1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [ Techno music ] 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Alright folks, it's Dr.Sparkle again 3 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Geez, It seems like forever since the last episode. 4 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Well anyways, sorry it's so late but here we are again. 5 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The PC Engine schedule seems to get a bit more hectic 6 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as we get closer to the 1989 holiday season. 7 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Today, We're gonna finnish up July and blast through all of August and September. 8 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. 9 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We ended last episode with a classic shooter, Blazing Lasers, 10 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we begin this episode with a not-so-classic shooter, Side Arms 11 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (or Side Arms: Hyper Dyne, as it's officially called in Japan) 12 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) 13 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and, once again, this is published by N.E.C., not Capcom themselves. 14 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. 15 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. 16 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. 17 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. 18 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Prior to Radiance, he apparently co-founded a company called Pacific DataWorks, with, uh, Troy Lyndon 19 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. 20 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Pacific DataWorks mostly did DOS and Commodore 64 ports for Capcom (including Side Arms!). 21 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Riggs also had a company called Riggs Interactive which did, uh, computer ports for Capcom. 22 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So it's no surprise that the first Radiance game is, of course, a Capcom port. 23 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. 24 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Mechanics are moreorless like similar shooters of the era (such as Gradius). 25 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Enemies drop power-ups, speed-ups, and other types of, uh, special weapons. 26 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Nothing too new or exciting, here, but there are a couple interesting ideas. 27 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 28 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (making Side Arms kind of a predecessor to Forgotten Worlds). 29 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now, Side Arms was originally an arcade game from 1986. 30 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 31 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 could occasionally combine into a single more powerful form 32 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (with one player controlling the mech and the other controlling his special attack weapons). 33 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The home version dropped this 2-Player mode, 34 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (meaning that your combined form is basically just a temporary upgrade). 35 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It lasts until you get hit. 36 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 37 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). 38 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You can actually carry a whole bunch of weapons at once. 39 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. 40 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In fact, certain weapons are pretty much vital for some areas. 41 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. 42 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Side Arms is even much worse than many other similar games. 43 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When the action gets hectic and you screw up and get killed, 44 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you'll be brought back to life with, like, a single random underpowered weapon, 45 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 generally with enemies, like, closing in on you from all sides. 46 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. 47 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And there are so many damn enemies (like missiles, et cetera) that home in on you 48 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and follow you around, as you try to avoid them. 49 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. 50 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. 51 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) 52 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.