Strider

n/a

NTSC-U/PAL NTSC-J Master System
Strider
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master System, Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch Online
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega R&D 2 Tiertex M2
Licensor: Capcom
Original system(s): Capcom CPS-1
Developer(s) of original games: Capcom
Sound driver: SMPS 68000
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1990-09-29 ¥7,0007,000 G-4037 US 1990-11 1112 EU 1991-05 1112 PT 199x UK 1991-05 £34.9934.99 1112 SE (Rental) 199x AU 199x CA 199x BR 1991-12 KR 199x GM8060JG EU 1991-11 9005 BX 199x PT 199x UK 1991-11 £29.9929.99 9005 AU 199x BR 1991-09 KR 199x GB4028JG JP ▼ 2011-11-15 600pts600 US ▼ 2012-02-16 800pts800 EU ▼ 2012-03-15 800pts800 DE ▼ 2012-03-15 800pts800 AU ▼ 2012-03 800pts800 JP ▼ 2021-10-25 US ▼ 2021-10-25 EU ▼ 2021-10-25
Non-Sega versions Amiga Amstrad CPC Arcade Arcade CD-ROM² Atari ST Commodore 64 IBM PC X68000 ZX Spectrum

Strider, known as Strider Hiryuu (ストライダー飛竜) in Japan, is an action game developed by Capcom and released for CPS arcade hardware in 1989. It was subsequently brought to home consoles and computers, including the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Master System.

Story

It is the 21st Century. Earth was ravaged by series of ecological disasters that claimed the lives of millions. Out of the catastrophe, one man took control of what remains of the human race: Grandmaster Meio, a seemingly immortal and omnipotent man who is worshipped as a living god by his followers. With science, military and even the nature itself is on his side, Meio declared himself Emperor and formed the center of his empire in the Kazafu City, a massive city located in the Eastern Europe. He is ruling the world with an iron fist.

Only force that can stop this man is Striders. A group of highly talented operatives who are skilled in infiltration, sabotage and assassination. Stiders initiated a massive assault on the Meio's forces, but despite their skills, all of them were cut to the last man.

Enter Strider Hiryu, youngest man to ever complete the hellish Strider training program with an A rank and only Strider left alive. Armed with his lethal plasma sword, climbing equipment, and a small amount of robotic weapons, Hiryu must face unsurmountable odds and save the humanity from the clutches of an evil god.

Gameplay

Strider is an action-platformer. The highly mobile protagonist needs to can walk, run, slide and climb to conquer all five stages and defeat the self proclaimed world ruler, grandmaster. Aside from his sword, Strider can also employ robotic helpers (one of them resembling a tiger) to fight his adversaries.

Stages

	Kazafu City
	Emperor's official seat of power, Kazafu City is the a massive sprawling metropolis. Even though they are better off compare to the poor souls living in other destroyed cities around the world, citizens live under mortal fear of Meio's fanatically loyal army and soulless robotic weapons that patrol the city. Engage armed soldiers who still stick to their cold-war era uniforms. Eliminate Strobaya, a muscle bound giant and face off the assembly members who will combine and create Ouroboros, a caterpillar like robotic weapon who can climb walls and attack with sickle like mandibles.
	Siberian Wilderness
	Endure freezing cold as you fight back hungry wolves and other armed enemies. Destroy Mecha-Pon, a prototype robotic gorilla and climb through the salt mine shafts. Solo, a relentless, jet-pack equipped bounty hunter will be after your head. Retire him from his mercenary career if you don't want him to be a problem for you in the future. Reach the air field and jump from aircraft to aircraft to reach Meio's battleship. Be on the lookout for Pooh sisters, peerless martial artists who will attempt to kill you in the name of their emperor.
	Flying Battleship Balrog
	A symbol of Meio's limitless power, Balrog is a flying battleship capable of razing cities to rubble. Evade cannons and other gun emplacements as you try to find a way inside the ship's hull. Destroy the prototype graviton generator and relieve the Captain from his post to bring this flying monster to the ground.
	The Amazon Forest
	Humid jungles of the South America will be a stark contrast to the freezing cold of the Siberia. Fight back the female warriors of the Amazon tribe somehow managed to survive the outside world and its demise. Survive the onslaught of once believed extinct dinosaurs. A gigantic T-Rex will be waiting for you at the end of this level.
	Space Station "Third Moon"
	Prepare for the final showdown with a god. Every enemy you have faced before will be ready to lay down their lives for their emperor. At the end of the level, you will find out whether or not Meio deserves his title.

History

Legacy

Multiple other versions of Strider exist, all of which (bar the aforementioned X68000 version) are widely considered to be less accurate than the Mega Drive version. Ports were made to the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS and ZX Spectrum. A PC Engine Arcade CD-ROM², version, exclusive to Japan and released in September 1994 could be considered the Mega Drive's closest rival, but still falls short due to a number of graphical omissions (in exchange for an extra level).

Strider was unofficially followed by U.S. Gold's Strider II, however Capcom later returned in 1999 to make a true sequel under the name of Strider 2. The character of Strider Hiryuu has also appeared in other Capcom games, such as 1999's Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, released among other systems for the Sega Dreamcast.

The Mega Drive version was also made available for the Wii's Virtual Console service in 2011.

Versions

The Sega versions of Strider were licensed from Capcom, but the Mega Drive version was developed internally at Sega and the Master System version was outsourced to Tiertex under Sega's production and supervision. Allegedly Sega was not given much support by Capcom, forcing the teams to rip graphics and reverse engineer arcade units to create both games (it is rumoured that practise was also in effect for Ghouls'n Ghosts and Final Fight CD, Capcom not partaking in Sega development on their own until Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition).

