Strider (2014)

Josey Wales

Will anyone be buying the new Strider game? I know it comes out today on PS4 and I will probably get it. I've never played a Strider game before but after looking at the trailer it looks similar in structure to Guacamelee.

I'm hoping that the PS4 version will have a demo.

Shapey Fiend

Looking at reviews it seems like it's going to be pretty good. Not exceptional though. Metroidvania aspects aren't really my bag I'd rather play the original.

o1s1n

I'm really looking forward to trying this out. Not getting my hopes up yet that it'll be any good - so if it is, it'll be a nice surprise

For anyone interested in playing a game more like the original, try the arcade game Osman. It's an unofficial sequel to Strider which was made by much of the original team.

It's a really great game, can play it in MAME.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVMlC8uVjqU

bugs

Some of the reviews are amusing. One claimed that double helix had copied the inverted gravity from symphony of the nights inverted castle. Guess they hadn't played the original Strider

Very interested in this and had been keeping an eye on it since it was announced. I still play strider from time to time, 10 year old me still thinks its the best game ever, so from what I've seen and read I'm going to enjoy this reboot.

calex71

One of the achievements is for beating it in under 4 hours, and there are collectibles, hard to judge if thats an all out sprint to get in under 4 hours and how much padding the collectibles, though usually in these games they are health upgrades and the like so somewhat relevant. It's on Xbox One also which is a pleasent surprise, no demo yet though boooooo

penev10

Is it me or does the Mega Drive version look way better?

Shiminay

Watched some if it in action last night on a stream, it looked fun, seemed to be quite fluid to play and given you don't really have much else to play on a PS4, you probably wouldn't regret picking it up.

Retr0gamer

Seems to be getting good reviews with the onyl negative being very dull art throughout.

Gummy Panda

I'm waiting for steam to allow me to put my key in.

BTW ikaruga was put on steam today

penev10

Retr0gamer wrote: »

very dull art throughout.

Why did they make it so drab and dark when the original is so vibrant?!?!

Has put me right off

Retr0gamer

penev10 wrote: »

Why did they make it so drab and dark when the original is so vibrant?!?!

Has put me right off

Because colour is for kiddies and edgy is for kiddies that want to be older but should know better.

Sarky

The music from the original still takes me back to the days where I'd be home from school with some sort of illness and being allowed to play Strider 1 or 2 on my Amiga because I'd behaved. Also, dat laugh when you died.

I'll need to have a look at some gameplay when I get back from stupid web-filtered work, but if what you guys above are saying is anything to go by it might well be worth a look.

Shapey Fiend

A Californian development team isn't going to have an art team that's a patch on 80's Capcom. I don't think Capcom even have nearly that talent anymore.

Sarky

Well, I took a chance and went for it.

It's fluid. It's definitely fluid. There's a lot of fun to be had leaping, sliding, climbing and divebombing about the platforms, and it controls well even with a keyboard. It plays quite a bit like Dust: An Elysian Tale, but faster.

I'd recommend it, the last hour and a half were a lot of fun for me. Play on hard though, I didn't think Normal was much of a challenge tbh.

Seedy Arling

What size download is this on the PS4? My internet speed is chronic.

Sarky

The Steam download was 3.5-4 gigs, if I remember correctly. I imagine it's much the same for any of the consoles.

Gummy Panda

I'm having a lot of fun playing it. Getting much further then strider on megadrive hehe

deathrider

Is it only on next gen consoles? Any sign of a 3DS release?

bugs

deathrider wrote: »

Is it only on next gen consoles? Any sign of a 3DS release?

Unlikely given that the developers have since been purchased by amazon. They already stated there was no plan for DLC or further follow ups.

deathrider

bugs wrote: »

Unlikely given that the developers have since been purchased by amazon. They already stated there was no plan for DLC or further follow ups.

That's a shame.

Retr0gamer

Apparently this has a disc release in Japan which includes a PSN voucher for Strider 1 and 2 on the PSN store.

Think I'll be getting that version.

bugs

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Apparently this has a disc release in Japan which includes a PSN voucher for Strider 1 and 2 on the PSN store.

