Sidewize is a super-smooth horizontal shoot'em up set in space, starring a man with a jetpack who faces swarm after swarm of hyperfast enemies. His aim is apparently to conquer five different worlds, characterized by a progressive difficulty level and, of course, by a different hue of monochrome for each one of them - anyway, you can choose to play the levels in the order you prefer.
As hinted before, the movement is very smooth and fast, and I can add that the graphics are very well drawn and animated too, with nice touches as the recoil each time you shoot - after all, although a Firebird Software release, we're talking about the artistry of the Odin people - who are actual authors of the game. There's only one defect, and it's when you finally reach the ground of a planet: while in the space sections there are no backgrounds besides a pleasant star field, in the monochrome planet environment, vegetation and such tend to hide the sprites and the bullets. Nonetheless, overall action and playability are very good and enjoyable, with added power up's which strenghten your fire and speed up your character. Cherry on top, even the tune and the jingles are great, both as compositions and soundwise, completing the exquisite presentation of Sidewize - which, as far as I'm concerned, in the 1987's horizontal shoot'em up category, it's second only to Zynaps.
4/5
A well-known horizontal space shooter by the Wetherill/Grunes duo. Looks pretty at first sight but after some goes it shows its obvious limits: the attack waves are mostly repetitive, too many times enemies and bullets are so thick and fast that they give you no room to move, and those fast-moving walls are an useless nuisance. Not bad, rather good in fact, but would have been better without those annoying features. 3.5/5
