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"The long list of goodies and the Strider Hiryu 1 CD are what make this game a must-have."

Strider Hiryu was a great side-scroller beat-em-`up introduced to us years ago on the arcades (plus some other consoles). If you haven't played it before, then you've just missed out on one of the best games from Capcom. Unfortunately, fans of the blue-clad ninja haven't seen him star in a game of his own for a long time now (Marvel Vs. Capcom is an exception). Thanks to Capcom, however, it looks like Hiryu is buckling up for yet another mission to defeat the Grand Master in a game simply called Strider Hiryu 2.

The game itself feels a lot like the original SH, this time with more goodies and deeper action. It isn't as linear as the first game, since this time, you can choose which of the 4-6 (if I'm not mistaken) missions you can jump in. They can pit Hiryu in a futuristic city, a cold snowy area, a medieval fortress or even a cool spaceship/base which features low gravity and areas where Hiryu can walk on the ceiling a la Spiderman (like before) or let him jump from the floor to the ceiling with a single bound. There's also a cool boss which can toy with the circular room's gravity, letting Hiryu circle the boss 360 degrees and do backflips while hacking and slashing away (the same one from SH1). The semi-non-linear story and level tweaks are also extremely fun and welcome to the title.

As for Hiryu's abilities, he now has a few more tricks under his sleeve. Hiryu can now do double jumps out of nowhere, spear off the wall and use the ever-so-wonderful Boost power-up, which, once activated, lets Hiryu fire enemy-seeking fireballs from his blade for a limited period of time. This makes bosses much faster to defeat, since they have longer lifebars this time around. He also doesn't roll back when hit, unlike before when you had to repeat your course all over again and waste a few quarters (and a lot of your time). Looks like he finally learned how to stand still ^_^. But most of all, Hiryu can now RUN (har har)!!! Heck, he couldn't RUN in SH1! This and all the other new abilities have been added without taking out the old tricks which made Strider Hiryu the Strider Hiryu we know.

Graphically speaking, SH2 is leaps and bounds from the original SNES game. Hiryu looks a lot better with his bluer outfit and his red mask featured in Marvel Vs. Capcom (Hiryu sucked without that piece of cloth). Hiryu stands in a much prouder manner than in SH1, which shows Hiryu's height more effectively, yet he looks like some girlie-man who feels like a ninja at first glance. Also, Hiryu now acts in an extremely furious world with more, better-looking polygonal enemies and sprite-based baddies. The game still maintains a healthy framerate regardless of all the explosions around. The baddies are numerous in number, and they still look great even though they're simply minor. The bosses also look drop-dead gorgeous... that is, compared to the old game. Most of the game's most inspired bosses such as the final boss (which is not the Grand Master) are simply great. They now contain more features than the old bosses did, and the framerate never dips. They can range from a funny-looking, gravity-bending sphere to a wooly cyborg mammoth to monsters with wonderfully grotesque looks and splendidly hideous faces. Mix them all together and you have an impressive real-time world like this.

All of these new stuff give SH2 an edge above the old game, but what about the goodies featured in the new game? Well, to start off, you can set how much hits Hiryu can take before exploding to bits, which was restricted to 3 hits in the old game. Falling in a pit now subtracts a hit from your energy meter instead of losing a life, which is due to the no-life system now featured in the new game. The game also features a Strider Ranking system. This totals your overall performance (which includes time taken, lives lost, times you used Boost, etc.) and gives you a letter mark ranging from A to E, much like in the Resident Evil games. You can also play as a white Strider, namely Strider Hien, once you finish the game once -- a real slobberknocker for those of you tired of Hiryu.

As for the nostalgia department, Tong Poo is still here, still with her twins. There's even an Emperor Dragon present (which was, in SH1, a group of guys linked together, acting as your boss in Level 1 and again in Level 5), this time appearing twice, one as a boss and two, as your battleground with Strider Hien, the extra character I told you about a while ago. Even the final battle with the Grand Master looks and feels like the battle in the first game, but easier this time around thanks to the Boost attack. My biggest comment for this game, however, is that NONE OF HIS LACKEYS ARE ANYWHERE IN SIGHT!!! There will be NO robot tigers to run around the area blindly, NO robot eagles to swoop down your foe, and also NO Ouroburus to fire energy rings at your will! No, not even a single cameo (well, I may be wrong, you know). Even his semi-famous hanglider will show up only ONCE during the whole game. Somehow, they've been kicked out of the game (*sob*), and too bad: they were really fun to use. All you fans need not despair, though: the original Strider Hiryu has been included in another CD to give players a chance to reminisce and try their hands out on the classic, as well as get the chance to see the Legion in action once again. This, along with a little help from the other goodies, raises the game's coolness points despite the Legion's absence.

The weakest point in the game, as with most of Capcom's titles, is the audio department (no surprise here). Thankfully, though, they don't sound as bad as, say, our neighbor's shreiking cat. Most of the sound effects are pleasing to the ear and well-synchronized, and are quite similar to the original sound effects. The voices also sound cool, but they're still below the standards set by modern Anime and Japanese videogame voice actors (try checking out Evangelion or the Japanese Grandia). It can be noticed during the post-mission cutscenes which features Hiryu talking to the people he just defeated. I really can't feel any emotion from the things they're blabbering about (and I mean sing-song), even if it's in a different language. It's not as bad as the old game's, thankfully, but it still didn't improve much. As a side note, Hiryu's voice-over now sounds more ''manly'' (and I don't mean a baritoned Hiryu) than the old game, wherein he sounds... funny. Just compare his slashing cry in Strider 1 (<muffled and squeaky> ''Ha!'') and Strider 2 (<ninja-like> ''Kyakyakyakyakya!'') and you'll know what I'm talking about. The explosions you hear are mostly bland and generic, as well. The music slips extremely short of ''good,'' and at times even gets overlapped by the strong sounds of the explosions, but without it, no Strider Hiryu, I guess. Well, this has gotten enough attention for now.

This long list of features, along with the extremely wonderful Strider Hiryu 1 CD bundled in, are what makes this game a must-have... at least, for you Japanese-speaking brethren and die-hard fans out there. However, the replay value can only last for a couple of weeks, but with this much fun and promise, it's certainly worth enough to keep in a glass case and display, especially for this wheezing, purple fan...


Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/00, Updated 03/23/00