Strider 2/Development

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Strider 2 started development following Hiryu's renewed popularity in the first Marvel vs. Capcom. Coinciding with the 10th Anniversary of the first game, the project was developed by Capcom's Production Studio 1 and designed primarily by Atsushi Tomita, who previously worked as the main designer in the first three Marvel vs. games.

Rumored to exist since at least December 1998, Strider 2 was publicly revealed in February 1999 at the Japanese AOU Show in the form of a 20-second teaser video. Playable public demos were later available at the May E3 Expo and the September 37th JAMMA AM Show, reportedly in a 50% completion state. The game was finally released in December 1999, despite rumors it would not see release until 2000.

Development History

Resurrecting the Strider series was made possible due to Hiryu's increased popularity/recognition after his playable appearance in Marvel vs. Capcom. Tomita presumes there were some calculations internally which yielded good enough results to attempt an "experimental work". Strider 2 went through a particularly troubled development cycle, suffering from numerous problems such as a lack of personnel, staff dropouts, and heated arguments during meetings, among others. Tomita himself mentions that him joining the project as "assistant designer" was traditionally done when a game line was in trouble.

At one point, as the project showed little signs of progress, Tomita was called in by the Junior Producer. He warned him that the project could be cancelled, but wanted to know from him if it could reach completion. Tomita was reluctant to see Strider 2 cancelled, and the producer eagerly told him they "can do it". Working side-by-side with his staff, Tomita was able to complete a playable demo of the game in time for the 1999 E3 Show. Reactions from the public at the convention were lukewarm at best, noting it still required a lot of work and polish. Tomita felt he couldn't argue against the criticism since the prototype wasn't ready, and his team was "depressed" while working on it.

In spite of this, Tomita soldiered on intent on seeing the game completed. From this point forward, there's little known about the game's development, though it can be inferred to have been just as difficult. Tomita has claimed several times that he has forgotten everything up until the game's release, and that his brain "rejects him" when he tries to remember.

Influences

When designing Strider 2, Tomita sought to maintain the feeling from old-school Arcade games, and aimed to create an interesting Arcade title by combining elements from the first Strider in a way more suitable to the times. He considered it important to have the ambition to challenge the previous game's limits, as otherwise the project would risk becoming an entirely different game. This thinking led to the choice of incorporating 2D sprites with 3D polygonal models and movement, going beyond the limits of the previous game's action.

Characters

Several of the character designs became important in portraying the game's worldview; with the enemies that formed the Superhuman Army being one of the major factors in representing the game's world. Several of the side characters were created seemingly to fill similar roles to characters from the first game, such as a patriotic madman (Mikiel/Schlange), a ruthless captain of a flying fortress (Beard Jr./Wilhelm), etc.

The design of the game's robot and machine enemies sought to surpass the unique robot designs of the original, albeit the artists were well aware this time most of these characters would need to be recreated as polygonal 3D models as well.

World Setting

The dystopian world of Strider 2 has been described as combining the catchy quirkiness known of Capcom characters with hard tones reminiscent of American comic books. Having been told to draw "a new approach, never before seen from Capcom", artist Harumaru struggled to find the direction for the game's world view, and finally settled on incorporating a new style while trying to inherit the elegance of the previous game's design.

Strider 2 was developed under the mindset that it was a remake of the original Strider rather than a direct sequel, although the decision to add "2" to its title made having to fit everything consistently a difficult task. The main planner worked under the hypothesis that, in action games like this one, elements such as the world or its narrative are forged between the player and the game.

Ports

Dreamcast

Early reports about the game running on Sega's Naomi board circulated gaming websites before its official reveal at the AOU Show, seemingly claimed by a Japanese listing of upcoming Arcade games. As the Naomi board was based off the Dreamcast's architecture, most websites eagerly concluded that a Dreamcast port was "guaranteed". Capcom never confirmed these rumors in any official matter, and they were eventually disproven during the game's AM Show appearance.

In the end, Strider 2 was developed for Sony's ZN-2 board, which was based off the PlayStation, making it the platform of choice for porting.

PlayStation

Hinted at from a an early date, the PlayStation port of Strider 2 was released two months after the Arcade game in February 2000. It included a second disc with a port of the first Strider and several bonus features, such as a playable Hien and an extra "Mission 00", a stage which was worked on for the Arcade but ultimately cut.

The game's English version was announced shortly afterwards, planned for a May 2000 release. It was ultimately delayed, attributed to being caught up in "shipping and distribution channels" according to Capcom, and finally released two months later, in July. There are no major differences with the original version, and the only notable change is the removal of the Japanese voices during cutscenes, leaving the characters silent.

The English release also suffered from a printing oversight in which both disc labels were reversed: the disc labeled "Strider" is actually Strider 2 and vice versa.