YEAR: 1989

HARDWARE: varied

DEVELOPER: Tiertex Design Studios

PUBLISHER: US Gold

This version of the game often gets a bad rap for not being true to the arcade. Given what the programmers had to work with (sub-par 8-bit systems), I'd say this conversion didn't do a bad job. Granted, the floating menu takes up a huge chunk of screen real estate that could be used for the in-game graphics, but that's not a huge loss. The original Duke Nukem looked much worse than this conversion, actually...and those of you who remember the 2D EGA sidescroller should know what I'm talking about.

Alas, some systems had such limited ROM sizes. In addition to leaving out tons of animated frames, the programmers apparently left out the ending, too. Once you beat this version, the game simply deposits you back at the beginning of the first level, a la Ghouls N' Ghosts. If you play through and beat it again, it does the same thing...and it will continue to restart the game for you automatically, no matter how many times you beat it.

The primary problem that I have with this game is the fact that it was licensed out to US Gold/Tiertex. They developed it as a third party, because Capcom didn't want to bother with these outdated systems. Unfortunately, their involvement in the conversion left US Gold/Tiertex in partial possession of the Strider trademark, as well as some of the graphics from the original game. Later on, this situation would lead to the embarrassing game known as Strider Returns.

Unless you're a completist, you really have no use for this game. If you get the chance, download it...but don't make a regular habit out of playing it.