Side Arms
Reviewed by Michael LoCascio
Here's a little trivia for you: what was the first game ever
released for the TurboGrafx-16 by a third party company?
As I'm sure that most of you astute gamers guessed, Side
Arms holds this propitious honor. Radiance Software released
this conversion of the Capcom arcade game right around the
time of the Turbo's initial release. To my knowledge, it's
the only title ever designed by Radiance for the TG-16 (and
of the very few Turbo games not designed by NEC or Hudson
Soft). I mention this little tidbit of information because
it might very well be the only thing noteworthy about the
game. Side Arms looks, sounds, and feels like a game that
was produced rather early on in its respective system's
history, before game designers really had a firm grip on the
advantages and capabilities of the new hardware that was at
their disposal.
Side Arms is a side-scrolling shooter that is generic in
every sense of the word. The game's story is absurdly trite:
an evil, malicious menace is looking to... well, do
something really bad to us, and you're the one
'Interstellar Warrior' that has to thwart its plans. What
those plans are, I do not know. The brilliant guys who wrote
the instruction manual didn't feel that it was very
important to actually state the goals of the bad guys or the
hero's reasons for opposing them. But to be completely
honest, it really isn't all that important. Just knowing
that they 'pose a threat' to our galaxy will suffice for
such a simple, uninspired shoot 'em up.
Being a macho interstellar warrior means that you won't need
any crummy old space ships for a dangerous mission like
this. I guess interstellar warriors need only strap on a
jetpack and hold their breath for a really long time and
they're fine up in outer space. In any event, your warrior
controls rather easily. The control pad can be used to make
him fly in whichever direction you want. Button I on the
TurboPad makes him shoot to the right, while Button II is
used to fire shots to the left. This is the manner in which
you will guide your warrior through the numerous
horizontally-scrolling stages (although there are a few
segments which feature vertical scrolling).
Besides the standard shooter icons that boost your speed and
give you bonus points, you can pick up five different
weapons along the way, none of which are all that special.
You don't need to sacrifice a weapon that you already
possess when you pick up a new one; you can switch from one
gun to another that's in your arsenal whenever you want.
While none of them are particularly flashy, they each serve
a purpose. For instance, the shotgun can shoot down enemy
bullets before they get to you, while the laser cannon can
eliminate many of your opponents with a single shot.
Switching from one weapon to another can be a real nuisance,
however. In order to do so, you must pause the action, which
brings up a menu at the bottom of the screen that displays
your current arsenal. The most appealing aspect of most
shooting games is the fast, uninterrupted action that takes
place in them. A session of Side Arms is unfortunately full
of interruptions, due to this inadequate weapon selection process.
One semi-interesting element in Side Arms' game play is the
ability to obtain a special alpha drone, which combines with
your warrior to make a powerful attack machine. While in
drone form, your standard gunshots will be accompanied by
beams which are fired in eight different directions. You're
twice as big in drone form, however, which means that you're
also twice as vulnerable to enemy firepower. Upon receiving
a hit from an enemy, your drone will be destroyed and you'll
be on your own again.
Side Arms is a very difficult game to get through. Not only
are the enemies quick and relentless, but one hit is all it
takes to annihilate your great interstellar warrior. You'll
only get three lives and two continues to make it through
this contest, and it's sure to be a frustrating ride. There
aren't any breaks in the action when your warrior goes down;
another warrior simply appears in his place. Thus, if you
were surrounded when you were destroyed, you'll still be
surrounded when your next try begins. It's very possible for
you to lose all of your lives and both of your continues in
mere moments, as the enemies won't let up and your firepower
will be depleted each time that you die.
The graphics in Side Arms have an odd, washed-out look about
them. The cookie-cutter enemies are small and nondescript,
while the backgrounds are generally dull and unimpressive.
Even the boss characters have a simplistic look about them,
and to make things worse, some bosses reappear or use
identical attack patterns against you. It just doesn't
appear that much time or effort were put into the visuals or
enemy designs in Side Arms.
The music and sound effects are in an even worse state than
the graphics. Everything you hear in this game could have
easily been done on an 8-bit system. It's not that the music
is unlistenable or the sounds are terribly annoying, but the
Turbografx-16 was capable of so much more than this. The
boss music is particularly bad - they went for intensity and
drama with this tune, but instead it sounds as if you're
about to be attacked by some cute, furry little villain from
a colorful 8-bit title.
The action in Side Arms is quite fast, and while it's a
frustrating game, it isn't boring to play. However, there
were so many quality shooters released for the Turbo that
there really isn't any reason to purchase this one. Give
Sinistron or Psychosis a try (or Gate of Thunder if you have
CD capabilities), and forget about this one. But hey, if
nothing else, at least Side Arms will forever remain the
answer to an obscure trivia question.
Overall: 5 out of 10
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