Strider (NES, 1989)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-7.5 Control-6/4* Challenge-6.5 Story-6.5
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-7.5 Fun-6 Originality-7
Overall Score-6
*Wall jump
+
Platform Adventure/MV & Bionic Commando-like gameplay (hub map, some ability gating, recover data files in the levels which are analyzed back at your ship - messages from NPCs providing info and side quests, can return to your ship via a level's entrance, basic leveling system of sorts - learn a new spell/skill after finishing a sub goal), sub weapon/spell inventory)
Gain some momentum from running down slopes which also affects jump length (Strider ARC, SMB3)
Interesting premise (you're sent to kill a colleague under sketchy circumstances and decide to investigate further instead)
Slide move (MM3; generally can't use it as a dodge, can use it as an attack after picking up the attack boots in China however if the enemy doesn't die in one hit you'll take damage as well)
Gain a warp to ship spell after about 4 levels (kind of expensive to use though and at that point you're generally auto-teleported at the end of levels anyway)
Some shortcuts (pneumatic tube elevators; later used in Sonic) but you sometimes have to backtrack through a whole level back to your ship - later on you'll be able to warp back to the ship though. In some cases you get teleported back to your ship after a boss
Can attack while moving (Strider ARC)
Pretty good intro cutscene
Some interesting gear and spells (spark spell travels along the ground and through enemies (similar to the sub weapon in Gradius), high jump spell, ranged charge attack - Zelda)
Kinda cool how you're ambushed at the base at one point
Some mini-bosses
Some decent bosses (sword & shield mini-boss - can use the high jump spell here, final boss though it's pretty easy)
One sequence break by using a damage boost glitch (past the lvl 5 door in australia)
Forgiving mid-air control
A globetrotting adventure (travel across the world)
+/-
Linear structure unless you use a glitch to sequence break
Password save (not too long)
No lives and no checkpoints - you do get unlimited continues however (if you choose game start at the main menu after dying you continue before the last level you were on)
Can refill your HP by going back to your ship
Backtracking to previous levels to explore everything that can be found
Off screen enemy respawning (they can drop health but it's sometimes rare+see below)
Some death pits (annoying how you don't die immediately but also can't get back up)
Can despawn some enemies by moving away from them (doesn't happen with dropped items)
Enemy drops disappear in about 4 seconds
Can't move while crouching
Borrows the boots that let you walk on water from Zelda II?
Some unintentionally funny dialogue
Some resource management (sub weapons/spells cost energy/MP and are kind of expensive)
Magnet boots let you walk on certain walls and ceilings though it's more of a novelty than an interesting mechanic as you just walk a short path without interesting fights nor any platforming challenges/puzzles
Can't play as the other striders (would've been cool to see the story unfold from their perspective)
Mini-boss rush before the finale
-
Some control/interface issues (very poor wall jump controls - a move you start with but isn't explained (have to mash jump for it to sort of work; I got it to work more consistently using an auto-fire feature in emulation), no invincibility time, no area maps, sometimes glitchy physics around platforms - you'll randomly just drop down when touching one from the side, no jump height control, weird how you sort of stick to ceilings when jumping into them but not quite, sometimes sloppy hit detection when attacking enemies, sometimes you'll hang in place when pressing against a wall in mid-air, can't jump down through platforms that you can jump up through, can't attack downwards, occasionally you'll just fall through some platforms in Africa, weird hit detection on some moving platforms where you'll sort of glide on top of them for a bit after landing)
Trial & error (matic - interesting but unintuitive sword duel where you need to use the charge attack to beat his weapon out of his hands, the ranged charge attack (plasma cipher attack) isn't explained in-game - hold up to charge then attack to shoot, leaps of faith - can't look up/down, some data files are found by randomly jumping in certain spots - no clues (in some other cases you find HP by doing the same however these are generally placed more sensibly), game doesn't let you know when you pick up a key, if you go left at the beginning of Egypt you die - apparently the train was moving but there's no visual indication of it, random 1 hit kill attacks such as from the machine in a slope in Egypt, no directions on where to go after Egypt, placed items tend to take a few seconds to appear and in a few cases you might go into a pipe before it happens - leads to backtracking, the negative power ups (these drain some HP) are randomly hidden so you might be slashing the air and it drops out of the sky and hits you, picking the right tube to not get sent backwards in Los Angeles)
