Playable but ultimately unpolished and unoriginal
Strider is a repetitive, though not without its charms (especially if you played a lot of NES sidescrollers growing up) sidescroller. You play as a ninja, who's basic attack is a katana swing and who also gets the occasional upgrade here and there, but most of the action will require you to be in proximity of your opponents. The game borrows elements from all sort of classics, from Contra, from Metroid, from the likes of Mega Man, and keeping in line with the ninja theme, from Ninja Gaiden. Therefore, you can't really expect any originality, though, maybe because the designers so saw fit, or because of a bit of a blunder in development, the mid level minibosses do make for a less used kind of sidescroller trope. The game is also unoriginal in the colors it picks, using too many black in my opinion, but that can be alright though, as it allows you to sink in, and, maybe, if you play such a game in full screen, not develop any retina fatigue! So yeah, play it, see how you like it and play the games highlighted as well, the classics, to know where Strider came from.
