Review: Strider (PS3)

The original Strider games in the Arcade and for the Nintendo Entertainment System hold a place in my young-gamer heart. The Arcade game was ridiculously cool (if not ridiculously hard to match) and was easily one of the set pieces of many an arcade in the late 80's whereas the Nintendo version shortly followed with one of the better action based games of that era. It feels rather odd to refer to the current game as a "Metroid-vania" as this game came out in the exact same time period in gaming… but when you've only made 3 games in your life span, you tend to get overlooked.

The remake stays true to its' roots but has quite the overhaul in game speed and visual fidelity. While not as visually ground-breaking as the original arcade game was, Strider does a lot with a little, and makes the battlegrounds seem much more frantic and intense than previous iterations. Using a faux-two dimensional system, some enemies will transition into combat from the third dimension either flying in from the fore or aft-background. The freedom of movement an exploration is definitely a vast improvement. The designers certainly left a significant amount of open space to find power-ups and extras in hidden spots, and made sure to give your character Strider Hiyru the ability to quickly traverse it all. The excellent level design is highly reminiscent of Shadow Complex (an excellent download XBLA game from 2009) with a ton of exploration available to the player, but new areas can only be accessed with the correct upgrades.

The in-game combat is very fast, you'll have to use your superior speed to close the distance to attack any enemies, while dodging the multiple enemy attacks that will chase you doggedly throughout the game. Your initial foray into the game will be well spent in figuring out the limits of motion for Hiryu: the height and distance of every type of jump as well as every animation of attack that your character does. Once you have these down cold, only then will you stand any chance of putting up a decent fight against the enemy forces. The boss battles in Strider are a sub-game upon themselves; while they don't bring anything particularly original to the genre, they are controller-chucking-maddening even at the easier difficulty settings.

The soundtrack is a treat unto itself – while the original was an 8-bit synth-classic, the original tracks have life breathed into them for this game. The composers definitely made sure to borrow heavily but not be tied down by the original material. As such, the end result is something that fans will reminisce about but neophytes won't be left wondering what on earth they are being subjected to.

Strider is not without some warts though.

The original premise of the game still seems odd: you are from an elite combat infiltration force but instead of using any ballistic weapons, you charge into battle using a laser sword… and it doesn't even deflect weapon fire! So in other words, you are obligated to get up close and personal to every opponent to even attack them, so every little motion must be executed to perfection to ensure that you will have enough life to be able to survive the next encounter. Even at the easiest levels, Strider is an unmerciful game so much so that even seasoned veterans will find themselves dying in packs. Never has a game needed a training montage more than Strider does, but you are left to figure out everything yourself. While I normally appreciate this, in a game as complicated and hard as this, it makes an artificial barrier to the casual gamer.

All in all, I firmly believe that getting past the first 30 minutes of Strider is well worth the time investment, regardless of how infuriating that time will be spent. Once you are the delicious centre of the game the time investment is definitely worth it. Gamers who can appreciate a true challenge will find there is that and more in Strider.

- Tazman
Follow @MichaelSiewert

The Good:
- An excellent retelling of the original Nintendo game
- $15

The Bad:
- Still think it odd that a character fights with a sword…
- Download size... holy these games are starting to get huge

Score: 8.5 / 10