Strider Review – Outstanding and Fast Power Fantasy Slowed Down by Boring Bosses

In this Strider review, we shall go over the return of Strider Hiryu and his animal companions and his mighty sword. This rebirth of an old arcade franchise is excellent in many ways, but some big and slow bosses drag down an otherwise excellent power fantasy ninja Metroidvania game.

But, before we dive deep into this PC review, let us answer the most common questions the gaming community has about the game!

What is Strider?

Strider is a hack&slash platform adventure, a reboot of the video game Strider from 1989.

Who made Strider?

Double Helix Games developed Strider published Capcom the game.

When did Strider come out?

Strider was released worldwide in February 2014.

How much is Strider?

You can buy Strider for 14,99€.

Where can I find a cheap Strider key?

You can buy a cheap Strider key on HRK Game.

A stunning resurrection of the 1989 Strider arcade game

Strider is a resurrection of the 1989 arcade game about a speedy ninja. It’s a fundamental concept of a power fantasy; you’re an insanely capable and lethal ninja that can take down a group of enemies in the blink of an eye. 

Strider is a simple game, one that tries to complicate things too much. If it only focused on its core gameplay formula, it would be a fantastic show of violence and speed. Unfortunately, the game never manages to achieve its full potential as a power fantasy, and that’s a damn shame.

Let’s get this out of the way: the story is both incomprehensible and uninteresting. Strider is a ninja tasked with assassinating the ruler of the Soviet-era city-state Kazakh. That’s all. Now put that crap aside and begin slicing dudes in half.

Strider abandons the pretense to plan with glee, and it’s for the better. This game is all about action and speed, and Strider shines when those factors combine. Strider’s primary form of movement is the sprint. Strider swings his sword in an arc while running. If you press the attack button quickly enough, he’ll construct a wall of doom and ram it straight through his adversaries. It’s not a ninja-like or sophisticated assassination plan, but it’s a unique mechanic in an action platformer.

A true Metroidvania

In Strider, we explore Kazakh and its various zones and neighborhoods. That’s the way we unlock new tools of destruction and movement options. Strider and its gameplay are expanded as you combine the double jump, sliding, and power attacking from above. The combat is varied and brutal, and you get to obliterate enemies from various angles, which feels great. Strider loves his speed, which is where he’s most comfortable.

Abilities utilizing his speed extensively improve your combat capabilities, but other moves are also used to access doors you couldn’t before. High ledges, low tunnels, anything that was out of your reach before can be reached later on. Backtracking is a thing in Strider, so be mindful of that.

The bosses in Strider suck.

Now comes a special part of this Strider review, aka the bosses. Bosses are a whole other thing tho. While Strider and its gameplay excel when you’re speeding through enemies and shredding them to pieces, it all comes to a halt when you encounter a boss. Your freedom of movement goes out the window. The city terraces are locked down, and your vertical space maneuverability is greatly lessened. Even the bosses are pretty dull, with strangely long health bars and annoying attack patterns. Strider is a game where you use button mashing to take down a boss, and that’s disappointing.

The power you feel as you blitz through the normal levels quickly fades once you face a boss. It’s annoying, and it gets very tiresome after the second boss.

This reboot really didn’t need this type of bosses

In the context of an arcade game, the irritation and cheap shots make a lot more sense. If this was the 1989, horrifying difficulty curves guaranteed more quarters, and fans of that design style may still enjoy it today. In the current era, though, I condemned the game, its creators, my editors, and all local gods. Don’t get me wrong: I cherish a hard-fought triumph. However, defeating Strider’s bosses never gave me a sense of success. Instead, I resolved that I would never have to go through it again—not exactly the kind of experience that begs to be repeated.

An unimpressive PC port

Not to mention how terrible the PC port is. Because the controls aren’t remappable, a gamepad is required, and the graphical options are limited. Even if I could change the settings, the graphics would disappoint me.

Strider’s art style is too full of lens flares and neon to be boring, but the scenery and bad people become monotonous—the game rarely deviates from anime tropes. 

Conclusion

At the end of this Strider review, did the game do what it wanted to do? Did I get an adrenaline high from being an insanely powerful anime ninja that slices up everything in his path? Yes, yes I did. Once you unlock more moves, the game becomes a power fantasy playground that’s a ton of fun. The bosses absolutely suck tho and I hate whoever designed them for this game.

So, if you liked everything I praised in this Strider review, why don’t you get yourself a Strider PC key on HRK Game? We always offer discounts on games, so get your copy of the game for cheap and enjoy some enjoyable ninja power fantasy action!