Run Saber (1993). Play online

Summary

Run Saber swoops onto the SNES as a sleek, side‑scrolling action title that feels ripped straight from Strider’s playbook. You choose between Allen, whose attacks crack like lightning, or Sheena, whose ice‑charged moves shoot upward, and both can scale walls, cling to ceilings, and perform a power‑jump reminiscent of Super Metroid’s Screw Attack. The game pushes you through five varied zones—Taj Base, Tong City, Jodvalley, Grey Fac and Bruford—each dotted with minibosses and a final showdown, while occasional alerts announce the big battles. A quirky bit of trivia: the original Tong City boss was intended to be a woman lying on her side, but Nintendo forced a redesign to avoid a violence‑against‑women policy, turning the figure into a dead body. Reviewers praised the fast pacing but bemoaned the hour‑long length and easy difficulty, noting it as the SNES’s lone true Strider‑style experience.

Storyline

Run Saber takes place in a bleak future where Earth’s environment has collapsed under relentless pollution and dwindling resources. A desperate scientist creates a miracle chemical meant to reverse the damage, launches it from space, and watches as it detonates in the atmosphere. Instead of healing the planet, the substance mutates every human it touches, turning the infected into obedient soldiers for the scientist’s new regime. Humanity’s last hope lies in Project Saber, a trio of genetically‑enhanced cyborgs. The first Saber, Kurtz, glitches and flees to Earth before the program is finished.

The remaining Sabers, Allen and Sheena, are deployed to stop the mad scientist and his mutant army, and to track down and neutralize the rogue Kurtz if necessary.