RE-GEN: The Strike series – 16-bit smart shooter, next-gen firepower (Wii)

We’ve played that game before, right?
Re-imagining the classics for the new generation. This is RE-GEN.

With power comes evolution: shooters have gone from scrolling to full 3-D environments, from turkey galleries to smart, reactive enemies. Yet even the classics, with their scrolling and their shooting galleries, have virtues all to their own.

The Strike series from Electronic Arts is one of the most notable examples of the genre. A multi-directional, military-themed shooter, it became a hallmark franchise, particularly on the Sega Genesis. Even in that age of solid-state cartridges, Strike was known for its surprisingly challenging gameplay, and became known as the 16-bit “smart shooter.”

After three successful 16-bit titles, and two CD follow-ons in the PSOne (as well as the Saturn and PC), Strike vanished; no more was heard. Perhaps it was a victim of its own success, having stuck too close to its core formula. Or perhaps EA lost interest (happened before, happened since). Pity: the series had quite the potential, even after five games. And especially today.

RE-GEN is all about second chances for the classic titles we loved. Can the power and capabilities offered by today’s platforms, from the high-end PS3 and Xbox 360, to the innovative Wii, to the handheld wonders of the PSP and NDS, offer something new to resurrect the Strike series? This is the question we set out to answer today. Some things, after all, don’t deserve to gather dust in the back of a shelf, when it has more to offer.

No, we ain’t talking about Virtual Console. Think about it: great classic, Wiimote controls, saving the world from a Wiimote-induced holocaust yet again… Learn more about the Strike series, and speculating a Wii Strike update, after the jump! Or discover what the PS3/Xbox 360, the PSP, or the DS has to offer a Strike title.

We’ve played that game before, right?
Re-imagining the classics for the new generation. This is RE-GEN.

With power comes evolution: shooters have gone from scrolling to full 3-D environments, from turkey galleries to smart, reactive enemies. Yet even the classics, with their scrolling and their shooting galleries, have virtues all to their own.

The Strike series from Electronic Arts is one of the most notable examples of the genre. A multi-directional, military-themed shooter, it became a hallmark franchise, particularly on the Sega Genesis. Even in that age of solid-state cartridges, Strike was known for its surprisingly challenging gameplay, and became known as the 16-bit “smart shooter.”

After three successful 16-bit titles, and two CD follow-ons in the PSOne (as well as the Saturn and PC), Strike vanished; no more was heard. Perhaps it was a victim of its own success, having stuck too close to its core formula. Or perhaps EA lost interest (happened before, happened since). Pity: the series had quite the potential, even after five games. And especially today.

RE-GEN is all about second chances for the classic titles we loved. Can the power and capabilities offered by today’s platforms, from the high-end PS3 and Xbox 360, to the innovative Wii, to the handheld wonders of the PSP and NDS, offer something new to resurrect the Strike series? This is the question we set out to answer today. Some things, after all, don’t deserve to gather dust in the back of a shelf, when it has more to offer.

Strike: when smart shooters existed within 16 bits

Popular especially with the military and Tom Clancy-types, Strike had a distinctive flavor that helped marked it as the “thinking man’s shooter” of its day. These elements helped create that Strike legacy:

• You controlled a special forces attack chopper (and other vehicles) in a multi-directional shooter (MDS) perspective, against the whole army of a madman dictator or a rogue high-tech terrorist with an appetite for nukes;
• The game involved “smart resource management” because of limited ammo loads, requiring you to resupply on the field through fuel and ammo dumps (and armor repairs); and
• The game was always accompanied by a tactical database showing you mission objectives, friendly and enemy assets, their threat level to you, and even tips on how to dispatch enemy units. All these combined to give Strike its gameplay depth and “smart shooter” label.

From 1992’s Desert Strike, each game progressed the series both plot-wise and with few changes per installment. The Jungle Strike sequel (1993) introduced the option to change your mount in-game. The series moved to the PSOne with Soviet Strike in 1996, and introduced better graphics, improved controls, and stylistic live-action cutscenes, as well as allies who would help you (little) in the field. (Interestingly, the 1994 Urban Strike featured a terrorist attack on the New York World Trade Center… in 2001. Eerie.)

Jungle Strike, Urban Strike gameplay (uploaded by ShiryuGL)

There was supposed to be a Future Strike – Nuclear‘s ending strongly hinted at a sequel – but it never came to pass. However, EA would later release Future Cop LAPD, which would feature Strike gameplay elements. EA never got around to confirming if Future Cop was supposed to be Future Strike or not, so that mystery remains for fans of the series.

EGM’s Quartermann hints that EA might be planning a next-gen revival. Rumors being rumors, we’ve so far heard nothing on this since. Still doesn’t stop us from speculating how an update would kick the game to next-level.

