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I blast the Zain down in Africa: Strider | NES Works 134

Published on Wed, May 15th 2024 Gaming Rectangular HD

Hmm, it is Strider Hiryu... and also a lot of additional material about cultural and political trends of the 1980s that greatly influenced video games. Did they necessarily have the direct impact on Strider for NES that this episode posits? Probably not... but this material needed to be covered anyway to give additional clarity to the whys and wherefores of NES games anyway. It might as well have been here.

Look forward to my video essay on the FTC's counterpart, the FCC... someday. I need a nap first.

As for Strider itself, well... I admire what the game tries to do, but even back in 1989, there was clearly something amiss with this production. Those troubles only become more evident in hindsight, especially when you learn that Capcom announced the cart for an early 1989 release on Famicom yet it ultimately only shipped in America. On one hand, it's nice that they didn't simply cancel the game altogether and leave us with another "what might have been"-shaped hole in our libraries. On the other hand, it would have been nice if they had taken the time to make the game that did ship here a more polished overall experience.

Supplemental material:

Check out the fan translation of the Strider manga if you'd like to understand what on earth this game's story is meant to be: https://mangadex.org/chapter/e68fa8a0-4f59-4f03-9512-2a4a45797990

And of course Displaced Gamers' explanation of the absolute nonsense that is Strider's program code: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbYQOon4z84&t=427s

Production notes:

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NES footage captured from Analogue Nt Mini. Video upscaled to 4K with RetroTink 4X and 720p with xRGB Mini Framemeister.