When ever I see a remake of any game, I usually do not have a since expectation in my mind, at all. Nor do I usually compare it to its previous games. As times change, mechanics evolve, ether for the better, or for the worst. Strider is a sort of a reboot, or a renovation from a stack of fanboys, and girls who enjoyed the original Manga, the Nes game, and Strider 2 which was on the PlayStation 1, and arcade. It mixes together the elements from games such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and Metroid. Super Metroid being the prime focus as this example. Where do I begin, how about from the core beginning, you are brought into the Genesis intro, where you land on Kazakh City. Foot soldiers greet you with open arms, and bullets blazing past your head. After you try to mess with the controls you slash wildly, and that is just that, you just spam a attack, running through the enemies, hopping around. It is a simple, arcade like nature that fills in the void for what the older games once were, at least with mindless hack and slash. You meet your first boss, obtaining your charge ability. So everything runs smooth. No framerate issues period. Everything looks sharp, graphically delightful. Then one issue scrapes my mind. Which I will get to in a moment. I begin to explore trying to locate all the hidden goodies to be had. I upgrade my enemy attack a few times, and charge into a few of the Wind clan assassins, which are really weak to me. Then I meet Solo. While he has a straight forward pattern, it still takes me a while to get my hands synced with his move set. As most people do or did via old school boss scenarios. Something kids mostly never get to see as often, other then the press of buttons as they pop on the screen. So as you do, I died a few times, when my pet peeve radar went off the charts. Unstoppable boss cut-scenes? I understand if they play, and you can press a few buttons, getting straight into the action, which what I was hoping for in a well, you know, a Action game. After the second death I got beyond annoyed with the game. I am the type who loves to just rush into the fire and learn how the flames dance, not wait for chairs to be set up at a old folks home. Next time I hope they add a option to ether toggle it off, or disable it as you reach the bosses for Strider 2. As I do not doubt will happen. The music is great mixing classic tones, and beats I recall from all of the other games. It has a great playability to it. Just it lacks a few extra elements to make it perfect for me. Longer gameplay, and more depth within the levels, I felt like I was playing the same area, even though the enemies were slightly harder to kill, and looked the same, only a fresh coat of paint applied. A very pleasing game to play, aside from a few lackluster missed details.
7.0
