overdrive's Side Arms review

I remember this game; you definitely liked it more than I did. I hated the short invincibility window most of all.

Great observation with the interconnected scenes. You're right: not many shooters give you that real sense of progression. Almost none that I can think of, offhand.

Did you ever play or see the arcade version? I think my familiarity with it made me more disappointed with this port. Hooking up with a pal to go back-to-back was awesome in a way that it's not when playing solo.

I "saw" the arcade version from looking at it through shmups.com, as it's listed under PC Engine, but uses arcade screencaps. In that review of it, I recall them saying that to get a truly good experience, you had to adjust the board to play on the harder level. They also said that would make it so that you fought two snakes as the final boss. With how I felt about fighting the one, I don't think adding another would have made it remotely enjoyable, let alone better.

While I don't think that site really gets much (if any) updates, I'm glad it still exists. I remember using it as my main resource when it came to finding shooters I wanted to play. Just go through their picture reviews and scarf up the ROMs for any of them that looked remotely promising.