Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

---

A playthrough of Capcom's 1989 action-adventure game for the NES, Strider.

Though the two games were developed in parallel, the NES's Strider was never intended to be a port or an adaptation of the arcade game. They share the same hero and some stylistic touches, but the NES game is more closely focused on the manga's plotline, and rather than being a straightforward platformer like the coin-op was, Strider for the NES is an exploration-based action-adventure.

Capcom had heavily invested heavily in building the Strider IP and in coordinating with Moto Kikaku for the manga. The franchise never took off the way Capcom had hoped, but the multimedia approach did give the NES game's developers some good material to work with. The NES game's distinct character and flow give it a different flavor than the arcade game, but it feels like an equally integral part of the Strider-verse, and the story has a few "mature" moments, even if the kludgy translation blunts their impact.

But for all of its likable qualities, Strider suffers some glaring flaws that are difficult to overlook. The graphics are good - the sprites are big, the backgrounds are well drawn, and the animation is decent - but everything is super glitchy in motion. The screen-scrolling is choppy and creates nasty artifacts that aren't hidden in the overscan area, tiles momentarily scramble and display garbage at random, and NPCs and items often load in late and appear out of nowhere. The graphical issues aren't game breakers, but they highlight a severe lack of polish that you didn't often see in late 80s Capcom games.

The same thing goes for the controls. The collision detection is a mess: Hiryuu gets caught on the edges of platforms during jumps, the momentum-based slope jumps are wildly inconsistent, and he takes damage from things that don't visibly connect with his character sprite. There's also no grace period after taking damage, so the weakest enemies can wipe you out in a blink if you haven't figured out the workarounds for these issues. The biggest problem, however, lies in the notoriously finicky triangle jump that's required to get past a few obstacles. The only way I've ever found to reliably pull it off is to pray while hammering the A button as fast as human possible.

Still, even with its "I can't believe it's not Micronics!" level of jank, I like Strider quite a bit. It does a nice job of channeling the spirit of the manga - the preview and recap bumpers were such a cool touch that made each leg of the mission feel like a distinct episode in a series - and the game world, character designs, plot, and uber-dystopian tone all support each other well. It eventually comes together to form something greater than the sum of its parts.

I think it's a game worth playing in spite of its shortcomings, but I can't help but wonder what Capcom was thinking when they pushed Strider out in such a rough state. It leaves a lot of unrealized potential on the table. Maybe that's why they never bothered to release it outside of North America.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

NintendoComplete (nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!