From Ace To S.E.U.C.K(Y) – Arcadia’s Sidewinder –

From time to time one got to question how much developers and publishers listen to the gamers out there, back in the 80’s this was an even bigger problem than today.

Cash cows and milking franchises are nothing new really and this goes as far back as the dawn of gaming, sadly Sidewinder is no exception.

Sidewinder, i can still remember the first time i tried the game!. The amazing graphics, that over the top sound!, the first vertical shoot’em up that i got to try on the Amiga.

Childhood memories and retro gaming can be quite a risky thing to explore 29 years later, what to expect? will it be as good as it once was? no chance!. If there is one thing that it will do is to trigger my memories from my youth, which in this case ain’t all that bad.

I just had to fire Sidewinder up last week, so many good memories!. My first girlfriend was actually playing this game when i met her, i was supposed to pick up my younger sister at a birthday party and that was the day i got to meet the first gamer girl (except for my younger sister). Ahhh the memories.

Sidewinder was a good looking game for its time and with that opening music (read.. intro/loading), well it was a given that this game was to be a hit!, especially back in the 80’s, the track has later become a quite popular theme to mix in most things from the Demoscene to the music industry.

So here is the thing, Sidewinder had a sequel! it was released a few years after the first game. I bought the game in 2000 or so.  I thought it was one of those games i have that i had yet to try…..

How wrong i was, i did try it back then (and probably before that too). When i forget about a game i have played, well then its gotta be bad…

Sidewinder II was indeed the sequel, a proper sequel in a proper box from the very same publisher (Mastertronic).

For those of you out there who love box art, it does look good alright but the logo has the wrong font, and the ship looks nothing like the craft from the first game and worst of all, it is set in space.

Ok, so the box is totally off but the game can’t be that bad right? wrong!. The game is actually using the S.E.U.C.K. engine, this is a game construction set for shoot em ups (Shoot Em Up Construction Kit) and it is meant for noobs.

The graphics are really bad, the gameplay is totally sucky and that sound, what the hell?

No intro music, no amazing loading screen, there is nothing of interest in the game what so ever!. This game was never meant to be Sidewinder II for sure!.

The game is so boring and badly done (like every S.E.U.C.K. games out there) that i have absolutely no idea why Mastertronic decided to release this game, oh and yes, it was one of their last games for the Amiga. Great job!.

So Sidewinder II was a pure cash-cow attempt, a really bad game which i never bothered to play back then and i will certainly not put any time into it in the future either.

I advise you guys to stay away from this sequel and just play the first one instead.

The boxes look nice together until you realize how different in design they really are.

Shoot Em Up Construction Kit games should never have been published as proper games, they belong in P.D land and i am certain that there are better P.D games out there using the same engine.