Aka: | Strider Hiryuu |
Console: | Sega Genesis |
TV Standard: | NTSC-U |
Country: | United States of America |
Developer(s): | Sega CS R&D 2 |
Publisher(s): | Sega of America, Inc. |
Release Date: | 1990-11-05 |
Players: | 1 |
Co-op: | No |
ESRB: | E10+ - Everyone 10+ |
Type: | Action, Platform |
Set in the future, the game centers around a secret organization of ninja-like operatives known as "Striders", who specializes in various kinds of wetworks such as smuggling, kidnapping, demolitions, and disruption. The player takes control Strider Hiryu, the youngest elite-class Strider in the organization. Hiryu is summoned by the organization's second-in-command, Vice Director Matic, to assassinate his friend Kain, who has been captured by hostile forces and has become a liability to the Striders. Instead of killing him, Hiryu decides to rescue Kain from his captors. With the help of his fellow Strider Sheena, Hiryu uncovers a conspiracy between a certain faction of the Strider organization led by Matic himself and an unknown organization known simply as the "Enterprise" (headed by a man named Faceas Clay) which involves the development of a mind-control weapon codenamed "Zain". In the course of finding and destroying these Zain units, Hiryu learns that the faction of conspirators is headed by Vice Director Matic himself. Hiryu eventually tracks Matic to an orbiting space station where the two Striders face off; after a brief battle Hiryu bests Matic and kills him. Afterwards Hiryu locates and destroys the last of the Zain units.
In the epilogue, it is revealed that though Hiryu was asked to return to the Strider organization he instead opted to retire. The final credits show him sheathing his weapon and walking away.
" Sega produced their home version of Strider for the Mega Drive/Genesis, which was released in Japan on September 29, 1990, with subsequent releases in North America and the PAL region. It was advertised as one of the first 8-Megabit cartridges for the system, and went on to be a bestseller. This version was also re-released for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on November 15, 2011 and later in North America on February 16, 2012. The Genesis/Mega Drive version contains a different ending from the arcade game. This ending shows the destruction of the final stage as the game's protagonist makes good his escape. This is then followed by the main credit sequence that sees Hiryu flying his glider in space and reminiscing about the various encounters he had during his mission as he heads back to earth. The ending theme was an edited combination of two separate pieces of music planned for the arcade game, but replaced with a repeat of the first level music. Computer magazine ACE considered the previous Amiga conversion to be "as good as this one". " -Wikipedia