Strider, also known as Strider Hiryu, is an arcade game produced by Capcom in 1989. It is a side-scrolling platform game.
In the game, the player takes control of Strider Hiryu, a ninja-style warrior who must defeat a legendary being known as Grandmaster Meio. Meio has observed Earth from his dwelling in a far off galaxy, and has created a space station (known as "The Third Moon"), between Earth and its original moon in order to rule earth and continue observation. The year is 2048. Armed with a sword known as a "cipher," Hiryu must travel around the globe (including the Soviet Union and the Amazon Rainforest) to find and destroy the evil being. Throughout his travels Strider encounters many power-ups, including robotic animals called "Options" (a hawk and a leopard) which help him defeat enemies. He also has the ability to latch onto walls and ceilings using a metallic hook — an aspect which set the game apart from other platformers.
Strider became one of Capcom's early hits before Street Fighter II, revered for its innovative gameplay and multilingual voice clips during cutscenes (presented in Japanese, Russian, and English). It was soon released onto various home consoles and computers, including the Famicom and Sega Megadrive, as well as their American counterparts, the NES and Sega Genesis. The Sony PlayStation version, bundled with the PlayStation version of Strider 2, offers the most accurate port of the original arcade.
Strider Hiryu was resurrected in 1998 as a character in the Marvel vs. Capcom series of fighting games, and a 3D platform sequel, Strider 2, was released into arcades in 1999.
An unofficial sequel to Strider is an arcade game called Osman, published my Mitchell in 1996 and created by the same designer who made the original Strider.
It is worthy of note that on some 8-bit and 16-bit machines there was also an appearance of a "Strider 2" in the early 90's, but it has nothing to do with either Capcom or the original Strider creators: It was conjured up and quickly published by the company (U.S. Gold) that acquired the Strider porting rights for the home machine in question. The game is generally regarded as not worth playing.
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Last updated: 08-03-2005 11:25:17
