Strider

When Sega decided to convert Strider, it was a daunting task. Weighing in at a hefty eight megs, it was the first cart of that size to ever be released on a home console outside of anything Neo Geo. In order to maintain everything that made the coin-op original so popular, Sega had to squeeze every iota of memory they could from the ROM. For all intents and purposes, it was a resounding success, even if the game retailed for about $10 than others at the time (hey, it was 8 megs!).

Read the review.

I just played this for the first time and was pretty disappointed overall, I don't think the game has aged well at all. I could understand the game's popularity back in the day with it being pretty original and all but this feels pretty stale now. Its popularity inspired the Snes game Run Sabre, it plays pretty similar but I didn't care for that one either.

:wtf:

Well, now I understand why you have the word "crazy" in your nickname! :?

i think it was the most i ever paid for a videogame

i paid $80 for it from a store called "the good guys"

i played the hell out of it after a while i was just exploring glitch areas

One of The Best Early Genesis Games :D

For a fun quick game, this is the number 1 game for me. I don't see the difficulty. I guess after playing over 1,000 times it wouldn't be anymore.

It is impossible to finish the Genesis version without dying once. There is a glitch at the end of the last stage right after you fight that unicorn from stage 4. Usually the first stage boss appears before you fight the final boss. Not the case if you make it that far without losing a life. You'll have no choice but to fall into the pit and die to get to the final boss.

Good thing I normally die a billion times before getting to that point.

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Originally Posted by Nintega Grafx-16

It is impossible to finish the Genesis version without dying once. There is a glitch at the end of the last stage right after you fight that unicorn from stage 4. Usually the first stage boss appears before you fight the final boss. Not the case if you make it that far without losing a life. You'll have no choice but to fall into the pit and die to get to the final boss.

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LIES!!! :p

In my first years of playing through the game, I always died during the short trip to the final boss via Ouroboros (Stage 1 boss) due to the twists and turns it made, causing me to fall into the pit. Eventually I learned NOT to hang on to Ouroboros when he does this, but jump at the right time so I'm always er, riding above him with he makes those tricky turns. Both in the arcade and Genesis. I rarely die on that spot nowadays.

If there's one part of the last level that's hard to pass without losing a life, it's at the beginning of the 2nd half, with the gravity reversed and the drills coming from every way. In higher difficulties, it's made even more difficult with those floating mini-cannon things that shoot projectiles at you and follow you to the ends of the earth. To this day I lose most of my lives, and a continue, at that spot.

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Originally Posted by vintagegamecrazy

I just played this for the first time and was pretty disappointed overall, I don't think the game hasn't aged well at all. I could understand the game's popularity back in the day with it being pretty original and all but this feels pretty stale now. Its popularity inspired the Snes game Run Sabre, it plays pretty similar but I didn't care for that one either.

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Same, it's an OK game, but there's so much flicker. And the hit detection is eh.

Maybe it's just not my kind of game. I really wanted to like it, but the difficulty, mediocre graphics, and overall blahness of the game just turned me off to it.

The original coin-op version is free of the flicker and slowdown that plagues the Genesis port, and looks better as well (the latter goes for "Ghouls 'N Ghosts" as well), but I can see why the difficulty would turn people off. This is coming from someone who destroyed his first, CIB copy of "Strider" (got it for a sweet $7 in December 1997) out of frustration of getting raped in the last level.

Finally got my copy and finished it yesterday.

To be honest, strider is a poorly programmed game. For example:-
-The magnetic boss tossed me through the wall.
-In the jungle level, when I was about to jump on a branch right before the boss, a fireball came out of nowhere and knocked me in a pit.
-horrible jump mechanics (can't control jump and once I beat the flying ball in mid air, my guy just falls straight down in the pit below)
-Sometimes he does not grip the ledges properly and ends up falling (very annoying in the sky level)

and some other things.

But all in all, not a bad game. I liked it.

3.5/5

I have said it before and i will say it again - the middle of level 2 and the run down the snowy mountain is a gaming memory i will never forget :cool:

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Originally Posted by Curryman123

Finally got my copy and finished it yesterday.

To be honest, strider is a poorly programmed game. For example:-
-The magnetic boss tossed me through the wall.
-In the jungle level, when I was about to jump on a branch right before the boss, a fireball came out of nowhere and knocked me in a pit.
-horrible jump mechanics (can't control jump and once I beat the flying ball in mid air, my guy just falls straight down in the pit below)
-Sometimes he does not grip the ledges properly and ends up falling (very annoying in the sky level)

and some other things.

But all in all, not a bad game. I liked it.

3.5/5

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I agree with pretty much everything you've said here! So glitchy yet still fun!

Poorly programmed? I must be losing my mind...

