If ever there was a platform that would benefit from making the most of the schmup genre, it has to be the Nintendo Switch. Like your schmup with a side dish of vertical as you blast away at interstellar cannon fooder? Flip the console into position and pretend that you’re blasting away on an old school arcade stand while the Greek corner cafe owner starts to fume about your single token giving you hours of play because of all your skill.
Prefer something more traditional ala the old school benchmark set by the likes of Gradius? Stick to the horizontal and laser your way through mobs of enemies flooding in from the right-hand side of the screen! Here’s a question for you though: What if you had to contend with enemies from both sides of the screen? Imagine bullet hell from all directions, a constant shift between positions and only the most narrow of margins with which to duck through the constant barrage of enemy fire as the action heats up.
That’s the main premise of Syder Reloaded, which mixes old school with new school to create a hybrid experience of high scores and action. A remaster of 2012’s Syder Arcade, Syder Reloaded may be light on story (grab a ship, save the universe), but it’s classic side-scrolling ferocity with a ton of options. You’re able to grab one of several ships to pilot, each one featuring its own mix of special abilities across a range of craft designed to tickle retro playstyles and more modern prototypes that specialise in their own form of cosmic carnage.
Finding that particular style which suits you best, manoeuvring through the increasing odds stacked against you and emerging victorious is the name of the game. Just good classic fun, that can have extra nostalgia applied to it with over a dozen filters designed to slap your eyeballs with 1990s aesthetics. There are options for enjoying Syder Reloaded at a more leisurely pace in case you’re looking for a more cathartic experience, while more competitive players can amp up the difficulty as they hunt down the top spot on the leaderboards.
Last Updated: March 12, 2020
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There’s a banging soundtrack, the visuals look sharp across the Switch’s multiple playable formats and the action still feels as deliciously old school as ever. Everything you could possibly want from a white-knuckle schmup ride with Syder Reloaded.
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| Syder Reloaded was reviewed on Nintendo Switch | |
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75 /
100
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Skyblue
March 12, 2020 at 21:40
“while the Greek corner cafe owner starts to fume about your single token giving you hours of play because of all your skill” – I can wholly relate to this experience with a 20 cent coin and 1942!
On the game itself, it isn’t Resogun (no shoot-em-up ever will be I fear) but I had fun on the PC with the original title years ago and will probably revisit it again in future.