Hiryu, whose name translates to “Flying Dragon,” was initially conceived as a joint creative venture between Capcom and manga group Moto Kikaku. As such, the original Strider game, which was a 1989 arcade release, came alongside the release of a Strider comic.

The comic.

While the arcade game followed a completely separate storyline from the comic, the later-released NES version served as a fairly faithful adaptation, and was also, if I may, one of the all-time greatest games for the NES. Just hearing that vicious growl-crash of the game’s opening theme makes me want to go triangle-jump my way through Kazakh and cyber-slice a sucka in the cyber-craw. 

But what is a Strider, exactly? I won’t dare explain it myself, because anything I wrote would fail to compare to the NES game’s own description:

‘The Striders’

They are the toughest group of people who execute acts such as infiltration, abduction, explosion, instigation, etc. 

Yes, this highly elite group is even capable of the “act of explosion.” Sure, that intro movie may make them look like a terrorist outfit consisting of one ninja, one crazy-haired maniac, and one Spartan, but you’ve got to love any outfit who rides around in a spaceship shaped like an enormous, two-headed dragon. 

The NES Strider was well ahead of its time, with a relatively deep storyline, skill upgrades, and elements of nonlinearity. It also served as an interesting companion piece to the arcade Strider (later ported to the Master System and Genesis and stuff), whose gameplay was far more. . . arcadey, with lots of haphazard flipping and slashing, and a boss that was a giant centipede made of senators, or, if you will, a Senatipede. 

The original human centipede.

Actually I think they were military officers, but don’t ruin my fun. 

Anyway, Strider eventually received a weird pseudo-sequel developed by someone other than Capcom, and then finally a true sequel for the arcade, later ported to the original Playstation. Capcom’s Strider 2 featured an updated design for Hiryu (the basis for his MvC design), graphics in two-and-a-half dimensions, and some of the fastest-paced slashing action the world had ever seen.    

Strider 2 tells the age-old tale of conflict between a ninja and an evil, frozen cyber-mammoth. 

Random video!

While Strider Hiryu’s games were all pretty great, it wasn’t until his inclusion in the character roster for Marvel vs. Capcom that he became a truly well-known face here in the West. And indeed, Hiryu’s popularity as an MvC character has prevailed, making him one of just a small number of Capcom characters to appear in all three installments of the series. Weirdly, this means that he’s seen more exposure as a tribute to his games than he has in his games. Perhaps he was meant to be a fighting game character from the get-go. And here’s why: