How am I talking out of my ass when it comes to Strider? I've played it more than you already, I have 100% of the achievements and I've beaten it twice. I'm pretty sure that qualifies me to make comments about the game and what I didn't like...
For the record, I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 9-10 hours with Strider. It was just enough to get 100% and then delete it from my hard drive immediately. The extra time on Steam, like most game times for me, was fucked up by idling cards... so it has an extra 5-6 hours on it from that.
I can honestly say I will NEVER play that game again. EVER. And here's why:
(1) There is no variety, in anything. There's two main types of levels -- futuristic cityscape and sewer. Maybe you could count the temple area... maybe... but it reminds me a lot of a blend between the sewer and the city. This makes it feel like you're never going anywhere.
(2) Continuing the no variety, there's maybe about 6 enemy types throughout the whole game, not including bosses, and that MAY be including the stupid-ass color coded enemies.
(3) Speaking of, it has color coded enemies, enough said.
(4) There is no challenge. At all, except for the first boss on hard if you haven't played before, the expected cyber gorilla fight because he does ridiculous damage, and one random encounter in the elevator on the ride up to the boss which is a difficulty spike of epic proportions on hard (I had 100% of the upgrades and only was able to manage it once I started using the gravity/purple slingshot for the special ability).
(5) The game is short. Ridiculously short -- and there's nothing to make you really go back because the combat is just mashing x for the most part. My first run, collecting everything, on hard (first time playing) clocked in around 6.5 hours, give or take. My speed run to get the final achievement would've clocked in at under 2.25 hours easily, but I decided to go out of my way to get a few extra upgrades just to make sure I wouldn't have a problem with that poorly designed encounter in the final area.
(6) The gameplay, at it's core, is extremely simple and ultimately boring. There is a practically useless upward attack mapped to Y, which was only ever useful for some of the reflecting projectiles from the wall cannons, so for the most part, combat is a total snoozefest. I was bored of the combat (and traversal mechanics) within the first 45 minutes or so and the only ability/upgrade that gave me any sort of repreive was the slingshot catapult which you get kind of late.
(7) The "cutscenes" are some C-level voice acting. You would think this is some fan made Strider game that failed out of kickstarter and was made anyway judging by this stuff. Add in the ridiculous "portraits" that don't match and sprinkle in the non-existent story and that side of the game makes it so that gameplay (as usual) should be the reason to love the game if there was one. But based on the above points, there's nothing good about the gameplay, as far as I'm concerned. It's mediocre and boring, at it's best.
(8) The lack of attention to detail really bothered me... I had a bunch of examples, but the one that always gets me is that from the very moment you take control of Hiryu, he has a pouch/pack on his shoulder containing kunai -- you get a very good look at it during one of the first parts of gameplay. And yet you don't actually get the kunai ability til 50% of the game is over. There wer other examples, I'm sure, but this is the one that just stood out for me about all others.
(9) The lack of NG+ kills any potential hope of replay value. Did you miss collectibles? Did you want to get every single retro "collectible" they hid in places (which are kinda lame themselves)? Oh, you already went to take on the final boss? Tough, start over from scratch. And I don't think they ever patched it in.
(10) Beyond all this, the game had technical issues like crazy. While I never really encountered many, I have a pretty good graphics card and it's more than capable of handling the game as intended with DX11. But for those without such niceties? Good fuckin' luck.
I could probably spout more reasons I did not like the game, but for me it was the most boring and disappointing way that Strider could have returned in his own game and I'd honestly rather have the PSX game via emulator or play the arcade rom in the Capcom collections on my Vita. My nostalgia hyped me up and the promo trailers they put together gave me hope for the game when I originally thought it would be bad since announce because I didn't like the 2.5D or the Metroidvania direction it was going in. I gave in, I got it for about $9 and made a bunch of that back via playfire rewards for 100%'ing the game. But I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone, ever, and I highly advise anyone interested make sure they check out one of the demos for the game on consoles if possible. If you own a PS4 and have PS+, get it that way, maybe you like it, maybe you have fun with it because your expectations were non-existant due to not knowing or caring about the Strider franchise. But as a die-hard Strider fan? This is not the game we deserved, not even close.
So to be fair, my hatred of Strider comes from the intense disappointment I felt for the game. If you're not like me, you could probably play the game, maybe enjoy it for what it is, and it would be like a 7/10 max, but probably more like a 5.5-6.5. But for me? It's the most disappointment I've felt in gaming since January of 2002 -- where after 15-20 hours invested into FFX, I found that I did not like the game and thought it was terrible. And I kept pushing forward hoping that the next few hours would change my opinion... but it never happened. This is the same thing that occurred for me with Strider 2014. I kept pushing forward hoping it would get better and I would like it... and I never did. In fact, if I'm talking Capcom reboots, I would put DmC leagues above Strider... but that's another story.
I know I talk like Strider came to my house, beat my dogs, and then shit in my microwave... and that's a bit of hyperbole... it happens because of the disappointment I had with it after letting my hopes and expectations rise the week before it's release.
For the record, here's the screencaps from when I finished it:
I think it's a lot of fun, but I compare it to a musou game more than a character action game. It's kind of like Dynasty Warriors and Ninja Gaiden had a kid and then the kid got fucked up on a drug called Borderlands (in terms of the edgy humour and visuals).
6-8 hours, maybe? Depends on how much trouble you have with some of the combat. Play on normal, for sure. Easy might be too easy to have fun, but hard will be a brick wall you drive into at 88mph when you hit chapter 5.
Genesis was a port of the arcade game. PSX was a sequel inspired by the arcade game. NES was what this game could have been, if done right, and it's not. (Random: In a discussion I had with Fuzzi one night about Strider, he indicated he experienced it through his friend's hype and play, because his friend was a diehard fan of the NES version. His friend never even finished this new game.)
Don't oversell it, lash.
But yeah, it's not a character action game and was never meant to be. It's a game that plays like a musou but with a combat system pulled out of a character action game -- so you can dash, block, counter and mix the combination of your 3 weapons into like 30+ combos.
This is a fair assessment. It's not for everyone, but it's not the worst game ever made as the internet and some reviewers would have you believe.
and if you think for a second I would ever take someone else's gift, a birthday gift no less, well...I dont know what to say. Why the fuck havent you activated that if someone gave it to you 
