It is light years into the future and there is trouble in your sector.
The galaxy is being threatened by an unknown nemesis from a distant black hole and you, earth's lone, Interstellar Warrior must stop the terrible destruction at hand.
The latest game in my TurboGrafx journey is Side Arms Hyper Dyne!
Side Arms Hyper Dyne was released for the TurboGrafx in December 1989, during the launch year of the console in the United States.
It is a port of a Capcom arcade game, and in many ways the TurboGrafx port is actually superior to the arcade version.
Graphically the TurboGrafx version is very close to the arcade, so it's pretty much a tie in that department (if there are differences they have to be VERY minor - you'd have to do a side-by-side to be able to tell).
It's the music where the game really shines though. The arcade music is...well to put it bluntly, strange. It's like some kind of lame carnival music (or something like that) and doesn't really seem to fit the action like the music in the TurboGrafx version (I'm guessing the devs had the same thought, which is why the music is different).
Conversely, the TurboGrafx version has awesome music, which is very fitting of the action and on par with the other great shooters on the TurboGrafx.
The controls on the TurboGrafx are also spot-on, but the TurboGrafx has one HUGE advantage the arcade doesn't: the turbo buttons. Seriously, I can't convey just how essential those gamepad turbo button settings are in shmups like this one. It takes a semi-painful button mashing experience (like in the arcade) and turns it into an auto-fire slaughterfest - in the best possible way.
Now, this won't always save your hide, however, since in Stage 2 they throw so much crap at you that the turbo buttons alone aren't enough to save you. You will see in my beginning gameplay video that I didn't make it very far in this game, and that is still true today.
Side Arms is HARD, and especially on the second and third stages, they throw tons of crap at you from different directions, and your invincibility after dying only lasts like half a second, so it's very likely you just keep dying and keep dying if you are in a particularly bad section.
All I can advise is that you wait out the continue a little bit to see if some of the firestorm of enemies and bullets clears out of the way before you continue, but sometimes that backfires and it simply means that more enemies accumulate and practically guarantee a speedy death.
If you'd like to see my very first gameplay from Side Arms (as bad as it is) you can check out my YouTube video:
And if you'd like to see how the arcade version compares (with my very bad gameplay) you can check out this YouTube video:
Interestingly, there was a "Special" version released for the PC-Engine CD ROM that was never released in the U.S. It added CD-quality music plus an extra mode called "Before Christ"; yes, seriously.
You can checkout my gameplay from the "Special" version in this YouTube video:
Overall though, I really like Side Arms and I simply wish I was better at playing it, but the gameplay is fun (while it lasts), the music is banging, and the graphics are great. What more could you ask for?
The next game in my TurboGrafx journey is going to be...
World Class Baseball!
Now, I'm not the biggest baseball fan, nor the biggest baseball game fan, but I do enjoy playing baseball video games more than I enjoy actually watching baseball, so maybe I'll have fun with it.
Until next time Turbo Troops!
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