Your Princess is Spray-painted on Another Billboard (Review Sideway: New York)

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation Portable.

So what happens when you go hunting for your missing girlfriend and get sucked into another dimension as a spray-painted toon trapped in 2D in a 3D world? Say hello to Sideway: New York.  As Nox, you’ll navigate the walls and roofs of New York; you’ll go up against spray-painted monsters, spikes, traps, and learn to fear water as you search for your kidnapped princess girlfriend through various neighborhoods, and finally challenge Spray, the dastardly paint-based villain.

Sideway: New York is a unique game in that although up is still up on the side of a building, when you climb to the top, that dimension is solely based on which side of the building you entered it from.  Dropping down to another side from the roof will reset the perspective, but as a result, changes the puzzle on the roof since the up direction is no longer the same.

As you progress through the levels, you’ll pick up collectibles, hunt for secret tags, and gain new power-up abilities that will get you through increasingly difficult challenges.  Power-ups include everything from ranged attacks, double jump, to ground slams.  From a platforming perspective, the game is extremely well done, though it’s not perfect.  Every so often, you’ll come across a puzzle which, if not done correctly, becomes impassable and forces the user to reset to the last checkpoint.  Tie this in with an odd glitch or two experienced due to collision detection error (which resulted in a block I needed falling through the platform and becoming unusable), it can be frustrating in an otherwise great game.  Also, while the Hip-Hop lovers will enjoy the music, the limited selection in tracks will still grate on the nerves relatively quickly.

Co-op play is available, allowing a second player to join in at anytime.  Although this is a nice feature, player two is limited to being Tails to your Sonic: there to support, gets left behind if you get too far ahead, and doesn’t really add a huge amount to most levels.  Having a second player does help, though, for boss fights, as it provides a respawn.

Overall, Sideway: New York suffers from a few shortcomings in an otherwise brilliant 2D platformer with truly innovative and enjoyable gameplay.  Check it out on the PlayStation Network.

Wanderson75 gives this game 4.0/5.0