Seriously, Strider is a great game on the Genesis. No game ported an Arcade title's gameplay home with such a high degree of accuracy before Strider except maybe Ghouls N Ghosts (not counting shooters). The graphic concessions are caused by the ROM limitation more than anything else, and the soundtrack is actually better than Arcade Strider by virtue of new tracks for the later levels.

The "glitches" listed above occur in the Arcade game as well, but it should be pointed out that some of them are actually part of the gameplay. Don't kill the sphere boss while you are directly below it if you don't want to fall down the pit for example.

I question the genre preferences of any gamer who can seriously criticize this great adaptation.

Anyone who critizes this game and says it has mediocore graphics was born in the 90's and never grew up with the Genesis (baloo). Strider at the time was one of the most innovative and unique platfomers to hit the arcade. I mean just look at the the backgrounds, enemies and how the soundtrack plays out cinematically. These are the types of games that sold the early adopters of the system, high quality arcade conversions. One of the best on the system. Even EGM had the Genesis version listed as one of their top 50 games of all time.

Is still IS one of the best.
And I dare say superior to the arcade version.

"Strider", be it the CPS1 coin-op or the Genesis port, is "glitchy" because of its then-advanced grappling and physics system. Being able to grapple onto so many objects in wide-open levels....it was bound to happen.

The Genesis port didn't add any music tracks to the game, there were two revisions of the coin-op, with the most common one being the one that repeated the 1st Level BGM all throughout Level 3 & 5 (annoyingly). The less common one was from where the Genesis and PS1 versions were ported from, and which contained the full soundtrack.

I prefer the coin-op for the improved graphics and SFX, little to no slowdown (Genesis port had this PLUS brief loading pauses) and less glitchiness as well. The Genesis version has the better ending by far though.

Coin-op graphics are not improved just better, since the original game came first!

Also, CPS1 has a palette of 4092 and Mega Drive just 512 (to not go deeper into it), of course some losses were expected. Also, a whole parallax layer was lost if I remember correctly...
The flickering was pretty common on the early Mega Drive titles (as long as the 2nd simultaneous player cut to avoid a flicker fest) and I have seen lots of worse cases... At least, the sprites are big and well detailed and the background just look like the original... Everything is so damn close to the original.
The in game pauses/loading occur due to the heavy compression that was needed to fit the original content in "only" (it was a blast then) 8 Mbit. Also, the compression/decompression algorithms were not as optimized as in the later Mega Drive games, so we have to consider that it's a 1990 release!

All in all, the port is very faithful to the arcade and those that complain about the gameplay should complain about the original game too. For its time it was a blast, a showcase of what Mega Drive could do, of how well it could bring the arcade experience to your home, dangit!

The MD version is better than the PCE CD and the PS1 (its soundtrack and loading times suck balls! No great MD version ending too!). So I think it says something about the job done by SOJ. To say that it was poorly programmed is to show no knowledge about the original game and the early Genesis/Mega Drive games. I challenge you all to point a better port made for Mega Drive/Genesis from a similar arcade machine (in terms of power and components) until 1990.
Furthermore, the soundtrack rendition is awesome, a classic of all time!

The US version has a dozen of samples cut (for no reason IMO), so the Japanese is the one to go if you want the full package. The cover art speaks for itself!

Link to the Mean Mahcines review of the just-released Japanese version:
http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/pdf/stridermd.pdf
Overall score: 92%

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This Megadrive conversion is absolutely stunning in every respect. The main sprite is huge and well detailed, and the backgrounds are simply exquisite. My favourite level is the forth, with Amazon warriors, piranhas, and massive dinosaurs to defeat. The difficulty is pitched just right, although my attention keeps wandering to look at the graphics - they're that good! The sampled speech between levels is the only thing missing, but this doesn't affect the quality of the gameplay in any way. If the arcade game blew you away, expect the same treatment from the Megadrive version.

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When this was loaded into the Megadrive, you could hear the sound of jaws dropping for miles around - it's an absolutely amazing, truly arcade perfect conversion. The graphics are stunning, with large, beautifully animated sprites and fantastic backdrops, and the sheer colour and variety is superb. The sound is also of a very high quality, with all the tunes and effects of the arcade machine! The game oozes playability, grabbing you as soon as you start playing, and keeping you at your Megadrive for hours on end. It's definitely one of the slickest conversions yet seen on the Megadrive - if you're the owner of an imported machine, make sure you get this now!

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As a side note, I think it was the first game to use the SMPS-68k audio driver, providing better sample playback when compared to its predecessors. SOJ put everything they had in this port.

I do agree with Baloo about the hit detection, which is compounded by the flicker, but the slowdown's not gamebreaking, whilst the graphics and music are amongst 16 bit's best. However it's worth forgiving the poor hit detection. I always forget this game (@ jerry coeurl, if you see this), probably because its difficulty traumatizes me. This is one of those games it's embarrassing not to have completed for any Mega Drive owner. I'll have to give it another shot. Excellent stuff.

