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

Every now and then, you have to wonder how much developers and publishers actually listen to players. Back in the ’80s, this was an even bigger issue than it is today.

Cash cows and franchise-milking are nothing new—they’ve been around since the dawn of gaming. Sadly, Sidewinder is no exception.

Sidewinder – I can still remember the very first time I played this game! The amazing graphics, the over-the-top sound—it was the very first vertical shoot ’em up I ever tried on the Amiga.

Revisiting childhood favourites can be risky business nearly 30 years later. Will it still be as good as I remember? Probably not. But what it does do is trigger a flood of memories from my youth—and in this case, that’s not such a bad thing.

I fired up Sidewinder again just last week, and it brought back so many good memories. Fun fact: my first girlfriend was actually playing this game the day I met her. I was supposed to pick up my younger sister from a birthday party, and that’s when I met the first “gamer girl” I’d ever seen (well, aside from my sister). Ahhh, the memories.

Sidewinder was a great-looking game for its time, and that iconic opening music (yes, the intro/loading track!) instantly made it feel like a hit. Back in the 80s, that tune became legendary and has since been remixed and reused everywhere — from the Demoscene to the music industry.

But here’s the twist — Sidewinder actually got a sequel! It was released a few years after the original. I picked up my copy around the year 2000, thinking it was just another game in my collection that I hadn’t gotten around to trying yet…

How wrong I was… I did play it back then (probably more than once), and the fact that I had completely forgotten about it should have been a huge red flag. If I forget a game I’ve played, it usually means it was forgettable — or just plain bad.

Sidewinder II was indeed a proper sequel — released in a proper box — by the same publisher, Mastertronic.

For box-art lovers out there, yes, it looks decent at first glance. But look closer: the logo uses the wrong font, the ship on the cover looks nothing like the craft from the first game, and worst of all… It’s set in space.

Alright, so the box art is off — but maybe the game itself redeems it? Sadly, no. The game is built with the S.E.U.C.K. engine (Shoot ‘Em Up Construction Kit), which is basically a drag-and-drop game maker for beginner developers. It shows.

The graphics are awful, the gameplay is downright terrible, and the sound… what on earth were they thinking?

No intro music, no cool loading screen, nothing remotely interesting to grab your attention. This game was definitely never meant to be Sidewinder II!

It’s boring, clunky, and feels like every other bad S.E.U.C.K. game out there. I honestly have no idea why Mastertronic decided to release this at all — and to make things worse, it ended up being one of their final Amiga titles. What a send-off…

So yes, Sidewinder II feels like nothing more than a cheap cash-grab. I never bothered playing it much back in the day, and I won’t be spending any more time on it now either.

My advice? Skip this sequel completely and just enjoy the original — it’s the only one that deserves your time.

The boxes look great when lined up together—at least until you notice just how different their designs really are.

Honestly, Shoot ’Em Up Construction Kit games should never have been released as full retail titles. They feel more like something that should have stayed in the public domain scene, and I’m pretty sure there are better PD games out there using the exact same engine.

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