In a surprise announcement at the San Diego Comic-Con this week, Capcom has revealed that they are bringing an all-new entry in the Strider franchise to the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 sometime in “early 2014.”
Described as an “intense side-scrolling action platformer,” the upcoming game — which has so far only been referred to as Strider — seems to be in keeping with the series. Players will take on the role of Hiryu as they battle and explore their way through the “expansive metropolis of Kazakh City.” The game world is nonlinear in nature, and players will have to seek out upgrades for the Cypher sword in order to open up new pathways through the interconnected world.
The upcoming game is being developed by Double Helix (the same studio behind Killer Instinct for the Xbox One) in conjunction with Capcom and some of the “original [game’s] creative leaders.” Whether or not this turns out to be a good thing remains to be seen, but the team appears to have all the right gameplay aspects in place.
Out of all of Capcom’s well-known intellectual properties, Strider is probably the one that has received the least amount of attention from the publisher over the years. The original game, released in 1989, is best remembered by its Arcade and NES versions — although it was ultimately ported to a large number of different systems. Its sequel, Strider 2, was released eleven years later in 2000 for the PlayStation, after which, Capcom (for the most part) put the IP on ice.
As part of this week’s announcement, Capcom has released both a trailer for the new Strider and a seven minute gameplay video. Check out both of these videos — along with a collection of screenshots — down below, and click over the next page for the full press release.
