YEAR: 1989

HARDWARE: varied

DEVELOPER: Tiertex Design Studios

PUBLISHER: US Gold

I have a few complaints with this game. The fact that you can only see about a quarter of what you could in the arcades is way up on that list. However, this system couldn't handle the huge resolutions of an arcade machine, so that isn't really a fair gripe. And to be fair, this conversion's graphics do look better than the DOS version.

The DOS version had a cooler cover, though.

I also despise the fact that parts of the levels have been redesigned. I understand that this is not an arcade machine, but come on.

The biggest problem that I have with this game (and all other Strider conversions licensed by Tiertex) 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 They developed it as a third party, because Capcom didn't want to bother with these outdated systems.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. There are other, better conversions out there.