Bummed out on Strider Returns.

[hellraiser]

Strider returns on the genesis....
What can I say?


I watched all the YouTube videos on it and it looked good. I mean the actual reviews were pretty dismal but I held hope. I got lucky and bought it dirt cheap and local.

Poped it in and ugh!

It just seems so sloooooowww! Strider 1 wasn't exactly sega's best use of "blast processing" but it just seemed faster.

Speed aside strider returns just can't keep my interest. Playing the first one I couldn't wait to see what was next. It's almost like they needed to be released in reverse order. That way strider returns would have been just ok(since theres nothing to compare it to) and then strider 1 would have been a big improvement! Lol!

I'm really surprised capcom allowed this game to be made. I know they didn't make it but they own the franchise right?

[Dire 51]

This may answer your questions:

Capcom had farmed out Strider to Tiertex for various ports of the original arcade game, including the Sega Master System version. Apparently their contract with Capcom gave them the rights to make a sequel, although they were unable to use the character of Hiryu (they replaced him with a palette swap named Hinjo). It was titled Strider II in Europe, but retitled Journey From Darkness: Strider Returns in the U.S. It ended up being released for the Master System, Game Gear, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, C64, Atari ST and an upscaled version was released for the Mega Drive, which eventually made it here as Strider Returns. All of them are pretty terrible, but the MD/Genesis version is the one that has the most hate directed at it. Even those that worked at Tiertex don't have anything good to say about it. To quote Allan Findlay, the programmer:


I had programmed for a few years before doing Strider Returns but this was my first game and my first complete thing written in 68000 assembly. I had written various subroutines to optimise my C code but never an entire program. At the time I was mainly a C programmer.

The main thing I was thinking of with that statement was speed, the game didn't run as fast as it should have. Given the type of game it is I should have had it running in a single frame (50Hz/60Hz) but it was running in 2 frames (25Hz/30Hz).

The "design" of the Megadrive version was literally "This is the Amiga version, you need to make it better than that, no bar at the bottom, full screen."

Source: http://www.lscmainframe.net/features/afindlay.html

To quote from the review at the Light Sword Cypher Mainframe:


To their credit, the programmers at Tiertex have actually admitted that this game was one of their less-than-stellar efforts. Allan Findlay said it was the first thing he ever programmed, that the debugging "left a lot to be desired", and that "it could have been done better". Wayne Billington blamed "some huge fundamental problems all contributing to a big turd", among them the invention of "an alternative main character that turned an acrobatic character, into a slow dalek". And Anthony Ball gave a peculiar insight:

Strider II was originally designed by Andrew (Ingram) - he was a graphics artist at Tiertex. But it changed too much from Andrews original design, which would probably been a good game. Andrew went on to start Travellers Tales and designed Leander - a great platformer.

Source: http://www.lscmainframe.net/games/sr_jfd/index.html

Strider Returns remains a reviled game in the Strider fan community. Personally, I advise everyone that even sounds remotely interested in it to stay as far away from it as possible. A friend and I were out browsing one of the local game stores not long ago. He had just bought a Genesis, and was looking to pick up a few games for it. He found a copy and was seriously considering getting it until I advised him otherwise. I think my exact words when he pointed it out to me were "NO! Stay as far away from that piece of shit as possible!"

[Edmond Dantes]

For what it's worth, I've read that the computer versions are actually good and its only the Genesis version that sucks. Never played it myself tho.

[hellraiser]

Thanks dire 51!

I'm just glad capcom made strider 2 and distanced it's self from this game.

Well it should be worth something in trade in value!!!

For what it's worth, I've read that the computer versions are actually good and its only the Genesis version that sucks. Never played it myself tho.

To be any good it would dam near need to be a completely different game!!! Lmao

[A Black Falcon]

I think Strider Returns is a decent Euro-style platformer, really... there's much better out there, sure, but it's not the worst. However, I've never been much of a fan of the original Strider, so I don't care very much that it's quite different.

(Oh, and NES Strider is quite good. I like that more than the arcade/Genesis game for sure.)

[Edmond Dantes]

To be honest, I'd like to play Strider 2 someday, both the computer and the Genesis versions.

I don't doubt that it doesn't compare to the arcade original, but I can't help being curious.