Strider
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Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Critic Reviews for Strider
Strider is an unbalanced yet extremely stylish platformer, and the series' best game since the original.
Strider is a liberating, free-form action platformer studded with frustrating callbacks to an arcade era better left behind.
It has its flaws, but they are easy to overlook because the game is just plain, unadulterated fun. In fact, the only thing that would make the game more enjoyable is playing in an actual arcade setting.
Had this game been released a decade or two ago, it might have been seen as a classic of its type, alongside Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night. But today, at the tail end of a wave of Metroidvania-style games, Strider fails to stand out. It's a competent, workable game that draws inspiration from the right places, but which is rarely anything more than a cover version of the greats.
A slick pastiche of '80s retro cool and modern gameplay, Strider is both faithful to its source material and still capable of finding its own identity. It's basically the raddest Saturday-morning cartoon you'll ever play.
The mixture of old school, new school, and Metroidvania works surprisingly well – even if Strider's long-awaited reboot still feels slightly too safe.
Outside of a few minor annoyances, this is exactly what I was hoping for out of a Strider reboot
