The Daily Click

::. ::.

Author:	*The* Chris Street
Added:	30/08/2003
Overall:
Average:	7/10

Natomic Studios are probably the biggest klik group around at the moment. Their resume is extremely good; their games are usually of a high quality. There have been a few exceptions to that rule though, most notably Shining Armour, Alien Bean Invasion, and both Bi-nary games. I just find them boring. The trouble is, Natomic have recently stopped making large games and concentrated on high score games which upload to their site. Thus the longevity of these games is questionable. Sadly, Sideswipe is one of those games. But its not really that bad a game.

Presentation
Akira's one of those rare breed of klikkers who enter the realms of perfectionists. Usually, anyway. Upon booting up, you get the Natomic logo...nice enough, and a title screen with a hand drawn sketch. It's a pretty poor excuse for a title screen to be honest; it seems that Akira didn't really care about that. The rest of the games presentation is fine.

Gameplay
I mentioned earlier how recently Natomics games have become high score affairs. Once someone pulverises a high score which you set, you lose motivation to play. The basic premise is that you control a vehicle, and it plays a little like the mine cart stages in the Donkey Kong games. A continually scrolling screen as you collect coins and speed through enemies using a special speed boost. It's all very well coded, but can be pretty slow. And once you play it a few times it gets repetitive. Take away the high score mode and all you're left with is a long drive through forests, trying to collect the unlockable extras the stage after. Once you've done that, and it shouldn't take all that long, thats all the game has to offer. More levels and variety would have been good.

Graphics
Top notch. They are very well sprited and animate beautifully. The sky is a little sparse perhaps, which is why the rating suffers.

Sound And Music
Theres the sound of a revving motorbike, some coin sounds, and a very inaudiable gasp from the player whenever he gets hurt. Oh and a whooshing sound when you "power up". Very minimalistic. The music is kind of...well...boring. Its not badly composed, it just lacks in variety. Monotonous is probably a good word to use here.

Lastability
Ah. The game is pretty easy to get through, but the high score factor may be approved by others. Take that away though and you've got very little replay value. Shame.

Overall
It could have been so much better, this game. Akira's spent so much time on it, and seemingly delivered so little. Take away the fancy graphics (and they are damn good) and you don't really have much left.