Strider (in all of its incarnations) has always been a weird one, and I've never felt completely one way or the other about it. Way back in the day, EGM had us all super-hyped that it was gonna be Capcom's "next huge system seller" on Genesis following the crater that Ghouls 'n Ghosts left at the launch (which was pretty significant, at the time). I'm fairly certain I played through the NES one first, which likewise had some decent hype surrounding it (see the Nintendo Power images posted earlier) which itself felt like "mooooostly cool with some sticking issues" (glitchiness, annoying jumps, wonky design at parts) but was at least interesting/worth a rental and play-thru when that one released.
I feel like I saw arcade Strider (momentarily) somewhere in-between, and then grabbed the Genesis port fairly eagerly when it appeared. I DEFINITELY enjoyed it - but like it's (almost completely unrelated NES cousin), it certainly had it's share of funky glitchiness, wonky design, etc - but the game was weird, man. You never knew what was coming next. There was a feeling that "this character might actually be able to do anything!" he really handled very differently from the usual one-note mechanics of a lot of similarly-styled games of the era. The game just felt very ambitious, very haphazard (but in a fun way), against these crazy backdrops with wild weirdo characters that kept being thrown at you moment-to-moment in a way not really seen before (fight some wolves, then a giant mecha gorilla, then run down the steepest snowy incline ever, then a tower with ED-209s against a lightning storm, then a flying airship with sexy ballerinas who are trying to murder you). Yeah the whole game was like this. It was all insane and just kinda kept you guessing "WTF indeed, what could possibly be coming next?"
On a side note, Ghouls 'n Ghosts felt like a somewhat more-contained version of such insanity (crazy gameplay and character changes moment-to-moment), Strider just really ratcheted it up. No one else ever really made games like that. Still don't I think.
Anyway, at the end of the day it never really all came together (the end of the game is sort of "huh? Well I guess that was the end, then" but even so it was pretty satisfying to be part of such a spectacle. No other game in the series has really touched on such weirdness as that original arcade (and Genesis) game, although to be honest I do really wanna spend more time with the PS1 game (it's got it's own thing going on, and is very sleek and stylish). It doesn't surprise me too hard that even in 2022 people are still discovering and being affected by the awesome, if flawed weirdness that is Strider. As a designer I've periodically thought about how super-cool it would be to make a modern 3D take on such a game, maybe someday. Anyway, enjoy! Now check out Bionic Commando on NES!