A 1989 side-scrolling platforming action game released for the CP System arcade hardware by Capcom. The game was designed by Yotsui Kouichi, a.k.a. Isuke.
It became one of Capcom's early hits before Street Fighter II, revered for its innovative gameplay, multilingual voice clips during cutscenes (presented in English, Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Spanish) as well as its epic and diverse soundtrack (created by female video game composer Junko Tamiya ).
A Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis port of the arcade version was released in 1990 and it quickly became one of the best selling and most critically acclaimed videogame adaptations for that system.
A NES console version of the game was released in the United States only during 1989. This was an RPG, adventure and action adaptation with a plot and characters different from the arcade machine and more related to the Strider manga.
The manga based on the franchise was released in Japan a whole year before the game, illustrated and written by Tatsumi Wada, and serialized in the monthly magazine Comic Computique from May to October 1988, spanning six issues. A single volume collection was later published on November 10, 1989. A short prequel story, titled Strider Hiryu Gaiden, was published following the completion of the main series and is not included in the collected edition.
Under license from Capcom USA, U.S. Gold and Tiertex produced a Strider video game sequel in Europe titled Strider II (released in North America as Journey From Darkness: Strider Returns) for various computer platforms, as well as the Mega Drive, Game Gear, and Master System. This European produced sequel was never released in Japan.
An unofficial "spiritual" sequel called Cannon Dancer was created in 1996 by Isuke.
Capcom later produced an official video game sequel, unrelated to the Tiertex produced Strider Returns and to Cannon Dancer, titled Strider 2. It was released for the arcades and the PlayStation 1 in 2000.
A new remake of the first arcade game called Strider HD was developed by Californian studio Double Helix Games and Capcom's Osaka studio. It was released in early 2014 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Windows.
