Run Saber

Take heart, Strider fans! Even if you've strolled on to the SNES, you can get Strider action with Atlus's new game, Run Saber.

Great new features, like simultaneous two-player, side-by-side fighting, give Run Saber ultrasonic, sword-slashing moves that will leave you wishing there was more, more, more. The graphics will also put some swing in your sword, but an awesome array of video game opponents will try to keep your Saber silent.

Whether you are a femme fatale or a ferocious fighter, Run Saber has your action ready and waiting -- there's just not enough of it to go around.

It's the year 2998, and you're the world's last hope. As part of an elite team of cyborg soldiers known as Run Sabers, your mission is to find and destroy the last toxic overlord polluting the world and generally making life miserable for everyone.

Saber the Last Dance For Me

In this side-scrolling, one or two player, action/adventure game, you play as one of two characters (male or female). During four too-short levels (with a bonus level thrown in for good measure), you slash your way through a jungle populated by mechdinosaurs, a factory cranking out death as its product, a military warehouse, and a deadly Chinatown.

Armed with a Strider-style Saber, you face the best mutants that a polluted Earth has to offer, including hunchbacked ghouls, machine gunners dressed as lab technicians, floating ninja priests, and so much more. Fortunately, the responsive controls suffer no lag time.

Power-ups are released from the bodies of fallen enemies. They include health bars, sword power, extra lives, and special Super Power attacks, which are screen- clearing power pills.

Nowhere to Run

Run Saber's graphics are great, but the sounds could use some sharpening. The sprites move, climb, and jump with the greatest of ease. The bosses are big, imposing, and mean. The backgrounds are well drawn and enhance the game play. The sounds, on the other hand, may make you want to fall on your Sonic sword. The music is repetitive, and the effects are basic death dins.

Run with It

Strider fans will want this clone for their trophy shelf, even though Run Saber's four short levels mean even intermediate gamers will slash through it in no time at all. This RUN is no marathon, but it makes a great sprint.

In Run Saber for the Super NES there is a character color change code. To do this, go into the game and play as normal. At any time, pause the action. Now, press the SELECT button and you will see your character's color change. Press SELECT over and over for more colors.

Run Saber is an action game. The game features side-scrolling fighting as the two main heroes, Allen and Sheena, the Run Sabers, fight to save the planet. It was developed by Hori Electric and published by Atlus in 1993. The gameplay is very similar to Strider. In each of the five levels (Taj Base, Tong City, Jodvalley, Grey Fac, and Bruford), there are multiple minor bosses and one final boss at the end of each level.

There aren't too many Super NES games that allow two players to compete at the same time. This cart, however, delivers the goods.

BIONIC SOLDIERS

Military warfare in the future has reached the point where we are now able to utilize bionic soldiers who have incredible hand-to-hand combat capabilities. That's not all they can do, though. They can also devastate the opposition with their powerful magic.

Now the Earth is being invaded by an alien force and you must infiltrate the conquered areas with the bionic warriors and destroy the evil boss creatures. Be quick and strike hard; the enemy must go down!

If you're lucky enough to get past the first four stages, you'll have to summon all your skills for the fifth and final stage where the most dangerous of challenges await you. This level's boss has a relentless attack!