WIIrlybirds on the storm

The biggest challenge to a Wii Strike is that, well, it’s the Wii. Retreat to controlling the MDS through the Classic or GC controller, it’s like copping out and disappointing the console’s potential. So, back to question #1: how do you control a multi-directional shooter like Strike with the Wiimote setup? The easy answer is to simply flip the Wiimote on its side and use the tilt function like an analog stick, leaving the buttons for weapons and other controls. The setup kinda under-utilizes the Wiimote’s full potential, however.

Another approach is to transform Strike from an MDS into a chopper sim, and use the Wiimote and Nunchuck as emulated chopper controls. It opens up new gameplay possibilities (such as chopper dogfighting), but it risks diluting the Strike formula. And we’re still waiting for results from aerial flight shooters on the Wii to judge whether the Wiimote and Nunchuck can serve as consistently reliable flight controls.

A potential innovation is to combine the isometric MDS with elements from mouse-based games. The Nunchuck’s stick could be used to steer the player’s chopper (or whatever vehicle) around, while the Wiimote’s mouse-like point-click function could be used to lock on to and attack enemies on the field – something already done with scrolling mouse-shooters, as well as in Battalion Wars 2 (see the nearby graphic for a demo). Additionally, the Wiimote could also be used to direct allies in the field, also like in BWii.

Where no attack chopper has gone before (in Strike, anyway)

Not that Strike itself has to be straitjacketed to its old-school formula in order to retain its identity. Even in the somewhat restricted environment of the multi-directional shooter, there can be room for innovation, ranging from different weapons to deal with even more innovative enemies, to rendering “useful” terrain to hide behind (for example, dipping behind a ridgeline or tall structure to shake off incoming missiles), and adapting actual military helicopter tactics to create gameplay challenges.

The next step is tossing in more pilots to play with. Given how MDS games work, the prospect of chasing enemy players like dogs in an open yard might sound like watching the Wii Weather Channel, but an online multiplayer Strike (of which there hasn’t been) wouldn’t have to be about that. A potential answer is found in that maybe-spinoff, Future Cop LAPD.

Future Cop‘s two-player and skirmish mode is base assault, Herzog Zwei-style. Victory is measured not by the frags you rack, but by shepherding one of your lemming units (in this case, a hovertank) into the enemy’s base, and keeping his lemmings from breaching yours. The battle is won by control of the battlefield and lines of attack, by attacking enemy hovertanks yourself, capturing outpost bases and neutral turrets to boost your forces, and sniping at the enemy player on occasion.

This kind of gameplay offered quite the enjoyable challenge (if you didn’t mind the split-screen), and could be adapted for a similar online multiplayer for a Wii Strike. Taken online, with additional innovations in the game design, it can expand a Wii Strike‘s replay value.

Beautiful and deadly

Robust battlefield AI is the next item in the checklist. Military combat games are evolving towards depicting the battlefield as a fluid and dynamic environment, with ever-smarter (and changing) enemies and allies. The enemies in the 16/32-bit classics were tough, but they were set-piece: they had patterns, they were predictable. It would be disappointing to rely on weak AI and Zerging in this generation.

A Strike evolving towards next-gen has to up the ante. Enemies that learn how to swarm and push you away from mission-critical objectives, and call in reinforcements to finish you off; allies you can direct in battle to help clear your path: these will be big improvements in the series’ gameplay, creating even tougher challenges to smart one’s way out of.

And just to clear the deck: sure, the Wii won’t be matching the PS3 and Xbox 360 in the graphics department. Still, the machine is capable of rendering a pretty world (even if it is blown up to heck by a nuke-happy madman). Good GameCube games were undeniably beautiful in their own right, and a Wii Strike need not suffer in the graphics department, right? (Besides, who’s going to have time to smell the roses when missiles are flying in his direction?)

Get ready to STRIKE

I’m not saying this just as a fan of the series. Because it had a surprisingly wide appeal in the past, and because it has so much room to grow (particularly in multiplayer), Strike stands a good chance of succeeding as a remake/update to current standards.

The Wiimote-Nunchuck combination can potentially change the way Strike is played – and open up the MDS genre to Nintendo‘s console. With smart gameplay design, and the simplicity of the multidirectional shooter, a Wii Strike can appeal to the 16-bit nostalgic, draw a new audience, and add much-needed variety to the Wii library. Multiplayer’s also bound to be a hoot if pulled off right with WiiConnect24.

Resurrecting Strike may be just a long-shot dream, even given the rumors. But hey, that’s why those who loved Strike, loved Strike. Because it was fun to dream we were saving the world, one madman at a time, dispatched with extreme prejudice and an extra load of Hellfires.

Also see RE-GEN: The Strike series on PS3/Xbox 360, PSP, and DS