I often feel like Strider came into my life at just the right point. I had very recently gotten into Metroidvanias after years of saying I hated them due to the fact that Metroid Prime, a game that I now love to death, was too difficult and obtuse for kid me. I initially bought this one during a PSN Flash Sale a while ago knowing basically nothing about it other than the fact that I kept hearing the name pop up on various gaming channels I follow. Heck, I didn't even know when buying it that, technically speaking, I bought the wrong Strider. Not to mention that Strider itself is a series where all but one of them are just solely named 'Strider'. But when it came up on the cookie, I gave it a go and I'm forever glad I did.
Strider is the 2014 reboot of the 1989 NES game 'Strider', not to be confused with the 1989 Arcade game 'Strider', though both are in the same series. In it, you play as Hiryu Strider, the last hope of a world conquered by an evil dictator with mysterious powers. Along the way you'll do battle with his robot army and his many generals, all of which I could totally see myself buying for $9.99 at my local toy store. Strider gave off sort of a GI Joe vibe to me, but the story is simple and non-intrusive enough for the genre it's a part of and I just loved the 80s cheese of it.
Strider is, as mentioned above, a 'Metroidvania'. Metroidvanias, for the uninformed, are a subgenre of action-adventure games that are characterized by a large interconnected world map and a design meant to encourage exploration above all else. Strider itself doesn't actually do much to separate itself from other Metroidvanias, admittedly, but it's very good at what it does. The map, while a bit linear, still manages to contain a lot of secrets to keep players exploring. I'd even maybe recommend if you've never played a Metroidvania, starting with Strider. It's a simple game, but it's an intuitive one and a great entry point into the genre.
Strider is not without its faults, however. The map segments itself per each area and if you're just going for main story, this isn't a problem. The game will basically always tell you where you're going next. However, it's super easy to get lost and not be able to find your way back if you're going for 100%, as the segmentation of the map means you don't have a clear idea how it connects back on itself. Some areas make it super unclear how you're supposed to ever get back there at all, in fact and the late game fast travel power-up proves largely unhelpful in getting you quickly around the map. Which leads into another problem, the various gear and powers you're given throughout the game seems mostly unnecessary. A lot of powers you get you'll end using to open a door or hit a switch, and then just go back to using whatever you've been using the whole game because the starting power just makes things way more efficient in the long run. Which is unfortunate because these things discourage the point of the game, which is exploration. At that point you're basically just exploring to find the ten health upgrades hidden around the map and nothing else. Shame.
My playthrough of Strider went largely smoothly at first. I was going through the game at a decent pace, not breezing through it but also not getting walled. The first big hiccup didn't come up until the Sewer area of the game where the game crashed on me. Three times. I had to play the same section of game four times over in order to progress. And then after that, back to smooth sailing. I don't know what it is about the Sewers in particular, but it also only seems to be a main story thing, as I didn't have any of the same issues when I went back to explore for any items I didn't get the first time through. It's a very annoying feeling when the biggest obstacle to playing the game is the game itself not wanting you to play it, but I was having so much fun that I decided to keep going anyways. Which was a good call, Strider is super fun.
I enjoyed my time with Strider. Regardless of it's problems, Strider is just a really fun game. I was actually having a hard time talking about it because I didn't really have that much to say about it initially. It was a game I got from a random draw and just sort of chilled out with for a while. It was a very no-stress game, something I admittedly don't get a lot of since I'm usually playing massive 100+ hour long RPGs and discussing the various themes and characters and storylines present. And something I didn't get out of the next of the 52, the Mummy Demastered.
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