RipTen Review: Sideway: New York (PSN)

Sideway: New York is interesting at first glance. A 2D (with elements of 3D) platformer, based in a world covered in graffiti, and complimented with a hip-hop soundtrack. You might be thinking of Marc Ecko’s Getting Up, but besides the thematic similarities, the games don’t have much in common.

Sideway puts in you in the role of Nox, a young graffiti artist based in the city of New York. Through magical ‘spray-paint magic’ he’s turned into graffiti himself, and must traverse various buildings, ultimately stopping his foe “Spray” by tagging over the said foes art. The story is quite forgettable and uninspired, after the initial cutscene I was confused as to why I’m a piece of graffiti running along walls – but it’s a platformer, and it’s not as vital in this case. You’ll accomplish your ultimate goal of conquering ”Spray” through basic platforming gameplay – jump on platforms, collect score bubbles and use various moves such as sliding kicks or graffiti grenades to take care of ranged foes. The trick here is that all of your gameplay takes place on a flat wall – but the wall is part of a three dimensional building, so as soon as you walk out of the current plane, the camera will shift around and present you with a new landscape. It’s interesting to see in motion, but it’s never used in any particularly interesting ways.

Aside from the shifting perspective, the game itself is very simple, but it gets more complex over time. You’ll start off with the basic jump ability, but soon enough you’ll be able to spray platforms in pre-defined locations, use a paint grappling hook to swing from location to location and use various combat moves to combat the artistic little enemies. Controlling Nox feels a little loose compared to other games in the genre, and it stands out when asked to complete time based puzzles or fight multiple enemies. It often feels very “trial and error” like, at which point I decided to play it like a pass-and-play speedrun game, opting to hand the controller over whenever a death occured. When played as such, the game is far more enjoyable, as it doesn’t particularly reward slow and steady gameplay. When that’s the only thing your game does, you should probably get it right – but that’s not the case with Sideway. Having to replay sections over and over is not a rewarding experience, but luckily the checkpoints are placed smartly – as if the developers know how difficult it can be.

Visually, Sidewat is very unique when compared to other games on the market. Bright and fluorescent art pieces litter the walls, and nicely rendered buildings and environments help flush out the atmosphere. What’s really neat however, is the fact that all graffiti serves a purpose. Jumping onto a thorn tag could prove fatal (as I soon learned), it’s not all there just for decoration. The actual graffiti Nox sprays is a little less inspired, it’s hardly ever more than a giant block version of his name, and there’s no chance to get creative at all. The music leaves a little to be inspired, which is a shame. Classic hiphop beats SHOULD work in this context, but it’s often looped to the point of it becoming annoying, rather than novel.

For $10, it’s not a bad experience to kill some of your platforming cravings. The game can be played through in local co-op mode, so it could easily be an entertaining afternoon, provided you don’t literally beat up your co-op partner for frequent deaths. The loose controls and perspective changing gimmick can wear a little thin over time, holding back what could potentially be a gem for PS3 owners. For $10 however, you could buy a sealed copy of Marc Ecko’s Getting Up, and get a true graffiti videogame done right (I did after playing Sideway).

Here’s The Rundown:

+ Cool Concept

- Bland Execution

+ Looks Cool

- Doesn’t Control Well

+ It’s only $10

- It’s not Marc Ecko’s Getting Up in 2D

Sideway New York was developed by Play Brains and published by Sony Online Entertainment.  It was released exclusively on the Playstation Network for $9.99 on October 11th, 2011.  A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for the purposes of review.  Dave and Aaron both thought it looked really cool.  Sadly, all it really did was make Aaron want to play Marc Ecko’s Getting Up again.  Seriously, he made his girlfriend go out and buy him a used copy.