Run Saber (SNES)

 There's a few interesting things to point out about Run Saber before you even get to the game itself. For a start, it's a Japanese game that was only released in North America and Europe (which means there' no chance of ever being able to afford a copy). Furthermore, it was developed by Hori, the famous and popular makers of high quality controllers. It's the first of six games they put out, according to Moby Games, spread out over the course of the nineties. Finally, and this is a lot more subjective than the other points: it kind of looks and feels more like a Mega Drive game than a SNES one. The gritty OAV-like sci-fi setting full of weird monsters, when from SNES games, you expect more of a kid-friendly TV anime look and feel, don't you? Like I said, it is more subjective than the other points I raised.

 

What is the game, though? It's a platformer, in which you select either a male or female character (if there are any differences between the two, they're very minor. I think their attacks have slightly different hitboxes, but that's all), and you traverse a few linear stages killing monsters with energy swords, and there's several boss fights per stage, too, which is nice. You could, if you wanted, call Run Saber a Strider-like, with its superhumanly acrobatic protagonists and their quick-swinging energy blade attacks. But that would be a little simplistic and lazy.

 

Instead, you should call Run Saber a Strider-like because of the way its paced! You're constantly being usher forward into the next big weird setpiece, whether it's a bunch of spiky traps to maneuver around, a wall to climb while fighting off enemies, or one of the game's many boss fights. Just like Strider! I'm joking about the first comparision being lazy, of course: the characters do move and feel a lot like Strider Hiryu, and if someone from the development team came out and said it was originally intended to be a Strider sequel but a deal with Capcom fell through at the last minute, it wouldn't be a massive shock. You do have a couple of new moves, though: a jumping spin attack, a dive kick, and a non-offensive slide across the ground.

 

So with all that in mind, is it actually a good game, or is it just a Japanese Strider Returns? Luckily, it's good. On your first play, it'll feel slightly stiff and odd, and a little too difficult, but somehow that literally only applies to your first attempt at playing it. At least, that's how it went for me. My first attempt, I lost most of my lives over the course of the first stage and got a game over shortly into the second. But every attempt after that, I've easily been able to get well into the third, and sometimes fourth stage! (According to what I've read online, there are five of them).

 

The bosses are cool enough that they aren't a slog or a nuisance, either, instead being fun and quick enough to get through that you do feel like you're a powerful, heroic character charging through all these evil monsters. And they're pretty interesting too. There's a green mutant-man who bursts out of a metal canister, a demonic fighter jet that grows heads to attack you while you're standing on it mid-flight, a big red meditating demon in the background who detached his head to get you, a giant zombie woman (who was apparently designed as a giant living woman, but Nintendo of America thought that was the same as a positive depiction of domestic violence, presumably because there are worms in their brains). A varied bunch of monsters and freaks to fight, and like I said, the fights go by pretty quickly, which feels like a fairly unique trait in this kind of game.

 

Run Saber is a pretty good game, in a style that really stands out on the SNES. It's definitely worth playing. Even though it won't keep your attention for a long time, you probably will enjoy it while it does.