It has been 13 years since a new Strider game has been released. Strider has been ported from Arcade to numerous home consoles, and likewise, there has been many interpretations of Strider via “alternate stories” of the universe. These alternate stories are not helmed by, or glorified by Capcom in any shape or form. In fact, the developers of Strider 2 ignored “Strider II” even existed. Strider II is the sequel to the original arcade game, but Capcom ignored it and went ahead and developed their interpretation of Strider 2.
If you don’t know what Strider is, here’s a video of the Arcade version….
Capcom developed the NES version alongside the arcade version. Strider went on to selling millions of copies worldwide, and has been played by millions of players all around the world. The arcade version of Strider 2 was developed, then ported over to PlayStation. Since then, the arcade version of Strider was ported to numerous consoles via pack-ins. The last title to feature Strider was Capcom Classics Collection Vol 2 for PS2 & Xbox. At Comic-Con 2013, Capcom made a surprising announcement that they would be releasing Strider.
Double Helix is co-developing it between their partner team in Osaka, Japan and Capcom to create an ultra-responsive game engine for their reboot of Strider. The game will be released to PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC early next year. Double Helix says the game exists due to enthusiasm for the character, fan demand, fan requests over the years, and Capcom Unity’s surveys, forum posts factored in too.
Double Helix Games’ Studio Head had this to say about the game…
For the new game, Double Helix and our partner team in Osaka, Japan, concentrated on an ultra-responsive control system, with incredibly satisfying combat options in every traversal context—standing, running, wall climbing, hanging, aerial and more.
New to the franchise is the massive interconnected world of Kazakh City which players can explore in any direction they choose. The traditional level structure has been replaced with a retraceable world and a deep ability upgrade system which enables Hiryu to build more power and abilities to penetrate ever deeper into the dystopian adventure.
Double Helix is thrilled to be working with some of the original Strider creative leaders from Capcom’s Osaka production offices to bring another fan favorite franchise back to life!
Source: Double Helix Games
The game is a 2.5D (2D plane on 3D visuals) with “open-world” style gameplay – as in, you can backtrack to another area of the game, unlock one area to advance – kind of like Super Metroid (SNES) or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX).
