WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [ Techno music ] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Alright folks, it's Dr.Sparkle again 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Geez, It seems like forever since the last episode. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well anyways, sorry it's so late but here we are again. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The PC engine schedule seems to get a bit more hectic 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as we get closer to the 1989 holiday season. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Today, We're gonna finnish up July and blast through all of August and September. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We're gonna' see a number of arcade ports today, as well as some obscure (and rather shitty) original titles. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We ended last episode with a classic shooter, Blazing Lasers, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we begin this episode with a not-so-classic shooter, Side Arms 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (or Side Arms: Hyper Dyne, as it's officially called in Japan) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is the second port of a Capcom arcade game for the system (the first being SunSun 2) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and, once again, this is published by N.E.C., not Capcom themselves. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 However, in the U.S., this was one of the very few TurboGrafx games not published by N.E.C. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Rather, it was by a small company called Radiance Software, which seemed to have very close ties to Capcom. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They were also well known for their involvement in the canceled, ah, Nintendo Entertainment System California Raisins game. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The guy who ran Radiance, Christopher Riggs, actually lists himself as being a product developer at Capcom in the early 1990s. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Prior to Radiance, he apparently co-founded a company called Pacific DataWorks, with, uh, Troy Lyndon 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (who was an interesting guy who much later, uh, was behind the, uh, the infamous Left Behind computer video game. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Pacific DataWorks mostly did DOS and Commodore 64 ports for Capcom (including Side Arms!). 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Riggs also had a company called Riggs Interactive which did, uh, computer ports for Capcom. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So it's no surprise that the first Radiance game is, of course, a Capcom port. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Anywho, Earth got blown up or something, and your little robot mecha dude is out there, uh, to kill lots of aliens. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Mechanics are moreorless like similar shooters of the era (such as Gradius). 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Enemies drop power-ups, speed-ups, and other types of, uh, special weapons. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Nothing too new or exciting, here, but there are a couple interesting ideas. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The main one is: you can turn around and fire in the opposite direction by hitting the second button 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (making Side Arms kind of a predecessor to Forgotten Worlds). 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, Side Arms was originally an arcade game from 1986. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Aside from the ability to fire, uh, front and back, a big feature of Side Arms was that two players 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 could occasionally combine into a single more powerful form 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (with one player controlling the mech and the other controlling his special attack weapons). 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The home version dropped this 2-Player mode, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (meaning that your combined form is basically just a temporary upgrade). 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It lasts until you get hit. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The other cool feature is the ability to select your... which weapon you wanna lose from the Start menu 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (as opposed to losing your current weapon when you pick up a new one, like in most other shooters). 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You can actually carry a whole bunch of weapons at once. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, this is actually very helpful, since certain types of weapons are more useful than others in some spots. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In fact, certain weapons are pretty much vital for some areas. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And this leads me to one issue that so many Shoot-em-Ups have. If you die once, you are pretty much screwed. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Side Arms is even much worse than many other similar games. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When the action gets hectic and you screw up and get killed, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you'll be brought back to life with, like, a single random underpowered weapon, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 generally with enemies, like, closing in on you from all sides. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, get killed and odds are good that you'll get killed again within a second or two. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And there are so many damn enemies (like missiles, et cetera) that home in on you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and follow you around, as you try to avoid them. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And when you have, like, a very basic weapon that only shoots in one direction, it's pretty difficult to pick these guys off. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Also, like Gradius, picking up too many speed power-ups will make you move, uh, too fast and be hard to control precisely. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Overall, it's actually a pretty hard game (harder than Gradius or R-Type, in my opinion) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but it actually, uh, looks great and I liked it better than the Genesis port of Forgotten Worlds.