Producer: Go!
Retail Price: £8.99 cassette, £12.99 disk
Author: From a Capcom arcade machine

Bozon, the tyrannical megalomaniac, is threatening to exterminate the Earth. Immediate retaliatory action is necessary and so Lieutenant Henry and Sergeant Sanders are assigned to the mission. Their aim: to infiltrate Bozon's underground empire, locate the enemy's ultimate weapon and destroy it.

Converted from the arcade game, Side Arms allows one or two players to participate in combat across a variety of horizontally scrolling monochrome backgrounds.

Immediately the enemy unleashes its defence: all available manpower is alerted and combatants appear in a variety of forms to do battle.

As the intrepid astronauts advance, they have the chance to improve their cache of weapons. When destroyed, some enemies leave collectable bonus pods. Basic pods increase fire power and improve armour but each also contains a series of additional battle improvements. A specific number of shots transforms the pod into another weapon; one shot for increased speed, four for a mega bazooka launcher, and so on. The weapons in a player's arsenal can then be selected individually from the keyboard.

Play is divided into a series of stages. At the end of each, enemy fire culminates in a laser-belching monster, who must be defeated to allow entry to the next underground level.

The game comes complete with its own soundtrack intended, presumably, to inspire you as you approach Bozon's ultimate weapon, the Mobile Armour Sentipet.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: bland and monochromatic
Sound: terribly grinding and repetitive

Another shoot 'em up conversion fails to hit the mark. Strip away all the hype (this is definitely not a 'classic shoot 'em up'), take away the gimmicky soundtrack, and you're left with a rather average game. The action, far from being as breathtaking as the promotion claims, is slow. Even with maximum speed bonuses the astronauts don't seem to get very far and spend a lot of time travelling through empty screens. Scrolling is uneven and collision detection annoyingly inaccurate. The graphics are no more outstanding than the gameplay. The atmosphere they create can be quite eerie, especially against the black background but this element isn't really exploited to its full potential. Side Arms isn't a complete disaster - after a few turns it even becomes addictive, but at the inflated price it's probably best to give it a miss.
KATI

On first investigation, Side Arms seems just like just another ordinary shoot 'em up game with appalling colour. On second investigation it's still just an ordinary shoot 'em up! The graphics are confusing, the colour is monochromatic and the sound is terrible. Some of the aliens are so small that you hardly notice them creeping up on you and others are just so big that you hardly stand a chance. The sloppy presentation makes the game look unappealing and addictiveness is almost nil. There are some places in the game that are quite pleasing to play - but not many. This game lets down GO!'s usually high standard.
NICK

I'm afraid to say that I wasn't very fond of this game. Side Arms is pretty bland visually, with some large, but rather unimpressive monochromatic sprites battling across a very similar monochromatic backdrop. Control of the main character is frustrating, as he often takes a fraction of a second too long to react to a situation, which is more often than not fatal. Another thing that annoyed me greatly was the way that the aliens occasionally killed my man without even touching him. All of these factors added to my initial feelings about the game, and in the end I was left with a vague. 'why bother?' sort of feeling.
MARK

Go!
£8.99
Reviewer: Duncan MacDonald

Oh dear, bit embarrassing this one; let me elucidate. Side Arms is a coin-op conversion that arcade freaks have been awaiting with baited breath. What's so embarrasing about that?? Pin back your shell-likes and I'll tell you.

"I spent many hours (and spondiels) in the arcades playing the original....." "Okay, I wasn't expecting exact reproduction of the graphics but......" "The overall feel has been retained at the expense of the......" These are the kind of comments expected in a review of this type, but the touble is (ulp!), I don't go to arcades very much. The last time I was in one I scored 190 points on, eeeerm ("Go on, go on"), well, on Asteroids actually. Crikey, confession may be good for the soul, but it's a bit tough on the credibility. If you're an arcade freak I offer my apologies and suggest you check out the screen-shots. Grovel. As for the rest of you, hold your breath - I now give you Side Arms (Well, I don't actually give it to you, that would cost me about £800,000, but you know what I mean).

In this monochrome right to left scroller you control a gun-toting 'flying space commando' who has to shoot the oncoming aliens. Trouble is Spec-chums, that the gun our hero starts off with is a bit, well, naff really. This coupled with a low stamina level (inducing sluggish movement), doesn't auger too well for prolonged survival. Just as well then that your gun can be upgraded and your stamina levels replenished. Phew!!! Bet you thought we were all 'goners' for a minute there. Anyway, this is how the upgrading system works:

The killing of certain aliens results in the appearance of a small bubble icon. Shooting the bubble will turn it (with each progressive shot) into a series of differently shaped icons which, when flown over, will credit you with new weapons or, of course, bonus stamina. There are five weapons available to you, the ones you possess being indicated at the bottom of the screen. You can access them via the keyboard, once you do actually have them, and as you've probably guessed they each have their own worth, depending on your situation.