I have to say that the hit detection doesn't please me but it is acceptable IMO.

This game is one of those that you have to memorize the whole game tips & tricks to beat it.

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Originally Posted by Aarzak

The Genesis port didn't add any music tracks to the game, there were two revisions of the coin-op, with the most common one being the one that repeated the 1st Level BGM all throughout Level 3 & 5 (annoyingly). The less common one was from where the Genesis and PS1 versions were ported from, and which contained the full soundtrack.

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Hmm, I've never seen the later Arcade ROM, I have the full MAME set, I wonder if it is one of those. I've always wanted to hear Hiryu on the Arcade board, or at least what MAME makes of it.

As for the collision detection, what are we talking about exactly? The Cypher seems to nail everything pretty readily. Are we talking about the odd angled surface that Strider doesn't like to stick to?

Anyone know what team/designers were involved with the port?

I am not affected by nostalgia, so sorry for my brutally honest review.

In retrospective, the game hasn't aged very well, and in comparison to other action games on the genesis, it's lacking. But when considering it's original release, It is still good. So 3.5/5.

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Originally Posted by havok666

Anyone know what team/designers were involved with the port?

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My guess is that it was the same team which developed the Genesis version of "Shadow Dancer" (released near simultaneously with "Strider" I believe), as they share some of the same personnel. CRV, if you're around, do you know anything?

I think my general disdain for this game stems from the fact that I have no nostalgic ties to it either. I'd give it a 4/10 to be honest. It's just not fun to play with all of its problems.

Then again, I don't enjoy Revenge of Shinobi, Golden Axe, or Altered Beast either. And they seem to be overall well-liked here on Sega-16.

Can somebody please describe these "problems"? I mean, if flickering is a game blowing glitch we've got some pretty danged high standards, not even Final Fight CD could survive them. The "collision detection problems" were never explained either.

Although I never liked Strider and didn't realize that it was an arcade port bitd, few 16-bit games are ruined by slowdown or flicker. Strider was impressive on a technical level for the time, but it's art has always ranged between goofy and fugly to me. If anyone is a fan of the arcade, then they should love the Genesis version.

Another thread full of heresy!

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Originally Posted by sheath

Can somebody please describe these "problems"? I mean, if flickering is a game blowing glitch we've got some pretty danged high standards, not even Final Fight CD could survive them. The "collision detection problems" were never explained either.

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In my case the complaints were one. Flicker occurs with attack sprites throwing hit boxes into doubt. Obviously in games of this nature the hitbox is sprite-perfect, I'm not suggesting it's so bad as to spill beyond the sprites, but when the tips of projectiles and blades flicker it's tough to discern whether one'll be hit. This works passively as well, for exm the first stage's giant ape: when it throws a punch the animation is intensive enough Strider's blade flickers, meaning one doesn't know how much one's hit it by, thus how far one can safely be from it, with the result an easy victory one's first play can easily turn into an inexplicable loss one's second.
The complaint of falling through objects wasn't mine. Anyhow you must know I'm an NES fan; I don't write games off for minor flicker, nor am I in this case, however as in Contra and TF4 it happens at the worst possible places. Strider's is just more manageable and the game more appealing than those two owing to its graphics and music (albeit Contra has some style of its own). Nothing's broken, the game's just harder than it ought to be.

I really want this one. I always forget about it.

Picked this one up in a trade last Saturday, and while I don't hate it as much as I used to, there are still a couple of things that feel a little off in the game, particularly the hit detection with the difficulty. I'm not sure how Capcom wanted me to squeeze through some of these tight spaces!

Although, I often find myself not rating this game very high among the games in my collection, when I remember some of the stages I have to admit that the developers did a really nice job with respect to the level design. Stage 2 impressed me to no end: I liked the way that the game transported you from a golden metropolis to a frigid oasis. As soon as you traverse down the path, you are greeted to a pack of wolves. What about the hill where you are forced to run down at a high vilocity of speed only to make a well timed jump that would definitely impress 007's Roger Moore? And quite a bit after that, you find yourself jumping aboard a helicoper soaring higher and higher in the air, only to find yourself dodging a series of projectiles while at the same time using your acrobat skills to board helicoper that passes overhead! That was a very nice touch! Even though the game does have a few problems, I believe this game garners praise from alot of gamers because of how well each level is designed. One of my favourite stages is the one where you board a airship: You fight your way through a set of enemies, propelling yourself upwards via the conveyor belts some of which contain live amunition. Just when you think you are about to finally complete the stage, you find yourself walking/climbing down a corridor that has virtually zero gravity! When I played this game back in 1991, my draw dropped when I found hanging upside down and battling my way to the ship's core! I was quite perplexed as to how to keep myself upright while trying to blow the ship's core up! This game definitely has some really nice set pieces!