Some tedious aspects (no downwards attack early on despite all the slopes, backtracking to your ship early on, inconsistent enemy drop system - some enemies never drop anything while others drop something pretty frequently (after a few levels you'll gain a healing spell however), energy/MP drops are too rare, weird how you automatically go back to the base afte the boss in China when you should've been able to go to the east and pick up the attack boots - easy to miss them if you took the boss path, retreading your steps if you fall down in Africa)
Some unavoidable hits
Constantly spawning enemies in some rooms
Spikes hit from the side
Confusing progression in the beginning - you're supposed to find Kain in Kazakh/lvl 1 but can only find a file and some locked doors in that level, then when analyzing it you get a fetch quest for an item in China but can only go to Australia (where you just face a locked door near the beginning) or back to lvl 1 for some reason (apparently I did find a key in lvl 1 but didn't know it as the game didn't show it properly)
Sometimes poor translation and spelling/grammar ("since they once knew who he is" - should perhaps be "since they now know his identity"?, "a" Kain is up there? - seems to mean you can find him later on in lvl 1 after getting a movement upgrade?, Yugdesiral should be Yggdrasil)
Some pointless one-way paths (for example in egypt there's a pit with the shortcut leading close to the beginning at its bottom which if you go into it accidentally you can't get out of)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (very easy train segment in Egypt, short and easy Los Angeles level, pretty short and easy Australia level; difficulty spike in the final level unless you grind for MP)
No new enemies while backtracking to new sub areas within previously visited levels
Pretty easy bosses and enemies overall
Weird how the screen flashes when moving through a loading zone in a level
Repeats one of the bosses four times+it barely gets harder. Repeats the bike boss twice and some mini-bosses several times (they don't seem to get harder). Some enemies are also repeated in other parts of the world
Kinda short (less than 1h if you know where to go; Zelda II is 3x as long and WB3 2x as long)
Kinda glitchy animation when attacking while moving
Unnamed npcs who help you for no reason and don't introduce themselves
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-7.5 Fun-6 Originality-7
Overall Score-6
*Wall jump
+
Platform Adventure/MV & Bionic Commando-like gameplay (hub map, some ability gating, recover data files in the levels which are analyzed back at your ship - messages from NPCs providing info and side quests, can return to your ship via a level's entrance, basic leveling system of sorts - learn a new spell/skill after finishing a sub goal), sub weapon/spell inventory)
Gain some momentum from running down slopes which also affects jump length (Strider ARC, SMB3)
Interesting premise (you're sent to kill a colleague under sketchy circumstances and decide to investigate further instead)
Slide move (MM3; generally can't use it as a dodge, can use it as an attack after picking up the attack boots in China however if the enemy doesn't die in one hit you'll take damage as well)
Gain a warp to ship spell after about 4 levels (kind of expensive to use though and at that point you're generally auto-teleported at the end of levels anyway)
Some shortcuts (pneumatic tube elevators; later used in Sonic) but you sometimes have to backtrack through a whole level back to your ship - later on you'll be able to warp back to the ship though. In some cases you get teleported back to your ship after a boss
Can attack while moving (Strider ARC)
Pretty good intro cutscene
Some interesting gear and spells (spark spell travels along the ground and through enemies (similar to the sub weapon in Gradius), high jump spell, ranged charge attack - Zelda)
Kinda cool how you're ambushed at the base at one point
Some mini-bosses
Some decent bosses (sword & shield mini-boss - can use the high jump spell here, final boss though it's pretty easy)
One sequence break by using a damage boost glitch (past the lvl 5 door in australia)
Forgiving mid-air control
A globetrotting adventure (travel across the world)
+/-
Linear structure unless you use a glitch to sequence break
Password save (not too long)
No lives and no checkpoints - you do get unlimited continues however (if you choose game start at the main menu after dying you continue before the last level you were on)
Can refill your HP by going back to your ship
Backtracking to previous levels to explore everything that can be found
Off screen enemy respawning (they can drop health but it's sometimes rare+see below)
Some death pits (annoying how you don't die immediately but also can't get back up)
Can despawn some enemies by moving away from them (doesn't happen with dropped items)
Enemy drops disappear in about 4 seconds
Can't move while crouching
Borrows the boots that let you walk on water from Zelda II?
