Cannon Dancer Osman

Whether you’re a fan of Strider or a keen retro gamer who’s happiest when jumping into an obscure and hard-to-find title, Cannon Dancer – Osman is definitely worthy of your time and money. Thanks to its electrifying action and strong visual design, it’s a blast from the past that’s genuinely entertaining from beginning to end.

Cannon Dancer is an obscure underground cult classic that’s finally going to find the audience it’s always deserved. That we live in an era where games like this can be made easily accessible is worth celebrating, but even taken on its own merits, this spiritual successor to Strider is a breathless, brilliant affair. A sharp difficulty spike, common in the arcade releases of the era, feels unfair – but it won’t prevent you from falling in love with all of the high-stakes action that precedes it.

Forgotten at the bottom of the trunk, Cannon Dancer Osman is a piece of history brought back to new platforms for the first time. The visuals will please pixel art connoisseurs and the intense gameplay is simple and fun as an arcade title should be. The many quality of life improvement options are welcome and even allow you to configure slightly different ways to play, but this help can end up making the enjoyment even shorter than it actually is. In the end, it's a game recommended for the nostalgic, the curious and those who intend to play a very brief campaign over and over again, improving their technique with each quick attempt to reach the end.

If you've ever fancied playing the spiritual successor to Strider, this port is the best way to do it and it cleverly adds some quality of life improvements that offset the original's rough difficulty spikes. The price is definitely far too steep for what you get.