Think I'll be getting that version.

Or you could pay roughly 7 times the price of the EU download for the japanese e-capcom limited edition (also includes strider 1 & 2 codes):

http://www.e-capcom.com/strider/

penev10

Great box art



Why doesn't the game look that good?

I'll stop complaining about the art direction now. Just disappointed as Strider was an old favourite.

Riesen_Meal

I had a quick go of it earlier on PS4, I like it from the brief time with the demo, I love Strider 1 on c64, nes and arcade, I hated the sequel on the Amiga with a passion though...

Might pick it up as I was pleasantly surprised...

Retr0gamer

The amiga Strider 2 was a heap of dirt and made by a British team. The arcade/PS1 Strider 2 on the other hand is a beaut.

bugs

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The amiga Strider 2 was a heap of dirt and made by a British team. The arcade/PS1 Strider 2 on the other hand is a beaut.

Tiertex did that, I vaguely remember reading something about it along the lines of it never actually meaning to be a Strider title at all. The sprite was shoehorned in there for some testing and someone decided they'd leave it that way and call it Strider II, thanks to some poor licensing decisions made by Capcom to US Gold.

They did good work with the sprite, looks great. Rest of the game, not so much.

Sarky

About 5 hours of play now. I restarted on Hard, and the challenge is much more interesting. It's surprising how much your tactics have to change just from enemies taking one more hit before they die. Was really starting to struggle when I unlocked the ability to reflect bullets back with timed counterattacks. There are a LOT of bullets flying around after you get that upgrade. I reckon the speed run achievement is either insanely hard or requires a new game plus mode so you can skip a few bits and pieces.

Some great boss fights so far, very old school with improbably large laser beams and bullet patterns with one safe spot to hide in. There's a whole lot of enemy variation too. This game is a whole lot of fun, and it's well worth the money.

calex71

Sarky wrote: »

About 5 hours of play now. I restarted on Hard, and the challenge is much more interesting. It's surprising how much your tactics have to change just from enemies taking one more hit before they die. Was really starting to struggle when I unlocked the ability to reflect bullets back with timed counterattacks. There are a LOT of bullets flying around after you get that upgrade. I reckon the speed run achievement is either insanely hard or requires a new game plus mode so you can skip a few bits and pieces.

Some great boss fights so far, very old school with improbably large laser beams and bullet patterns with one safe spot to hide in. There's a whole lot of enemy variation too. This game is a whole lot of fun, and it's well worth the money.

Do upgrades carry over?

bugs

calex71 wrote: »

Do upgrades carry over?

Nope

johnny_ultimate

Finished the game there - on normal, which is definitely probably a little on the easy side - and really enjoyed my time with it. I love the pace of the gameplay - the first hour or two is pretty slow, but after that it's a nearly constant stream of upgrades that add up to really involved and engaging combat / platforming systems. There's lots and lots of secrets hidden around the world, and most of them are well worth tracking down.

The boss fights and Graviton sections were definite highlights. The

second form of the final boss

was terrific, the kind of old school boss you don't see much anymore.

A few annoyances. The bland art style is definitely regrettable, and there's only a few points - like the spoiler above - where it seems much more vibrant. This has a knock on effect that the locations can be pretty samey, making navigation a little confusing at times. Not helping matters is a profoundly unhelpful map system, that never makes it clear which areas connect to which. It's perfectly functional when you're actually in an area trying to track down items or hidden paths, but when it zooms out to the world map it's borderline incoherent. Luckily travelling around the place is fast and enjoyable. And, a personal preference, I really would have liked to see a blocking system in place - there are obviously powers that partially fill that function as you progress, but I would have liked some sort of weightier, timed system especially in the game's earlier stages.

Anyway, all that aside, I genuinely enjoyed the game and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of content it offers without feeling padded (the in-game clock read around 7 and a half hours at the end, although at least an hour or two of that was spent picking up the leftover power-ups).

Josey Wales

I'm making my way through this slowly. I've only played about two and a half hours since release. I'm finding the pace of the game a bit slow so far. Good to hear from the post above that upgrades start to come at a faster rate.