt on that, unless your Evercade is different to mine.

You can flick between JPN and WORLD arcade ROMs on the Capcom Stadium version btw. I actually prefer the grunt-free version myself.

Those pauses in the MD version are perfectly emulated, not a glitch. I think they are caused by 'unpacking' data. There are similar pauses in the arcade version, though less pronounced.

You know what, you're right! I was convinced so just checked my Evercade and loaded up a mid game save - no grunt! Just the pinging noise. I must have finished the game on Evercade, and then I'd been looking on YouTube at comparisons of different ports, hearing the grunt on the arcade version, which must have been Japanese, and retro-applied it to the arcade port I played on my Evercade. That's really weird because I clearly wasn't bothered by the ping when I played through the arcade version on Evercade, but it really stood out and annoyed me on the Megadrive one!

Leon, your obscure videogame knowledge never fails to amaze me

[ratsoalbion]

[Kentish1973]

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this trip down memory lane. I only ever owned Strider on the Speccy, where I seem to recall it was overshadowed somewhat at the time by Ghouls n Ghosts. Even so, that animation on the eponymous hero was so striking. Note to self to check out Cannon Dancer!