Strider

Although the painful gotcha moments and frequent shifts between setpieces may hide it on a blind playthrough, Strider’s main appeal is its movement and handling, which bridge the gap between commitment and fluidity. Main character Hiryu’s moving jump arc is a graceful parabola befitting the fixed movement of something like Castlevania, yet it interfaces with the rest of Hiryu’s kit elegantly thanks to its lack of endlag and gentle buffering. Hiryu can leap backwards to cancel his ground slide, instantly flip off of poles and ledges that he grabs, and rotate mid-jump to slash foes behind him with minimal effort. Learning the ins and outs of how all of these moves interact with each other takes effort thanks to both natural and unnatural restrictions set in place: the inability to jump out of a crouch given that the input makes Hiryu slide makes sense, while some curved ceilings being traversable forward while not backwards is less intuitive. However, learning these interactions gives the players the tools to improvise in navigating level layouts compared to the stricter routing of its ilk, all without the dynamic enemy spawns of contemporaries like Ghouls ‘n Ghosts.

Becoming comfortable with the interactions of Hiryu’s toolkit was evidently on the mind of the developers as well. One of the simplest examples that showcases their understanding of the stiff horizontal jump is an early-game boss that uses a dome ceiling to ricochet lasers at Hiryu. The goal, while simplistic, requires leaping over the lasers as they descend to land on the other side of the boss and continue attacking it. On the opposite end of the complexity spectrum is the jungle level’s middle section, which presents a variety of routes through a set of trees laden with vines. Here the player can navigate up in any way they desire: they can run to the end of each section and wall-jump up to higher branches, use Hiryu’s high vertical jump to skip certain problematic platforms, and grab upon the sloping vines that can toss Hiryu off if not treated with care.

The jungle level, where knotty, sprawling branches provide organic routes for Strider to navigate upwards to the next area. [src]

In between these are a vast variety of setpieces that veer between demanding careful routing and allowing the player to devise their own unique approach. Areas such as the upside-down portion of the fifth level provide choices between hectic series of moving spike towers on the bottom or precise platforming challenges on the top, but the density of your options chokes out Hiryu’s movement given his large sprite and hitbox. This section, among others, features a slope on which Hiryu can gain momentum for a large jump, a tool that may as well be completely scripted and often kills the pace. Certain sections require nigh mandatory use of a powerup that increases the length of Hiryu’s sword, and while they consistently drop said powerup in each area, the fact that the alternatives are pixel-perfect attack positioning or damage boosting feels like a major oversight (the portion before the gorilla refight is a perfect example of this). However, otherwise uninteresting ideas turn into gold when they utilize Hiryu’s unique moveset. For example, the power grid area with electric arcs on a timed cycle would result in tedious stop-and-go gameplay in a lesser game, but the intricate lattice of platforms available and strategic enemy placement make routing one’s way through this section engaging and potentially very quick.

The weaker sections undoubtedly necessitate memorization, but the short length makes it palatable. It helps that while the bosses are undercooked, finding speedkill strats is simple, which keeps the roster of roughly ~10 bosses from dragging the experience down. I also enjoy the odd little shoot-em-up touches, such as swooping enemies that drop powerups and options that increase your damage output. These touches take the lesser moments and help buoy the title against some of its better designed competition.