14 DAY TRIAL // 
Capcom impressed quite a lot of 1980s and 1990s gamers with its two Strider games but, since then, the Japanese publisher has largely ignored the series in favor of other, much bigger franchises.
Now, it's finally teamed with developer Double Helix to deliver a Strider reboot that features next-gen visuals but also old-school mechanics reminiscent of the original titles.
With the promise of responsive controls, gorgeous visuals, and plenty of hack and slash platforming, Strider is looking like a great comeback.
Do Hiryu's new adventures leave a lasting impact or should we keep on walking? Let's find out.
Strider impresses right from the beginning, introducing protagonist Hiryu as an awesome high-tech ninja that wields his trademark Cypher weapon, slashes through enemies with ease, and pulls off all sorts acrobatic moves on the 2.5D battlefield.
The game stays true to its old-school roots, as the responsiveness of the controls is almost perfect, not to mention the animations and the visual effects. It's also pretty old-school in terms of difficulty, mostly in the case of boss encounters.
While Hiryu can easily slash through regular enemies and turret bots, the boss fights offer wildly different experiences. You'll fight teleporting robot ninjas, armored dragons, or all sorts of other crazy enemies. Some can be defeated rather easily, but others have hectic attack patterns that will result in some frustration when coupled with the game's rather annoying knockback mechanic that leaves Hiryu vulnerable when on the ground.
The game also relies on old-school checkpoints, and you'll need to smash health containers in order to replenish your HP. As you can imagine, in some boss fights these containers are few, far between, or really hard to access. Other encounters, upon death, force you to go through a few more rooms before reaching the boss enemy again, making the whole respawn process tedious.
Besides some rather annoying boss fights, however, the new Strider title is really good, from its cheesy story to its great emphasis on exploration of the 2.5D levels.
Hiryu goes on all sorts of quests against a villain called Grandmaster Meio, who throws at him legions of soldiers and many other surprises. Fortunately, along the way, you'll be able to not only improve your core health and energy meters, but to also unlock bonus powers for the Cypher, not to mention special moves that can be used to access special doors or areas.
This emphasis on exploration is further motivated by the complex environments filled with all sorts of hidden passages, rooms, and vertical or horizontal corridors. Fortunately, you have a minimap in the corner of the screen that's really helpful when you want to return to the main path. Hiryu's icon also has an arrow pointing towards the general objective, so that you don't get lost in the many different environments.
The visuals in Strider are top-notch, especially on the PC, where it maintains a steady 60fps framerate that accentuates the fluidity of the animations, not to mention the glorious visual effects resulting from regular combat.
The soundtrack is undeniably old-school, borrowing cues seen in the previous titles, although in some cases it doesn’t make itself noticed all that much. The voice acting complements the cheesy story, especially when it comes to villains who squeeze everything they can from the dialog, managing to come out even more over the top.
While the main story mode, with three difficulty options, can be completed in around 6-7 hours, depending on your skill and interest in exploration, Strider has other things to keep you around, like a Race mode or a Survival one, so there's quite a bit of content.
Conclusion
Strider is a glorious comeback for the old franchise, once again proving that Double Helix knows how to breathe fresh life into classic series. While the boss fights are sometimes annoying, the visuals, the fluid animations, and the combat make up for that and once again establish Hiryu as a great protagonist.
