Sidearms

[Dave Paprocki]

A [coin-op] game released by [Capcom]/[Romstar] in 1986. The full title was [Sidearms] [Hyperdyne] in the U.S. and [Hyperdyne] [Sidearms] in Japan. Sidearms was a very underated and somewhat rare [shooter]/[shmup] with a [Robo-Tech] type theme. The game featured both 1 and 2 player simultaneous action, horizontal and vertical scrolling, several stages ranging from moderate to downright difficult, challenging and sometimes huge bosses, a special power-up that unlocked a dual [mecha] transformation and other bonus features. The game was ported mostly to computers such as the [Atari ST], and [Commodore 64] as well as the [PC-Engine]/[TurboGrafx-16] and also Sonys [PSP] in a [Capcom] compilation. Sidearms was the second game in a series known as [Jetpack Hero] which started with [Section-Z] and ended with [Forgotten Worlds]. They are related only in that they have a similar layout and gameplay; each game in the series has its own storyline.