449th played so far
Genre: Action
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1989
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
I’ll admit, before playing Strider was categorized, in my mind, as a general samey-seeming group of games. Somewhere between platform, beat ’em up and action game, I would have easily confused it with something like Forgotten Worlds if I had to say so at the time. Forgettable is the right word.
Looking at the book, it sounds like Strider‘s titular main character was an early, now forgotten Capcom mascot, like Nintendo’s Kid Icarus until his recent revival. The question stays though, what value does it offer in this day and age? The book doesn’t say much about it, beyond a general description of the game. We’ll have to figure it out for ourselves then.
Our Thoughts
And it’s true – I still struggle trying to find the hook that Strider has. It’s a competent beat ’em up action game, with some difficulty sections and, to aid, frequent checkpoints, but in gaemplay it’s similar ‘attack enemies before they hit you’ gaming we see elsewhere.
The setting – mostly Russia, at least for as much as we played – is interesting and the backgrounds look pretty good, but again, it’s not that remarkable.
It’s decent enough as a game of its type, even if its difficulty is very arcade focused, not something that works for home playing. Perhaps that’s what held us back – we didn’t really feel the need to dive into it. But it didn’t grab us, and perhaps after 449 games that’s where we’re at. Some games are just what we’ve seen so often before.
Final Thoughts
Strider is competent for what it is. If you’re into these games, you’ll probably enjoy it and see far more nuance than we do. For us though, it just is. Good to have experienced it, but not something we’re likely to get back to.