Journey from Darkness: Strider Returns

"I MUST review this before there are any more victims"

Having been a game player since the age of 5 in 1989(not counting Commodore 64 games),and having rented over 80% of Genesis games available at the time,I am absolutely amazed that I never heard of Strider until 1999!I soon read many good reviews of it on this site and saw it at number 30 on a magazine's 100 best games of all time list.I soon brought Strider for $15 and I wasn't disappointed-there were few games that I could try playing through over five times without beating it without it getting just plain cheap like Gradius 3 or Jim Powers.I soon saw Strider Returns at a flea market for the same price.I was very excited and surprised that a sequel was even made,since I've never seen a review or any information on it before.So I brought it,and I found that Strider Hiryu moved exactly the same way-and even had those same annoying jumps,plus shurikens,BUT.........
I pushed the B button and saw this ridiculous new cipher (Strider's sword)that swept across the screen and sounded more like a lightsaber and looked VERY stupid when I got the power-up icon.I proceeded further,fighting a few robotic birds(?!)and walkers,and soon fought two giant guns as bosses,as I began to wonder,''where are the Arabian soldiers? Where are the wolves?Where are the Uroboros monsters? When you get to the second level,the enemies get even more bland-all through the level,which is the longest and hardest on the game,all you do for the twenty minutes it takes to finish the level is slash little floating crystals(?!?)that try to fly into you and sit there and watch for patterns of vertical lightning lines.Then,on at the end of the SECOND level,you fight Meio,the evil master-a very hard boss,this definitely should have been the last level-but it's the second.
I lost all of my continues on that level,and I was about to give up since it wasn't worth my time,but then I found out on the option screen you can use the ORIGINAL SWORD!!!Not only did this look a lot better,but it made things a lot easier!I struggled my way through the second level,then on the third level,consisting of more floating crystals and some robotic bees that were just faster moving versions of the crystals,I just stormed through it in one or two lives,and I got to the forth level,consisting of tiny little alien cretures that pop out of the grond and ceiling and,get ready for this-WALK FORWARD!!!Wow.In all seriousness,this level was just as easy as the bee hive level.
The last level is pretty much the same as it was on the first Strider,only much easier,with less strategy and less fun;beat all the bosses again,with some returning favorites from the first,like the gravity machine.the only real challenge is the last boss;Strider's(convenient new)girlfriend,Lexia.Trapped in a floating missle firing machine,but you have to deactivate the force field in it without hurting her,cause if you do,you die.
Finally,prepare for one of the lamest endings in history where Strider and Lexia watch The Grand Master's giant spaceship blow up for about 5 seconds in their tiny ship while it says''the end''.
Then I saw the problems;first,I found out that this was not an arcade translation it was a computer game called ''Strider 2''(a fake one)that was pretty much the same but a year or two older.when the credits rolled by,I saw a list of American names(no offense,but we all know that we couldn't make games for @#$% back then)!
OVERVIEW:
GAMEPLAY:7-it's that same old Strider only with new shurikens and without the robot helpers.Just make sure you go to the options and get rid of that hazardous sweep sword.
GRAPHICS:5-some of the original Strider's biggest appeal went to the fact that it was the first 8-megabit cartrige,threreby having the best graphics and sprite max at the time.This game boast that it has 8-megs too,but it never uses them,you never see any huge bosses and you never see any more than four sprites on the screen at once!The backgrounds are far less detailed,as are the enemies.
SOUND/MUSIC:6-I don't enjoy or detest the new lightsaber sound of the sword,and the music is so-so,and the new voice acted intros are the best parts of the game,but just make SURE you turn the volume down when it's time for the''level complete''jingle!
LEVEL DESIGN:2!This is what really hurts the game;every level is full of very small and unappealing opponents,and with every boss on the game except for the last one(on hard mode),you're better off just pressing the B button as fast as you can than trying to use any strategy!And there aren't any more cool obsticles like planes and vines either.
CHALLANGE:4-after you get past the second level,it's smooth sailing until you get to the last two bosses.
REPLAY VALUE:3-you'll probably want to run through it a second time to make sure it wasn't just a bad dream.
OVERALL:5-a waste of every Strider fan's time and money.It was just a very rushed effort that fell completely flat in almost every way.
One final note on the plot;it turned out that on the computer version of the game had so that instead of Strider's girlfriend,he had to rescue the alien queen so he could maintain intergalactic peace.I'm not even going to comment on that one!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/16/00, Updated 08/16/00