Strider Returns—or Strider 2 if you're in Europe—is one of those weird sequels that makes you wonder what went wrong. Tiertex, the devs behind it, somehow took everything that made the original arcade Strider so slick and turned it into a clunky, frustrating mess. The controls feel off, the difficulty spikes are brutal for all the wrong reasons, and the whole thing just lacks that fast, fluid energy of the first game.

Funny enough, Japan never even got this one—maybe they knew something we didn’t. If you’re a die-hard Strider fan, sure, give it a shot for curiosity’s sake. But honestly? Stick to the arcade original.