So you boing around the screen shooting the aliens as the scenery scrolls inexorably behind you; until suddenly it doesn't! You're now above a tunnel shaft and there's a mega-nasty to dispose of. A biggy, by cracky. Kill it and then sit back as you descend slowly (!) to the next level. And so on.

The graphics (monochrome as I said), are pretty uninspiring throughout - functional but uninspiring. You'd have thought the chaps at Go! could have tried a bit harder, especially as there were no attribute problems to contend with. I mean, look what Hewson managed to pull out of the sack with the brillo Exolon, even with the possible colour probs.

Graphics aside though, I must say that Side Arms is actually quite addictive - the aliens follow set flight patterns, so positioning yourself for maximum effect is a learnable process. The frustration factor is set about right, but all in all the game is a trifle, (how can I say this nicely) eerm, shoddy.

Let's put it this way: seeing as this conversion has been so eagerly awaited by so many arcade stalwarts. I have to come to the conclusion that the final result is just a teensy weensy bit of a turkey (gobble, gobble). Unless of course the Speccy version is a remarkably accurate conversion of the coin-op. In which case I'm afraid that it's the 'arcade stalwarts' that are the turkeys for rating it so highly in the first place. What clots.

Label: Go!
Author: Probe
Price: £8.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

What is a plot? A plot is a background, a storyline. Does it enhance the game it belongs to, does it help you to play the game any better? No, it makes no difference to the game at all, so why should I bother telling the plot to you. After all the plot of the Arcade version of Side Arms had almost no effect on its Spectrum conversion.

For those of you who didn't know, Side Arms was a spiffing Arcade game. The Spectrum edition is not an ordinary conversion, but an almost completely inaccurate one. Groans will be emitted, readers will try to get rid of me when they see the high rating at the bottom of the page yet I say, it's brill. Though it may bear little resemblance to its arcade predecessor it is still a great game in its own right and that is how I will judge it. (Quell shock Tony - G.T.)

Viewed from the side, you play a robotty chappy who has to fly left to right generally shooting anything that creeps menacingly into view. A frustrating point for all Zynaps/Defender players: The nasties come from behind you as well, so you'll have to drop that cowardly tactic of staying in the leftmost half of the screen.

Your large robotty person can turn to shoot these spots on the orifice of nastykind, but you must beware the nasties coming from both directions at once. You start with a puny little 'one shot at a time' gun which is generally useless, but do not be disheartened. Upgrades are right around the next screen which make your weapons seriously better. Certain aliens leave little pods when they get shot (I think we might leave little pads if we got shot mightn't we readers) which can be transformed into various other things simply by shooting them.

Once you have collected a weapon, you can switch between that and any other weapons you may have collected. All of the weapons are useful, depending on the situation you are in. The 3 way is useful when there are a lot of nasties on screen, as it clears them quite quickly though is not very precise. The Auto laser is of particular good use in the second level when little snake like chains follow you around the screen and need a to be shot a multitude of times in the head before they die. The other weapons are also needed in various areas, but I'll leave that for you to find out what you need where.

Upon starting, the graphics do not promise much, but play on. The graphics are well defined, and are a little lacking in details but when you reach the end of a level really come into its own. Huge end of level guardians do their stuff, be it bouncing up and down or spinning around. The guardians are very, very well designed and well animated but they do tend to die very easily.

The game is very easy in some places, though in others it's frustratingly hard. It has been put together in such a way that you get amazingly far in a few goes and then die and believe me, it gives a great sense of 'just one more go'. Buy it.

Fans of the coin-op may be disappointed, but just think of it as an original game.

Go! shoot some aliens - again.

Alien tyrants seem to play an important part in game scenarios and the latest to threaten the Earth takes the name of Bozon. Thankfully there's usually a hero for the player to control in an attempt to thwart the tyrant's plans.

Step in Lieutenant Henry and Sergeant Sanders (that's you folks) for this one (C64 has two-player option) player blast that will bring you face to face with The Mobile Armour Sentipet, Bozon's secret weapon. As seems to be the norm of late with this style of game, there are numerous extra weapons to pick up. Destroy a wave of aliens, pick up the symbol that appears on-screen and you'll gain a benefit. Shooting the symbol sends it cycling through a range of benefits to choose from - extra speed, 3-way shots or a Mega Bazooka Launcher etc. You can then start to think about going for the extra points gained from shooting various non-aggressive animals and fruit that appear occasionally.

While the game can be fun for a short while, there's nothing in it to make you come, back for more. Disappointingly simple stuff that doesn't have any new features to keep the player interested for very long.

Reviewer:

RELEASE BOX
C64/128, £9.99cs, £11.99dk, Out Now
Spec, £8.99cs, Out Now
Amstrad, £9.99cs, £14.99dk, Imminent
ST version planned.

Predicted Interest Curve

1 min: 65/100
1 hour: 60/100
1 day: 50/100
1 week: 40/100
1 month: 20/100
1 year: 5/100