Sidearms
System: TG16
Release Date: December 1989
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Radiance Software
Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Sidearms or Hyper Dyne Side Arms or Side Arms Hyper Dyne depending on where you’re at is a port of a Capcom side scrolling shoot ‘em up. Right away, the manual uses light years to denote time instead of distance, so that’s a strong start… Earth’s lone interstellar warrior must save the galaxy from an unknown nemesis emanating from a nearby black hole.
As you kill enemies, some of them drop items. In the first misstep, the items must be shot to turn them into other items you may want to collect. It starts as a power up for the Bit weapon, then speed, then the Shotgun (this ended up being my go to), then the Mega-Ballistic Laser, Three-Way Shot, and Auto Shot. Different weapons are better suited for different parts in each level. One power up you really want is the Transformation Alpha icon. This gives the ability to shoot in 8 directions with the push of a button and take an extra hit before dying.
Shooting is unique in Sidearms, because you can shoot to the left with Button II and to the right with Button I. This allows you to attack most anyone on screen, which is important, because enemies to come on screen from behind you quite often. You’re going to need to collect those powerups quickly, because they stop your bullets, causing enemies to stay alive when you don’t want them to.
There are really two types of bosses. The first is a cruiser that shoots homing missiles and lasers at you. The strategy is to find a spot where the lasers miss you while you can get damage on the enemy. The second is a kind of Ferris Wheel. You have to avoid attacks by the cars while putting a hurting on the center point. The bosses aren’t terribly hard, but they’ll punish you if you aren’t perfect.
Sidearms is one of those shooters that punishes you a great deal for dying. You’re brought right back on screen with an incredibly short invincibility time. This leads to multiple deaths in quick succession. When you die, you lose the weapon you had equipped. When you lose all your lives, you can continue, but you have no weapons at that point, which means a quick death. I don’t think a normal person can get through this one legitimately.
Graphics: 2.5
Everything looks nice, but nothing spectacular.
Sound: 2.0
The music is fine, but the sound effects drown it out and are more annoying than good.
Gameplay: 2.0
Being able to shoot left and right is nice. Having multiple different weapon choices is pretty helpful, too.
Difficulty: 1.0
You have to have every enemy memorized in order to get through this one legitimately. The number of times you’re revived just to immediately die again is garbage.
Fun Factor: 1.0
I didn’t enjoy Sidearms. It was a chore to play and I cheated my way through because I would have quit early, otherwise.
Overall Grade: 1.7
Sidearms earns a C-. Sidearms suffers where it matters, don’t bother playing this one, unless you’re a shoot ‘em up completionist. I can only hope the arcade game was better.