Name: Sideway: New York
Item: Sideway: New York
Rating: 6.9
Author: Retro Replay

Sideway: New York

Sideway: New York starts with a genuinely neat hook: you are a graffiti artist pulled onto the walls and rooftops of Manhattan, where painted characters fight across a city built from real 3D architecture. The constant shifts from wall to roof give its straightforward platforming a pleasing sense of motion, and the hip-hop-and-graffiti theme has more personality than the average downloadable action game.

It is a solid, occasionally awkward platformer rather than a hidden classic. Punching, kicking, stomping enemies, dodging hazards, gathering pickups, and eventually drawing your own ledges with a spray can give you enough to do, while local two-player play makes the campaign easier to recommend with company. Come for the art concept and stay if you can tolerate some old-fashioned trial-and-error platforming.

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour of Sideway: New York earns attention because moving through its painted city feels different from simply running left to right. Nox jumps across pipes, doors, window frames, and rooftops while the camera perspective changes as he moves from one building surface to another. That simple trick gives the opening stages a playful, shifting rhythm: you are still platforming, but you are always checking where the next piece of solid architecture sits.

Combat is basic but suitably direct. You punch, kick, and jump on Spray’s enemies, then keep moving before thorn murals, water, or electrical fields turn a bad landing into a death. It is not a combat system built for elaborate mastery; it works as a quick interruption between jumps and hazards. The more satisfying wrinkle comes from Nox’s spray can, which can turn outlines into usable ledges. Once that ability enters the mix, the game asks you to look at the graffiti-filled route a little more carefully instead of treating every obstacle as a pure reflex test.

That said, Sideway can frustrate when its hazards and perspective changes demand precision at the same time. The platforming is at its best when you can read a route, make a clean series of jumps, and use a painted ledge to extend it. It is less convincing when a small mistake sends you into an instant-death obstacle. Collectibles scattered through the levels offer an extra reason to explore, but the main draw remains reaching the next strange corner of the city.

Local two-player play is a worthwhile option if you have someone beside you. A second player fits the brisk, arcade-like action well, especially when the campaign’s hazards start demanding more care. Solo, the game has enough ideas to carry you through its campaign, though it never entirely escapes the rough edges that come with this kind of precision-heavy platformer.

Graphics

The central visual trick holds up: New York’s buildings, roofs, pipes, doors, and window frames have 3D form, while Nox, enemies, and interactive elements look painted directly onto those surfaces. Watching the viewpoint swing as Nox travels from a wall to a roof gives the stages a distinctive layered look.

Graffiti art and hip-hop styling run through the city, its hostile spray creatures, and Nox himself. The contrast between solid urban structures and flat painted figures is the game’s strongest visual idea, and it makes even familiar platforming spaces feel like pieces of street art you can climb through.

Story

Nox’s search for his missing girlfriend gives Sideway: New York a clear, personal starting point. He is pulled into Sideway, a two-dimensional alternate world spread across the walls and rooftops of New York, and the premise immediately explains why he is suddenly navigating a city as a living graffiti figure.

The villain, Spray, is a suitably simple platform-game threat: he rules this painted world, sends minions after Nox, and wants to expand his power into the real world. Your goals stay easy to understand—survive the city, rescue Nox’s girlfriend, escape Sideway, and ultimately confront Spray.

Do not expect the narrative to be the main reward. It functions mostly as a colorful frame for the next climb, fight, and dangerous mural. Still, the story and art direction belong together well enough that the trip through New York feels more specific than a generic rescue mission.

Overall Experience

Sideway: New York is a decent platformer built around one excellent image: a living graffiti artist scrambling across the sides of a 3D city. That concept remains fresh whenever the camera turns with Nox and reveals another wall or rooftop as his next platforming route.

The fundamentals are familiar—jumping, simple brawling, pickups, hazards, and a rescue plot—and the game does not transform them into something especially deep. Its best moments come from combining them: spotting a route across window frames and pipes, clearing enemies, then using spray-painted outlines to make the final jump possible.

You should give it a chance if a stylish, compact action-platformer sounds more appealing than a demanding combat showcase. Patience helps, because the hazards can make it feel fussy, but its visual premise and shifting city traversal provide enough charm to make the payoff worthwhile. With a local co-op partner, it becomes an even easier recommendation.