PixlBit

So I beat Strider today. A few thoughts:

+ Strider handles wonderfully throughout the game, especially after you've unlocked all of his movement options. Simply traversing the maps and uncovering secrets is a lot of fun. Several points for quick traversal, as well as a compass and stage maps revealed as you explore, make this a lot less painful.

+ I really like how they handle power-ups in this. Instead of only getting different tools as temporary boosts scattered through the level, you have access to shields, cyborg animals and kunai governed by an energy meter. That, coupled with the elemental upgrades to your sword, gives the combat an extra level of depth that was missing in past games.

+ The writing and voice acting are hilariously awful. Seriously, it's straight up Saturday morning cartoon cheese--Strider is the straight man to a revolving door of lunatics and weirdoes throughout the game. It's ridiculous, LOL.

+ Fighting through the different enemy types requires not only a solid grasp on your abilities, but a good sense of spacing and timing as well. Even the normal grunts become very threatening late into the game if you don't know what you're doing; I died several times because I tried to just barrel through. The game rewards smart play and quick thinking.

- The visuals are functional. Not beautiful, not ugly, but just good enough to work. Take that as you will.

- The boss fights are pretty lame on normal difficulty. Rather than being tense, pitched battles, it instead feels repetetive and arbitrary at times--and once you figure out their patterns, it becomes a real slog. Not one boss fight in the whole game stuck with me. Compared to the fights with normal enemies, it's pretty disappointing.

- There's no new game plus feature, so you have to go back in circles around the different maps to gain access to new areas using powers you find during the game in each playthrough. This leads to a lot of backtracking, which can get repetetive due to the sheer size of the world.

All in all, Strider is a solid game well worth the $15 asking price. I'd definitely recommend it.

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So I finally started playing Tearaway after buying it on Black Friday for half off. I haven't gotten very far, but Lord in heaven does it make the Vita work. Every facet of the device is used more convincingly than any other game I've played on the device to date. It's a damn shame the Vita is tanking so hard, as Tearaway is doing an amazing job of vindicating it's myriad controls. Can't wait to play more.