There are projects widely untwisted. We learn about them long before the release, we look forward to, draw fan drawings and sing long fan songs on the eve of the exit. In most cases, the event itself is not at all as rainbow as we have already mentally outline it for ourselves.
There are other games. Little is known about them, because almost disinterested enthusiasts-developers of money also do not have any ad. Game sites do not include this “little thing” in the list of the expected prime minister of the month, and we can easily pass by something completely standing, without even noticing. Could, if it were not for good game critics who select such indie, heated and showed to the general public. How, you did not know that almost all game critics are kind and deep down they love kittens? Doesn’t matter.
One way or another, today we want to introduce you Sideway: New York From a little -known studio Playbrains.
Flat world
It’s about Arkade. Moreover, about ideologically two-dimensional arcade. “What does ideology have to do with it?” – the reader will ask. “Yes, they simply did not have enough budget for a full three -dimensional game!” – the even more implacable reader will cry.
But no. That is, maybe there was not enough for something-we did not look into the developers in our pockets. But the sauce under which we were given this 2-3D world, in any case, makes you look at the entourage from a different point of view.
In the role of the protagonist-a guy named Knox, a fan of drawing graffiti on the houses of New York. One fine day, he discovers that his girlfriend was abducted, and he was drawn to the bizarre world of graffiti, where an evil artist named Spray is dominated. Now the Knox itself consists of paint, looks absolutely flat, and the walls of the buildings become the place of its deployment for the next few hours of passage. But this petty trouble should not prevent the brave hero with to save his girlfriend, and at the same time – and the whole world. After all, the spray cherishes grandiose plans to enslave a three -dimensional space.
Sounds like a simple tie of a simple game in the style of retro -platformers? As if not! After all, two -dimensionality in Sideway: New York – illusory. Knox easily jumps from the wall to the floor, from the floor – to the roof. And the world around the world suddenly turns upside down. Where the top was just, it suddenly turns out to be the bottom or is the left back in general. Therefore, despite the programming of all these transformations, Sideway Often it seems unpredictable and sudden. By the way, the creators of the platformer and yet it moves very successfully used the similar principle at one time.
One of the best Arcad of 2009 and Yet It Moves was also built on the idea of constant measurement rotation. In this case, the revolution of the world upside down, by the way, was also associated with the concept of the drawn world. Only if in Sideway: New York We are talking about graffiti on the walls, then in Ayim everything, including the hero himself, consisted of colored paper.
Death to him
Surrounding landscapes from level to level do not change too radically. It is understandable-after all, we are talking about a fundamentally urban surroundings. New York. So we climb between electric wires, drains, parapets and boxes.
But we can literally collect tons of tons of tins with paint, for which we are accrued prize glasses. Sometimes, to get to a couple of especially tricky horned cans, you have to show miracles of combinatorics.
Well or just die. Death in Sideway: New York – Not the end of the world, but a completely everyday event. Died – revived again at the last point of conservation. Given that these points are scattered around the world with a generous hand and wait for us almost after each dangerous site, a trip to the next world can not be afraid of too much. By the way, after each date with a bony shomster, we resurrect with a completely updated strip of health. And if the monsters after each death find themselves in their rightful places, then collection banks, once in the pocket of our hero, remain there forever.
For the homeland! For a three -dimensional world!
On the way to a bright and bright future we meet all sorts of evil beings. There are one-eyed blots that spit on the clots of paint, and flying graffiti-balonchiks, spatting on the hero from above, and healthy gorilla-like robots with tentacles.
Fighting these creatures of inflamed imagination can be several ways. It is often enough to just jump over, run away or crawl. In a word, avoid the battle. And if you can’t avoid in any way, you have to launch crown techniques – sliding at the fifth point, crushing a jump in a jump or even a throw of a grenade made of paint.
These abilities are revealed to us in turn during the passage. Gradually, the Knox, at first only able to jump and run, learns to pull up on a drawn rope, slip under obstacles and even temporarily show in the drawn world with his own -handed objects, which can also be climbed. All this sometimes creates very interesting ways to solve problems. Jump, activate the rope and swing on it in order to fly to the platform, which the hero also has to “create” in the jump – in Sideway Such things are found almost at every step.
At the first levels, the game is easier to take place. The farther to the stone jungle – the more “firewood” you have to pour over each other, move, push and combine in order to advance forward. Developers throw a new opportunity into the game or a new monster exactly at the moment when the old. So if Sideway I managed to tighten the player with my head once, then it will not let go to the very end.
Pierce the “boss”, be a man
Finally, having run the three-fame levels, we, as a rule, run into the “boss”. And here you have to take off the hat in front of the developers: battles with the main adversaries have nothing to do with their favorite reception of all arcadisters – the stupid “jaming” of the enemy to nervous fainting … computer mouse.
Knox wins due to cunning and ingenuity. For example, a healthy, but stupid guy, nicknamed a big thing, do not get a blow from the foot. But you can use a funny combination of luring and piercing. The Boss at certain moments accelerates and runs towards the knocks to smear it along the wall with an even layer. Our small smart-witted boy-prisoner activates the inscription with sharp stakes on the wall, after which he jumps out of the path of the rushing “tank” in time and watches a delicious clash. It is enough to crank this technique three times to get out of the fight by the winner.
The only thing that can be blamed for the creators Sideway, – Graphic monotony. No, in general, all this painted world looks quite stylish. Three -dimensional items do not look too detailed, and the stylization under the comic book helped more than one low -budget project, but we will not find fault. The lack of visible changes in the city landscape over the most part of the game is more upset – gray roofs, square boxes of houses, the same boxes and purebate windows accompany us on the way constantly. But, in the end, this is not such a terrible crime.
Sideway: New York -a solid arcade with a share of non-standard, quite enough for the game to be considered a truly good. Let it be about a chamber, short and not too ambitious project. From our point of view, a successful implementation of even such a project is always better than a huge Makhina with a failed claim to a depth and scale. That’s why Sideway with a clear conscience, we recommend for use.
Pros:
Interesting concept;properly built rhythm;a variety of monsters and abilities that create a variety of gameplay.
Cons: The uniformity of graphic surroundings.