All right, I’ve finally beaten the last game in the Strider franchise:

• Strider
  

  10 hours playtime

  23 of 30 achievements

This game is described by people as being a Metroidvania, and while I suppose that’s technically true, it plays more like the previous Strider games with each section being its own “level” with very little interconnection between areas (in fact, I didn’t even realize it was supposed to be a Metroidvania until well after I beat the first boss). You do get different power-ups with some of them unlocking new paths in earlier levels (and you even get a couple ranged attacks), but each split from the main path is usually very short (sometimes not even consisting of an extra room) and dead-ends with you unlocking more concept art or something (if you’re lucky, you might find a health upgrade or similar). The plot is once again a retread of the arcade game (even reusing lines from previous games), but you meet a few new characters in this game, some even friendly (although the NES game still has this one beat regarding the most developed story). The music in Strider is pretty good, although most of it is reused from Strider and Strider. I think I heard maybe one or two original songs in the game, and neither the final boss nor the credits have a unique theme. Also, unlike all the other Strider games, the entire game takes place in Kazakh; no traversing a desert or jungle in this game.

Maybe this was because I played on Hard mode, but the cannon fodder soldiers have gotten an extensive upgrade from previous installments. They take more than one hit to kill (which means they could be passed off as main bosses in the other games) and different soldiers have different types of guns, ranging from rapid-fire to spread-shot (some even have shields that can only be broken with a certain type of weapon). They also tend to appear in groups, so one might be able to hit you while you’re attacking another one. However, enemies will also restore a bit of your health when defeated, so you don’t have to worry about strategy too much during the beginning.

Now, you might think that fighting the same soldiers over and over would get a bit repetitive, but don’t worry: the game also has different types of turrets and drones for you to fight as well! Plus, some of the early-game mini-bosses get used as regular enemies later in the game, and for the most part, it’s usually easier to jump past them than to engage.

The bosses from the first game make appearances in this game as well, and bosses overall take many more hits to defeat in this game. The first boss is the snake boss (who’s pattern is modeled more on its Strider 2 counterpart) and the cyborg and martial-artist girls appear later in the game. The cyborg can be quite challenging since it has attacks that can kill you in one hit, but the game really has a difficulty spike when you fight the three martial artist girls. You see, the game is modern enough that all three girls have their own attack patterns, but you have to fight them all at once, so it can be difficult to dodge all three of them since you’ll usually lose track of at least one. Heck, there’s a boss later on that can use all of their powers, but this boss is easier since you only have to deal with one enemy! And when I say “difficulty spike,” I mean the game goes back to its normal difficulty afterward, as the sphere boss is a much easier battle despite the fact that the anti-gravity controls are still finicky as heck after all this time. Unlike the spider ball controls in Metroid 2: Return of Samus, holding one direction won’t keep the protagonist moving forward; for example, if you’re in a sphere’s gravitational pull and you hold right, the protagonist will abruptly turn around after reaching the bottom-right corner. Also, the sphere boss’s arena is much larger than in previous installments, so you won’t be able to reach it if you fall off on the opposite side of the boss, meaning you’ll have to run around the arena to get in range again. Also, there are two sphere bosses in the game, because of course there are (the second one has some new attacks, though).

And yes, the sphere boss in this game has a gravitational pull rather than trapping you in orbit around it (although the sphere boss in Strider 2 did neither of these things).

One of the game’s lasting objectives is to disable the shield on the main tower, and when you finally do this, you can enter it. Once you enter the tower, you won’t be able to go back to get more power-ups. However, there are also no save points in the tower (although there are checkpoints), so if you change your mind, you’re not screwed, but if you have to shut the game off before you’re done, you have to go through all that again. Also, when you enter the tower, you get swarmed by enemies and drones, and it’s here where it first occurred to me that this game doesn’t really give you any invincibility frames. If you’re hit while jumping, you lose control and fall to the ground, but during this period of time, enemies can still shoot and hurt you. In other words, if you make a mistake, the game doesn’t really give you time to recover. This is especially annoying during the elevator ride, where the windows look out into a bright sunset/sunrise while you have to defeat waves of enemies and dodge their bright projectiles (seriously, the elevator part is harder than the final boss). I remember a common criticism with modern games being that the scenery doesn’t have much color, but if not-being-able-to-see-the-hazards is the alternative, I’ll take the drab grey and brown buildings.

Lastly, some words about the final boss. The first phase is modeled after his AI in Strider 2, where he’ll teleport around the arena rather than dash and shoot projectiles rather than summon enemies. After beating him, you get teleported into space where you fight its final form (although unlike Strider 2, it isn’t a fancy pair of pincers). The boss is surrounded by gravity spheres (meaning you have to deal with the finicky gravity controls again), and when the boss shoots out projectiles, you usually have to run to the other side of the sphere you’re standing on to avoid them. However, when you’re on the side of the sphere opposite of where the boss is, the camera will zoom in on you, making it harder to tell when its safe to go back up and attack the boss (especially later in the fight when the boss attacks quicker and with more types of projectiles at once), so that can be quite annoying. After beating the final boss, you see it fall back to earth while the protagonist casually stands on it, and then the credits roll.

Overall, this game can get annoying at times, but I still think it’s a pretty good game overall. If you’re a fan of platformers, check it out.

P.S. If you’re an achievement hunter, you’ll have to beat the game twice since beating it on Hard mode doesn’t give you the achievement for beating it on Normal mode.

P.P.S. Bosses are introduced by showing close-up artwork of them with their name coming into the screen from the side, but during this part, the game can be paused, except the pause screen is behind the artwork and doesn’t stop its little cinematic.

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Something the game didn’t reuse from its predecessors is the “next time on” segments from the NES Strider, so it’s up to me to bring back the best part of that game (it will also add a bit of interactivity since you can try to guess what game I’m gonna play next based on the descriptions). Let’s see how many posts it takes for me to come up with clever foreshadowing:

(mood music)

THE NEXT STORY!

WHEN A YOUNG GIRL FINDS A STRANGE BOOK, SHE IS CURSED EVERY NIGHT TO BECOME THE MOST HORRIFYING LOVECRAFTIAN MONSTER: THE EXACT SAME GIRL BUT WITH CRAB CLAWS FOR HANDS!

COMING NEXT SCENE:

“FEELING CRABBY TONIGHT”