Mega Drive

Strider was brought to the Sega Mega Drive relatively early in the system's lifespan, debuting in late 1990. It was seen as one of the hard hitting 16-bit action games designed to encourage users to migrate from Nintendo's NES to Sega's console, boasting high definition graphics and recorded speech samples. It was the first 1MB (8Mb) ROM cartridge released for the system, making it one of the largest cartridge-based video games available at the time.

The comparison between Mega Drive and NES is striking when discussing Strider, as despite Capcom having a hand in both developing and publishing the Nintendo version, the console's technical restrictions led to an entirely different game. Meanwhile the Mega Drive version was for a while the most accurate home arcade conversion available to consumers (inevitably superseded by a Sharp X68000 version in November 1992).

The most noticeable differences in the Mega Drive version are the slower attack speed (especially when hanging from the ceiling) and lower acceleration (meaning the jungle stage and final stage's inverse gravity section require different approaches to that of the arcade). Like its arcade counterpart, the western versions lacks Hiryu's "Ha!" shout while attacking with the sword.

There are also slight differences between regions; when playing up to the boss rush section of the final stage without losing a life in the Japanese Sega Mega Drive version, there is a high chance that Ouroboros (stage one boss), normally transporting the player to the place of the final battle, will not appear. The player has to deliberately lose a life to respawn Ouroboros. This issue was apparently fixed in the Western versions. Continues may be used in the Western versions whereas the Japanese release requires the player to input a cheat code to enable them, and the famous line, "All sons of old gods, die!", spoken by the final boss, was removed from the Western versions.

Strider is one of the few Sega Mega Drive games that has noticeable load times during stages. The game stops for about half a second when new background graphics or big enemies, like boss characters, appear. It also features an original ending scene.

Master System

This port is made by Tiertex, who also responsible for the less-than-impressive Strider Returns.

Unlike its NES counterpart, the Master System Strider is a compacted version of the arcade game, with simpler graphics and sound as is to be expected of the console. It is known, however, to suffer from heavy slowdown when the engine is under stress, so much so that simply attacking will cause the frame rate to drop. Most of the backgrounds are replaced with simple black and cutscenes appear with no rhyme or reason with "No one defeats the master" is repeated over and over again. The ending is also non-sensical as it implies that the entire game was a simulation for the real mission. This "simulation" story is also confirmed in the Master System manual of the Strider Returns. Because of these shortcomings, Master System version is usually considered the worst port of the original game.

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Strider	Strider
English (US)	Strider	Strider
Japanese	ストライダー飛竜	Strider Hiryuu

Production credits

Mega Drive version

• Chief Programmer / Program Coordinator: Yama1
• Assistant Programmer: Mizoran
• Chief Designer / Graphic Coordinator: Taro.S☻
• Designer: Sayshi, Mt.Maya
• Sound Programmer: XOR
• Total Coordinator: Pal‑Ko♥
• Special Thanks to: Momonga Momo, Little Sun, Larie, Thunder, Panpakapann, Filly, The Hi Master, Capcom Arcade Staff

Digital manuals

• Strider MD US digital manual.pdf

  Mega Drive Mini US manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Strider/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Main article: Strider/Promotional material.

Physical scans

Mega Drive version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 40 ACE (UK) 92 Ação Games (BR) 100 Buzz! Computers (UK) 84 Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 91 The Complete Guide to Sega (UK) 91 Console XS (UK) PAL 90 Computer & Video Games (UK) 95 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 90 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 90 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 70 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 88 Hobby Consolas (ES) 83 Joystick (FR) 96 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) PAL 78 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 87 Mega (UK) PAL 89 Mega Action (UK) 89 Mega Play (US) NTSC-U 90 MegaTech (UK) 91 Mean Machines (UK) 92 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 91 Player One (FR) 86 Power Play (DE) 68 Raze (UK) NTSC 92 Raze (UK) PAL 91 Sega Power (UK) PAL 95 Sega Power (UK) PAL 100 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 87 Sega Pro (UK) 92 Sega Force (SE) 94 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 73 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 68 User (GR) PAL 88 VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (US) NTSC-U 90 Video Games (DE) 75

	86
Based on 36 reviews

Strider

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart PCB

Mega Drive, PT
Cover

Mega Drive, SE (Rental)

Mega Drive, AU
Cover

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, CA
Cover

Mega Drive, KR
Cover
Cart

Master System version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

{{{{{icon}}}|L}}
Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score Ação Games (BR) 100 Aktueller Software Markt (DE) 48 Console XS (UK) PAL 79 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 67 FX (UK) 85 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 60 Games-X (UK) 50 Hobby Consolas (ES) 73 Joypad (FR) PAL 82 Joystick (FR) 80 Mega Play (US) NTSC-U 75 Mean Machines (UK) PAL 67 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 67 Player One (FR) 78 Sega Power (UK) PAL 74 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 79 Sega Force (UK) PAL 60 Sega Force (UK) PAL 61 User (GR) PAL 68 Video Games (DE) 28

	69
Based on 20 reviews

Strider

Master System, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, BX†
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, PT
Cover

Master System, AU (Hotline sticker)
Cover
Cart

Master System, AU (Not for rental sticker)
Cover
Cart

Master System, BR
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, KR
Cover
Cart

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 9802ed31 MD5 48af5ae2cad7c48c81d7c2553a8ed426 SHA-1 051e72c8ffec7606c04409ef38244cfdd592252f	512kB		Cartridge (EU/US)

External links

• Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Mega Drive
• Nintendo catalogue pages: US, UK, AU

References

NEC Retro has more information related to Strider Hiryuu