I don't think game 4 was as bad as Kid Icarus. =P
I think everyone is a little more familiar with Strider as they think they are. The main character (Strider Hiryu) was in both Marvel vs. Capcom 1 & 2. (I don't think he's in 3.) Why is it awesome? Huge swords, cut scenes, space stations, ninjas, pyramids, trains, upgrades, betrayal, and back stabbing, all told in an manga style story. What's there not to like? Keep in mind that I played this when I was really little and I had no idea what manga was at the time.
This was also the first time I can remember encountering a "boss fight" with a mind controlled friend where you take him down, all for a story point. I think these types of playable cut scenes continued on to future Capcom titles like the later Mega Man games. A lot of things introduced in the game were a first for me and were ground breaking, specially for a non-RPG game.
And unlike Kid Icarus, I've actually beat this game multiple times. To this day I still remember the password for the final stage in the game: DMCC BGCP CPOD. This and Bionic Commando were probably the most influential non-Nintendo games for me in the early days of the NES.
I don't know if you ever answered the hint question. Were you talking about "the next story" or "coming next scene!" ? That might have been a carry over from the manga source material. But I've never read the manga.