are set in different locations on Earth (Hong Kong, Germany, Antarctica). The final two stages take place in the Flying Battleship Balrog and the space station Third Moon, both of which were locations in the original Strider. Plot Around 2000 years after his defeat in the original game, the mysterious Grandmaster has returned once again to finish his plans and claim total control over the world. However, Strider Hiryu, a Strider carrying the same codename of the man who slew the Grandmaster in the past, has also surfaced. According to Capcom, this version of Hiryu is a clone of the original Hiryu created by the Strider organization in order to reincarnate Hiryu back from the dead. As one of the last survivors after the Striders were wiped out, he carries the mission to destroy the Grandmaster once and for all. Home version A home version of Strider 2 was released for the PlayStation in 2000 (a simple port, given the PlayStation's similarity to the arcade's Sony ZN-2 board), which was released as a 2-disc set, with a second disc devoted to a direct port of the original Strider coin-op. Due to a labeling error in the American release, the Strider 2 discs were labeled as the original Strider, and vice versa. Finishing both games and saving the achievements on the same memory card unlocks a secret level in Strider 2: "Mission 00", a waterfall stage. Completion of all missions unlocks the former Strider Hien as a playable character, who wields two ranged cyphers; completion of the game using Hien unlocks the Boost skill for unlimited use in the game's menu. Reception In Japan, Game Machine listed Strider 2 on their March 1, 2000 issue as being the fifth most-successful arcade game of the month. The PlayStation version of Strider 2 received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. James Mielke, writing for GameSpot, called it "a deliberate throwback to the arcade-dominant '80s" and "an excellent starter kit for the uninitiated, but for veterans of the series, it's like dinner without the dessert." David Zydrko of IGN described it as "a must-have package for fans of arcade-style action games", adding, "if you don't mind the fact that it's a very short game, you owe it to yourself to add this game to your collection." In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 30 out of 40. References External links