Strider

As I said yesterday, I'll finish the section of the series I have with Strider.  Developed and published by Capcom, Strider was originally released in the arcade in March 1989 but was re-released as a second disc on the PlayStation with Strider 2 in July of 2000.

The game's story is much like Strider 2, the evil dictator Grandmaster rules over the world and Strider Hiryu takes on the task to assassinate him.  So he glides into the Grandmaster's capital at the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.  And so the mission starts and you control Hiryu through the Russian city.  The controls are very simple, as it did come from an arcade game, with only two real buttons: attack and jump.  You can hold down with jump to slide as well, but the controls aren't much beyond that.

So you move across the Russian roofs, having very little difficulty with the starting enemies, it's just some random soldiers with guns and bayonets who charge at you without pause and some floating robots that are simple.  The soldiers do try and spear you if they get too close, but they telegraph it so you usually know when to make sure to attack them.  Of course, the game is an arcade game, so it is purposely difficult to eat your quarters: you can only take three hits.  That means that any mistake can take you out and you really have to be careful.

The game also has a few nice power ups which are pretty easy to get.  The flying robots (some of the simple enemies I mentioned before) sometimes carry these boxes that you can slash to open and get a boost from.  There are straightforward ones such as one that heals you and another that increases you maximum health.  Then there are some "options" which give you advantages.  The first is this mushroom like enemy which circles around you and shoots blasts every time you press the attack button.  Another one of the options is a hawk, though to be very honest I'm not quite sure what it does besides circle around in the screen and look cool. 

Now unlike Strider 2, this game has a lot less bosses (or at least I fought fewer, but I didn't complete the first mission).  Each of the bosses is very interesting, and though seems simple, can still destroy you since it only takes a few hits.  The first boss is a large guy with yellow spikey hair and a lot of muscles who starts off by breaking away from a medical tank he's in and rips off his shirt.... yeah.

So he's a bit of a wrestler (and by a bit I mean very much so) and he starts by diving at you and then rolling across the floor until you either slash him or he grabs you.  If he grabs you, he flings you against the wall behind him and starts his process over again.  He's not too difficult once you realize you just have to wait for him to attack and slash him to stop him.  The problem is when he's defeated, fire suddenly rains down from the ceiling and covers the floor except for under the platform he started on and I lost most of my health to it.

So I continued further on through the level having difficulties with a new enemy: a robotic spider.  The enemy isn't that difficult, the problem is he's on a major slant either going up or going down so there is no direct line to him.  And when you are on a direct line with him, he shoots a laser at you.  Ouch.  So I finally get over the peak of the roof and into the building I've been climbing all over and I find another boss.  This one is a head looking thing that shoots a pair of lasers that bounce around the room and you just stay on the floor and slash at it until it blows up.  From there an opening appears in the floor and I fall in to get a face full of bullets from a random guy with a Gatling Gun who seems like he'll also be a boss.  I'll never know though because I took this opportunity to take a break. 

And so I've played another game and another day has passed.  This one, though while difficult due to the minimal amount of hits you can take before dying, was enjoyable.  I'll continue tomorrow and start to make my way towards Superbowl weekend.  Adios for today though.