Strider II on the Genesis is one of those games that just feels fast the second you start moving. Hiryu dashes across the screen like he’s got rockets in his boots, slashing through robots and weird mutant creatures before they even know what hit them. The controls are slick—once you get the hang of wall-jumping and flipping over enemies, you’ll be pulling off moves that look way cooler than they have any right to in a 16-bit game.

The levels throw all kinds of nonsense at you—flying battleships, frozen wastelands, even a fight on top of a missile mid-flight. And that soundtrack? Pure late-80s Capcom energy, all synths and adrenaline. It’s not the deepest game ever, but man, it nails that arcade-style rush where you’re just barely scraping through each stage by the skin of your teeth. If you’ve got a Genesis collecting dust, this one’s worth blowing the cartridge off for.