It's not the most challenging game on the system but one that every SEGA Genesis/Mega Driver owner should play!

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Originally Posted by StarMist

In my case the complaints were one. Flicker occurs with attack sprites throwing hit boxes into doubt. Obviously in games of this nature the hitbox is sprite-perfect, I'm not suggesting it's so bad as to spill beyond the sprites, but when the tips of projectiles and blades flicker it's tough to discern whether one'll be hit. This works passively as well, for exm the first stage's giant ape: when it throws a punch the animation is intensive enough Strider's blade flickers, meaning one doesn't know how much one's hit it by, thus how far one can safely be from it, with the result an easy victory one's first play can easily turn into an inexplicable loss one's second.
The complaint of falling through objects wasn't mine. Anyhow you must know I'm an NES fan; I don't write games off for minor flicker, nor am I in this case, however as in Contra and TF4 it happens at the worst possible places. Strider's is just more manageable and the game more appealing than those two owing to its graphics and music (albeit Contra has some style of its own). Nothing's broken, the game's just harder than it ought to be.

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I forgot that I asked this, good explanation. I'm not sure I ever noticed the cypher flickering, but I thought the red hit sprites were always visible even when other objects are flickering. I guess by then I was used to learning my reach in games regardless of slowdown or flicker. On the hardest difficulty the upside down segment in the last level is extremely difficult in any version of Strider thanks to the floating turrets and the near instant death caused by hitting them. I've never timed this segment correctly and tend to fluke through it after a bunch of tries. The rest of the game makes perfect sense to me though.

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Originally Posted by SEGA.GENESIS1989

Although, I often find myself not rating this game very high among the games in my collection, when I remember some of the stages I have to admit that the developers did a really nice job with respect to the level design. Stage 2 impressed me to no end: I liked the way that the game transported you from a golden metropolis to a frigid oasis. As soon as you traverse down the path, you are greeted to a pack of wolves. What about the hill where you are forced to run down at a high vilocity of speed only to make a well timed jump that would definitely impress 007's Roger Moore? And quite a bit after that, you find yourself jumping aboard a helicoper soaring higher and higher in the air, only to find yourself dodging a series of projectiles while at the same time using your acrobat skills to board helicoper that passes overhead! That was a very nice touch! Even though the game does have a few problems, I believe this game garners praise from alot of gamers because of how well each level is designed. One of my favourite stages is the one where you board a airship: You fight your way through a set of enemies, propelling yourself upwards via the conveyor belts some of which contain live amunition. Just when you think you are about to finally complete the stage, you find yourself walking/climbing down a corridor that has virtually zero gravity! When I played this game back in 1991, my draw dropped when I found hanging upside down and battling my way to the ship's core! I was quite perplexed as to how to keep myself upright while trying to blow the ship's core up! This game definitely has some really nice set pieces!

It's not the most challenging game on the system but one that every SEGA Genesis/Mega Driver owner should play!

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Very well described. This is exactly how I felt playing Strider for the first time.
This is why Strider Returns sucks so much. The gameplay is pretty much the same, but it's the level design and pacing of the original that elevates it to unusual heights. The gameplay in itself is nothing special.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I agree with your assessment of "Strider Returns". Graphically I find that the game is lacklustre compared to it's predecessor.

I'm curious if you or anyone has played the SNES equivalent to "Strider" titled "Run Saber"? Is this game any good and if so how does it compare?

Like I said elsewhere on this site, I want to love Strider and I understand what other people love about Strider but for some reason I never loved Strider.

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Originally Posted by SEGA.GENESIS1989

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I agree with your assessment of "Strider Returns". Graphically I find that the game is lacklustre compared to it's predecessor.

I'm curious if you or anyone has played the SNES equivalent to "Strider" titled "Run Saber"? Is this game any good and if so how does it compare?

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Run Saber is only like Strider Arcade/Genesis if all of the Shinobi games are as well. Run Saber is more like a sequel to NES Strider if anything, it still has the swiping sword strike attack, but not the fluid gameplay of Strider proper. The level designs of Run Saber are also more like NES Strider, lots of ordinary scenes with straight lines instead of the rolling hills and steep jumps of Strider. I really enjoy Strider and thought Run Saber was nothing like it and really not that much worth playing in general, so I traded it and have yet to look back.

Thanks for posting your opinion of the game sheath. Now I don't feel so bad for not buying the game when I had a chance. I saw someone on the forum post that they had the game for sale Saturday morning and I was debating whether I should purchase the game. Alas, I decided to keep the pcket change safe in my pocket.