YEAR(S): 1999-2002

HARDWARE: varied

DEVELOPER: Option Zero Development Team

PUBLISHER: Independent

If you've been a part of the Strider web community for a while, you've probably heard of the Option Zero fangame. This was a project undertaken by several quite devoted fans who eventually ran out of time and/or interest. So basically Bueno, Samanosuke, and everyone else teased the Strider community at large for about a year, only to completely let us down when crunch time came. The bastards.

Just kidding guys. You know you're my boys. Hell, you gave me my banner.

Anyway, the game was designed for the first version of Mugen, and would take advantage of that game engine's capabilities. This meant that not only Capcom characters would be featured in the game, but also SNK's and anyone else the Option Zero team deemed cool enough to make it on the roster.

Basically everyone who's ever appeared in a fighting game appeared on Option Zero's proposed character roster at one point or another. Eventually the DevTeam came to their senses and realized that only characters they could actually rip would make it into the game.

The last roster the Option Zero DevTeam released to the public was the following: Hiryu (natch), Cammy, Karakuri, Hol Horse, Saki Shinjo, Jack Mantis, Heinrich Sieger, Hien, Ryuzaki, Kusanagi, and Souryu, the endboss.

I voted they put Guy in there too, because he just looks so damn Strider, you know? But no...they wouldn't listen to me. Oh well.

Eventually real life interfered, DevTeam members lost interest, and the project ground to a halt. Disgusted by their compatriots, those members who stayed on abandoned the project altogether, moving on to an entirely new Mugen-based fangame called Body Weapon, the details of which you can either find out here or here. It's supposed to concern a new Strider, one who's broken Hiryu's record of being the youngest Strider to make Super-A grade...or something. We're not really sure what's going on.

But, in case you were wondering, OPTION ZERO IS NEVER COMING OUT. Deal with it. The rest of us already have.