Jeremy Parish
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Metroidvania Works #19: Strider & Willow
🕑 Added 2023-07-05 12:00:05 +0000 UTCOur journey through the ur-metroidvania's formative decade continues apace with two from Capcom in the form of Strider (not to be mistaken for the cool arcade game) and Willow (not to be mistaken for the cool arcade game). Yes, these adventures continue Capcom's persistent insistence upon reworking arcade releases for NES, whether due to Nintendo's insistence that games for their console be unique from those on other platforms or simply because Capcom realized that there was no way in hell you were going to pull off a convincing take on some of these games on the meager NES hardware. Whatever the case, both of these non-conversions contain some strong ideas, although only one manages to pull them off with aplomb. (If you have spent more than 10 minutes with either of these games, you know exactly which one I'm referring to.)
Comments
Raven
Another great episode. I didn't like willow as a kid, and it might have had to do with the grossish colour pallet of the environment. I rented strider twice really wanting to like it and maybe actually succeeding. Playing it as an adult, I just basically mirror your views on it. Thanks for the series (pl), I have been loving this shit for years.
PT
I want to say the very first time I booted up Strider on my NES, multiple enemy sprites briefly turned into ASCII as they mindlessly walked back and forth. Great start, game! I think this game has a ton of jank charm, but whoa boy is it not...err, finished. A few more months and MAYBE this game would be better. Just the main character sprite alone. Why does it look like Hiryu is standing on his tip toes? It also makes his very awkward jumps look even worse.
