US Gold
£10.99

Magenta - a far-off planet in the future is the setting for this, the sequel to the arcade giant Strider. What is our friend Strider Hiryu up to this time, then? Well, he's off to rescue a female world leader from the slimy grips of a band of dastardly aliens. In this light for freedom the only weapons around to help him in his quest are his sword and a new Gyro laser gun, just right for squishing all those nasties.

The levels are packed full of platforms and lifts, and there are now ropes and chains for our hero to climb to get out of reach of death. Strider's adventures take him through the forest where his space ship lands, underground caverns leading to a power station and the Earth spacecraft where the girl is held captive.

Killing the kidnappers would be a doddle if it weren't for the inconvenience that your gun only fires when Strider is stationary. Still, the sword has a pretty impressive slicing action that should save your bacon.

Strider's objective is to collect the icons situated in each level. Once they've all been found he'll have the ability to transform into a robot to help him defeat the massive end-of-level opponents.

Strider didn't appeal to me, and his return doesn't cut the mustard. All that bounding around with a silly looking sword. One thing this game has which the original lacked is colour. No more 100% monochrome: you now have coloured trees and platforms. This, of course, brings our old friend Miss Colourclash onto the scene. Whenever Strider jumps or walks over the background he changes to its colour; can't be helped really. Strider II is a little better than the original: arcade freaks might find it more playable.

NICK [68%]

I loved the original Strider in the arcades, though the computer version appeared in Issue 69 and received a mixed reception. Now Strider II is here and is as controversial as its predecessor. Nick disliked the original and is a misery guts about this sequel. I love it! The main character sprite is still as atheletic as ever and as a bonus now carries an extra weapon (yippee!). Another great addition is Strider's ability to don a huge armoured suit to tackle the end of level bad guy. US Gold have come up trumps again; in fact coin-oppers Capcom like it so much Strider 2 will be in your local arcade before you know it!
MARK [88%]

US Gold
£10.99 cass
Reviewer: Matt Bielby

I reviewed the original of this way back in November '89, so I should actually know what I'm talking about here (for once!). In a nutshell, Strider II is more colourful than its predecessor, its bigger (there are the same number of levels, but each one is a lot longer), it's got more baddies and the leading character can do more things (including climbing ropes and firing a gun).

Otherwise, though, the new game is more or less exactly the same as the old one - a superior platform-and-ladders shoot-'em-up thingie, distinguished by an incredibly athletic lead character who cartwheels and bounces all over the place. And there you have it, the complete review in two paragraphs. I think I'll go home now.

Oh, what? You want more? Well, okay then (but just because it's you). You know the story behind Strider II, of course. In brief, Tiertex (the programming guys behind Black Tiger, Dynasty Wars and loads of other hits for US Gold) were slightly disappointed with their conversion of the original Strider. Not that it wasn't any good, you understand (after all, it earned a YS Megagame), but they couldn't use all the new ideas they came up with to improve it because of they needed to be as faithful as possible to the arcade.

So what to do? The answer, of course, was a sequel, one which would keep all the good things from Strider and improve upon (ahem) the slightly ropier ones. Hence out go the not-particularly-long levels, the relative easiness and so on, and in comes the rope-climbing and all that stuff. Since there wasn't (and still isn't) an arcade sequel to the Capcom original they were free to come up with their own game design. Capcom approved it all and the rest you see here.

So what's Strider II all about, and how well does it work on the Speccy? Well, the first thing that strikes you (even more so than most sequels) is how like the original it looks. The main sprite is a bit smaller (to allow more room for movement around the screen) but otherwise it's more or less identical. There're big dollops of spot colour thrown around the place, which help improve the look of things, but without having them side-by-side you could easily confuse the two.

Unfortunately this colour does nothing to ease one of the big faults of the first game - that at times the Strider character gets lost against the complicated monochrome backdrops. Most of the time things are designed so Strider's a crisp white shape against a dark screen, but his disappearing act still niggles.

But that's about as negative as I'm going to get. In all other ways Strider II is actually jolly good. Baddies are thrown at you thick and fast, and Strider's new-found ability to shoot a gun (while standing still) as well as leap about slashing his sword adds variety to the combat sequences. He can now climb ropes too (unfortunately the graphics of him doing this are as ridiculous as every piece of rope climbing ever depicted on the Speccy) and at the end of each level he transforms into a wheeled robot creature before taking on the big baddie. This doesn't really add much to the game, but it's all part of the battle to be different, I guess.

What else is new? Well, the plot for one thing. Here at YS we quite liked the fact that originally Strider was invading a futuristic version of Moscow, but that's all gone by the board here, instead he's rescuing the leader of the world from an alien planet or something, a much more boring task which means we don't get any red stars or ballet dancers. and have to make do with (very human-looking) aliens and ED 209 lookalikes instead.

That said, Strider II's an improvement on the original in most every respect, though somehow it's missing something - the novelty has gone. Strider was brilliant in his first incarnation because he moved so differently from most podgy sprites - now there's no surprise and it all feels much more ordinary. In fact, the whole feel of the game is that of a revamped and improved version of the original, rather than of a brand new game - hence the lower mark than the original, even though this is in almost every way better.

There is a footnote to this story however. Capcom are apparently so impressed that they've plans to use this game design as the basis to their own Strider II coin-op. It's not all that often that we get something converted the other way, is it, Spec-chums?

Label: US Gold
Price: £9.99
Reviewer: 'Mad Dog' Swan

He's back, and he's brought his chopper (oo-er!). After saving the Earth from the maniacal forces of the evil Red Lord, Strider's now got an even bigger job on his hands - saving the leader of the Earth (a woman, I may add!) from the clutches of an invading alien force (not Jason Donovan)!

Once again, our Soviet hero in long johns has his trusty energy sword, complemented now by a gyro-pistol for blasting the bad guys with, and the ability to transform into a honkin' great robot with loadsa firepower! Problem is, the aliens' ain't going to let this guy just walk all over 'em, no siree. Not only have they got masses of fiendish beasties out for human blood, they've placed massive guardians at the end of each level, waiting to turn the somersaulting sword-slinger into Strider Kievs!

Well, that's the story, what's the game like? Very much like the original, in fact, insofar as the platform action is involved, but the overall impression is that this is a large improvement over its predecessor. The main character leaps and bounds about at a great rate of knots, looking a whole lot healthier than before. The backgrounds and graphics in general look a lot more detailed, too. And what with the additional weapons, you've got a much better chance of getting further into the game.

Overall, an excellent sequel, and a blinkin' good game in its own right. If slicing and shooting's your thang, or if you're a fan of the original, take a look. You won't be disappointed.

US Gold
Spectrum £10.99, ST £24.99

Just when Strider was considering quitting the inter-planetary peace force, the leader of Earth was kidnapped by a bunch of power-hungry aliens! So, pausing only to pick up his trusty titanium blade and his new laser gun, Strider sets off to the first of five alien territories that he will need to destroy in order to rescue the leader of Earth (who is, incidentally, a woman).

The journey to the final confrontation takes Strider through an alien-infested forest, and from then it's on to the two towers which form the outer defences of the alien world. When these defences have been well and truly breached, Strider then has to make his way through underground caverns to the generating station - destroying the enemy power-stations before finally rescuing the girl being held captive in the Earth Spacecraft.

But Strider has one more lethal trick tucked into his striding trousers. The power-up icons which are lying around endow Strider with the power to change into a robot, just the ticket for Creaming enemy guardians - and there's plenty of 'em!