For the record, I actually like the NA Sidearms cover, because it has an old-skool American sci-fi aesthetic. Plus, the artist was very careful to make sure that our hero was wearing a fabulous anti-gravity ring (a striking emerald-green anti-g gem set in a masculine gold band).
I also really liked the cover when I first got it. It was actually one of the better ones for any system at the time, let alone the TG-16(still limited pencil crayon drawings).
That ring, like the rest of his getup sure is
fabulous alright, if you know what I mean.
Something that's really cool about that ad, is how it says:
"Featuring authentic "Coin-Op" quality, SIDEARMS brings you furious action, dazzling graphics and stereo sound, previously only available at the local arcade."Whats cool about this description, is back then, most ads were full of shit when making such claims, but Sidearms
really does feature coin-op quality graphics.
Actually, the certainly dazzling graphics are
slightly better than the arcade and we're talking that nicely shaded classic Capcom here. Even though, until emulation, I let myself belive that that the graphics weren't as good, and always wanted one section to look as nice as the one screenshot in magazine ads. Probably a result of reading EGM since issue one.
And the "stereo sound" really stood out to me, I remember listening to the game with ear phones and being impressed with the first stage music as it bounced around between left and right speakers. I was very impressed with the game in general, even though I'd had Sidearms Special for a year or two already.
One last amusing part about that tag line, is: "stereo sound, previously only available at the local arcade." This is funny, because I now that Sidearms, like most arcades found at "the local arcade" back in the day, was really only in mono, so once again, it's got a leg up on the "authentic "Coin-Op" quality" of the original, which was one of my favorite arcades at the time and still is today.