Some unintentionally funny dialogue
Some resource management (sub weapons/spells cost energy/MP and are kind of expensive)
Magnet boots let you walk on certain walls and ceilings though it's more of a novelty than an interesting mechanic as you just walk a short path without interesting fights nor any platforming challenges/puzzles
Can't play as the other striders (would've been cool to see the story unfold from their perspective)
Mini-boss rush before the finale
-
Some control/interface issues (very poor wall jump controls - a move you start with but isn't explained (have to mash jump for it to sort of work; I got it to work more consistently using an auto-fire feature in emulation), no invincibility time, no area maps, sometimes glitchy physics around platforms - you'll randomly just drop down when touching one from the side, no jump height control, weird how you sort of stick to ceilings when jumping into them but not quite, sometimes sloppy hit detection when attacking enemies, sometimes you'll hang in place when pressing against a wall in mid-air, can't jump down through platforms that you can jump up through, can't attack downwards, occasionally you'll just fall through some platforms in Africa, weird hit detection on some moving platforms where you'll sort of glide on top of them for a bit after landing)
Trial & error (matic - interesting but unintuitive sword duel where you need to use the charge attack to beat his weapon out of his hands, the ranged charge attack (plasma cipher attack) isn't explained in-game - hold up to charge then attack to shoot, leaps of faith - can't look up/down, some data files are found by randomly jumping in certain spots - no clues (in some other cases you find HP by doing the same however these are generally placed more sensibly), game doesn't let you know when you pick up a key, if you go left at the beginning of Egypt you die - apparently the train was moving but there's no visual indication of it, random 1 hit kill attacks such as from the machine in a slope in Egypt, no directions on where to go after Egypt, placed items tend to take a few seconds to appear and in a few cases you might go into a pipe before it happens - leads to backtracking, the negative power ups (these drain some HP) are randomly hidden so you might be slashing the air and it drops out of the sky and hits you, picking the right tube to not get sent backwards in Los Angeles)
Some tedious aspects (no downwards attack early on despite all the slopes, backtracking to your ship early on, inconsistent enemy drop system - some enemies never drop anything while others drop something pretty frequently (after a few levels you'll gain a healing spell however), energy/MP drops are too rare, weird how you automatically go back to the base afte the boss in China when you should've been able to go to the east and pick up the attack boots - easy to miss them if you took the boss path, retreading your steps if you fall down in Africa)
Some unavoidable hits
Constantly spawning enemies in some rooms
Spikes hit from the side
Confusing progression in the beginning - you're supposed to find Kain in Kazakh/lvl 1 but can only find a file and some locked doors in that level, then when analyzing it you get a fetch quest for an item in China but can only go to Australia (where you just face a locked door near the beginning) or back to lvl 1 for some reason (apparently I did find a key in lvl 1 but didn't know it as the game didn't show it properly)
Sometimes poor translation and spelling/grammar ("since they once knew who he is" - should perhaps be "since they now know his identity"?, "a" Kain is up there? - seems to mean you can find him later on in lvl 1 after getting a movement upgrade?, Yugdesiral should be Yggdrasil)
Some pointless one-way paths (for example in egypt there's a pit with the shortcut leading close to the beginning at its bottom which if you go into it accidentally you can't get out of)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (very easy train segment in Egypt, short and easy Los Angeles level, pretty short and easy Australia level; difficulty spike in the final level unless you grind for MP)
No new enemies while backtracking to new sub areas within previously visited levels
Pretty easy bosses and enemies overall
Weird how the screen flashes when moving through a loading zone in a level
Repeats one of the bosses four times+it barely gets harder. Repeats the bike boss twice and some mini-bosses several times (they don't seem to get harder). Some enemies are also repeated in other parts of the world
Kinda short (less than 1h if you know where to go; Zelda II is 3x as long and WB3 2x as long)
Kinda glitchy animation when attacking while moving
Unnamed npcs who help you for no reason and don't introduce themselves