Strider is one of my favorate video games of all time (no supprise), however it took several years for a sequel to come out. But the wait was well worth it and it didn't disappoint in my book, this is one of my favorate video games and another under the radar gem. It's not quite as good as the original but it comes very close. And to me that's good enough because I personally felt it made the cut but sadly it just didn't cut deep enough which of course at the time made the prospects of another Strider video game not make the cut; that was until the recent revival game but that's a decent story.
Not a lot to say, story is simple your Hikaru the batton sword whelding Ninja called again to action to save the world. That's it in a nutshell, there is a bit of a story with the cut scenes like with the first game but like the first game were all in it for one thing the action which this game is never in short supply with.
The gameplay is the same where you walk/run, use your acrobatic moves, swing your baton sword, and try to slice your way to point A and B. And I'm glad they didn't change the gameplay I wouldn't want it any other way, I honestly can't see it in any other way. You got cool boss battles, one favorate of mine is the ice robo mammoth which is a bizzare but cool boss to fight, what can I say sometimes I have a knack for taking down super sized bosses. And there is a colorful variety of sub bosses and enimies, I like that the game has a slight sense of humor about them like one of the sub enimies are a bunch of hockey players, not kidding.
However the two things that impress me are these. I really love the graphical presentation, the combination of both 2D and 3D was beautiful and flowed well together, in fact it was exactly the idea I had for the Strider sequel so to me it was a dream come true. I really love the designs of the zones, they are all well detailed and each of the zones have there own theme. My favorate zone is zone one which takes place in what looks like a futuristic city straight out of the film Blade Runner which is cool since that's my favorate film and I love sci fi. Each of the zones are broken up into 6 stages which are all a short lenth and fast paced, each are always a different chalange so it retains that joy from the original game because you never knew what to expect next despite how far and how much you played. And they also cause you to react to the upcoming situation immediately because the next stage comes in almost a blink of an eye.
Another unique features are that you life bar grows as you get further in the game, so there is that RPG eveloution element. And you are armed with the boost ability which you can collect, with this it makes the speed and strength of you sword swinging stronger than before, but this is the kind of ablity to use for emergency only, probably for a boss or if time grows short and you have to take down a enemy/s in your way immediately.
The only bad things and this is no supprise is that the game is kinda short and easy by my standard. I wouldn't of minded at least two may'be four more zones, from how fast I got though the zones it really left me wanting more. But same could be said about a lot of other video games out there, the ride might be short but a sweet ride all the same and boy this game is one sweet ride.
Overall, I think this is a very good sequel that I'm glad happened and for any fan of the franchise or just the first arcade game I feel is worth taking a swing at.