Friday Games: Strider
Wall-clinging! Cybernetic attack dogs! Russian dystopia! Nobody’s entirely sure what “Special A-Class” REALLY means, and we’re pretty sure there’s no real explanation for why a bizarre, plasma-powered tonfa-sword-thing should be called a “cypher,” but it’s difficult to deny that the acrobatic, laconic, robot-animal-deploying Strider Hiryuu is among gaming’s most iconic action heroes. This week in Friday Games we’ll look at a few of Hiryuu’s video game incarnations, from the NES game based on the character’s manga origins, to his playable appearances in Capcom’s Vs. series fighting games, to the recent Metroidvania-y series reboot by Double Helix.
We will start at 4pm ET in MIT room 26-153. You can also watch online on our TwitchTV stream.
Todd Harper is a researcher at the MIT Game Lab with a background in mass communication and cultural studies. His current research focuses on both competitive communities and their cultural norms, as well as queer and gender representation and issues in gaming culture. A game made as part of his research, "A Closed World," was an IndieCade finalist in 2012 and his book on competitive fighting game players, The Culture of Digital Fighting Games: Performance and Practice, was recently published by Routledge.