Friday, February 17, 2012

Skip: Sideway: New York ($9.99)

a few days ago I found Sideway: New York, a 2.5D Brooklyn set platformer, in my steam recommendations. I was intrigued. I thought, I'm not sure I want to throw down $10 on a platformer boasting only 15 levels, but I knew from the screenshots that Sideway had some charm to it, and I'm a sucker for interesting aesthetic choices.


Sideway's look has something about it that makes it feel like the developers last visit to Brooklyn was at the height of "X-treme" era. You play as Nox, a hoodie wearing, goatee'd hipster looking guy, who has been turned into graffiti by a billboard, and has to find his crew and a way out of/off of the walls of Brooklyn. The Story never gets much deeper, and you should already know what kind of game it is as soon as you hear "graffiti". Everything is graffiti, Nox, your attacks, your enemies, and your collectibles, which seems like a pretty cool stylistic choice until you realize that there is no other unifying unifying element than "colorful". The enemies range from alien mucus with an eye, to these kind of zombie-ish black guys, and Sideway never tells you why. Ultimately, Sideway has style, in a retro, tongue-in-cheek way, and having Nox move around walls as a flat image on 3D surfaces works in a way that wouldn't be anywhere near as cool looking if the entire game was in 2D or 3D.


The music is not so nice, and 'd be more forgiving about it if not for the fact that the music is provided by an artist from Skullcandy, Mr. Lif. This strikes me as odd, as one would think a company that makes stylish music-related products would provide good music. No, this music is "generic" hip-hop at it's worst. I tried, but cannot think of another way to describe it. It's got a very plain rhythm, marked by a record record scratching sound I swear has been used in every bad game from the 90's trying to be "ghetto". The songs with voices all sound like when J-pop tracks try putting deep voiced rappers in the background, and It just ends up annoying mumbling. Honestly, the soundtrack isn't terrible, it's just not good either, and though it may not be fair, if you're old enough to have played the classic Jet Set Radio, you won't be able to avoid comparing them. Sideway never had a chance.


Lets talk about gameplay. I'd love to shower this game with praise, because the level design is really nice. Sideway really gets creative with how they use the 2D-3D hybrid look here. It uses the fact that Nox is a painting to make it so he can cross any wall not blocked by something,and if you go around the right wall the right way, you can revisit areas rotated on their side or upside-down to access things you couldn't earlier. This mechanic makes it so that you really have to be clever to get 100% of the games "coin"; circular graffiti on the walls. Because Sideway's has generous checkpoints, and no outdated lives system, the levels are well balanced. Easy to finish, but hard to complete.


I can't praise Sideway too much though, because as beautiful as the levels are, the controls are flawed. It seems Sideway has trouble when you hit two keys at once. I literally had to work on the same jumping section for over five minutes because there was a platform that had to be painted in while jumping. Nox, however, was more content with just killing himself, over-and-over again. It got the point where I actually quit the level so I could go to another similar platform and check to see if I was hitting the wrong key. I was not. I noticed the issue before this point, but since this is the first time missing a platform means instant death, I really noticed how much of an issue it is. The same sometimes happens when running as well. Nox will not register that you're pressing the jump button, and run straight into whatever pitfall or obstacle you're telling him to avoid. In a turn based game, this would be a minor flaw, maybe an annoyance at worst. In a platformer, it can break a game. It's also worth note that the health system is useless. finding life power-ups allow Nox an extra hit before he dies, but seeing as you never respawn more than a few seconds from where you died, it only has any impact in Sideway's very few the Boss fights.


No matter how much I want to, I just can't recommend this game. I purchased this game hoping that maybe the levels would be long enough to make up for the fact there are only 15 total, and that the platforming would be good enough to warrant replaying levels for completion's sake. Sideway: New York only fulfills the latter, and add in the control issues and you may not want to even replay the best levels. For $10, there really isn't enough value in Sideway to justify the price.. It's not a bad game, and if you have the disposable income to spend, then I can recommend it as a way to kill a few hours and be impressed by some great level design. If you're like me, and can maybe drop $20-$30 a month at most on games, Sideway is just not worth such a significant chunk of that budget.







Note: The control issues may be due to the fact it's a PS3 port, and it may work better with a controller. I don't take this into account because that is an extra investment that, as a gamer on a strict budget, I am not willing to invest in a controller, and I would rather not tell other people to pay for something I myself don't see as necessary.

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