Strider (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
342A playthrough of Capcom's 1989 action-adventure game for the NES, Strider.
Though the two games were developed in parallel, the NES game Strider was never intended to be a port or an adaptation of the arcade game. They feature the same hero and share some stylistic touches, but the NES game more closely focused on the manga's plotline, and rather than being a straightforward platformer like the coin-op version was, Strider for the NES veered closer to the adventure/exploration style of gameplay, though it's still fairly linear in nature.
It's not really a "Metroidvania" game, though. The way the game progresses feels much more like DuckTales but with futuristic ninja instead of pogo-jumping ducks. The games do share some elements - for an obvious example, check out the similarities in their level select map screens. Of course, both were developed by Capcom and released within a few months of each other, so it wouldn't be a stretch to think that there was some overlap in the development work.
Capcom had heavily invested themselves in the Strider IP and in coordinating with Moto Kikaku for the manga, and the effort pays off in spades. The NES game has a clear, distinct identity apart from the arcade game, but it still feels like an integral part of the Strider-verse. It's much more "mature" than most NES games were too, both in plot and in language, even though the goofy translation does blunt the impact of the story a bit.
But for as excellent of a game as Strider is on the NES, it does have a few glaring flaws. The graphics are generally excellent - the sprites are big, the backgrounds are well drawn, and the animation is pretty good - but the game is super glitchy, and you can clearly see that in the graphics. The screen-scrolling can introduce nasty artifacts at the edges of the picture, and sometimes random tiles will scramble or change for a split second at a time. If you watch carefully, you'll sometimes see Strider's sprite turn into a row of zeroes. The graphic issues aren't huge deals, but they do belie the level of polish you'd expect to see in a Capcom game.
The same thing goes for the controls. Strider's movements are usually easy to control and predictable, but the collision detection really could use some work. Strider can easily get stuck on the scenery during jumps (the workaround is to jump straight up and then hit the direction you want to go in), and jumping over hazards can be maddeningly inconsistent. A word to the wise - don't try jumping over bullets. They will still hit you, even if you're above them. The collision-detection issues, paired with a complete lack of a grace period after taking damage, means that Strider can easily be wiped out by the weakest of enemies if you aren't very careful. And finally, that awful triangle jump move - why did they include that? It's so unfairly difficult to pull off with any reliable consistency, and you are required to use it on a few different occasions.
But even with these issues, it's difficult to criticize Strider too much. It nails the feeling of being a playable manga, and the game world, the character design, the plot, and the game's uber-dystopian tone all support each other well.
And those preview blurbs that the game gives you with the passwords were such an awesome touch that really made it feel like each leg of the mission was a distinct episode in a serialized work. So cool.
The whole game comes together to make for an experience that is more than the sum of its parts, much like how the two Strider games and its manga form something more than any individual piece can offer in isolation. It is a must-play classic of the NES library. It still surprises me that this one was a US-exclusive after Capcom scrapped the original Famicom release.
If you'd like to see more Strider, here are a few links:
The PS1 arcade port: https://youtu.be/eZPrb5Xry_w
The Genesis arcade port: https://youtu.be/1eQyg99bnG4
Strider 2, PS1 version: https://youtu.be/jVkzWRHCjX0
Note: I had a playthrough of this game up before, but its aspect ratio was completely borked and I didn't think that such an obvious mistake was acceptable. Therefore, I've recorded this brand new video for the game. My playing is a substantial improvement in this one over the original recording, so I feel like it was well worth the effort to do it over again.
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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