Guilty of the unfathomable evil of making Strider Hiryu less ♥♥♥♥♥, so I’m not crazy on this one, but I do think it’s worth putting a spotlight on a metroidvania this lean. Strider 2014 occupies a weird in-between space between schema by having the bones of Strider 2 (blisteringly fast arcade score attack action), and being a metroidvania (wallhug like a dopey trout picking up Fisher-Price blocks to place into shaped slots) and it straddles the line…………. decently well?? Has an incredibly scant 4 hours completion time accomplished through carving story progression in a linear track across the world map, reminiscent of Metroid Fusion if anything. It keeps up the momentum surprisingly well and it’s complemented by Strider’s fast and responsive freewheeling toolset. The main issue for me is that Strider 2014 is surprisingly averse to any form of vertical progression, so the open world aspect feels like a bloated afterthought. It doesn’t help that the ratio of secrets/pickups being actual upgrades is completely overshadowed by how many of them are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unlockable secret missions, intel and concept art. Puts its best foot forward with a great opening hour; the rooftop-hopping set design is gorgeous and dynamic before it turns into sewer & techno corridor mulch, simple-to-counter enemies so your charge is rarely halted. As the difficulty ramps up it becomes less of a sleek and stylish action game and more of an exercise in frustration as the screen is littered with knockback bullets and colour-coded shielded enemies that take a steadily increasing number of hits to kill. This all culminates into a ridiculously grating final act that feels like a complete misread on what makes Strider halfway compelling. You can tell Shadow Complex was a key reference point and maybe it farcking shouldn’t have been. All this being said this is my favourite Strider game lol.