Sidewinder

Sidewinder響尾蛇
Title screen.
Publisher	Sachen, Milmar, Bunch Games, HES
Developer	Joy Van
Cart ID(s)	TC-003
Console	Famicom
Date	1989
Alternate names/hacks	Mission Cobra (Bunch Games)

Sidewinder (響尾蛇 in Chinese), also known as Mission Cobra, is a shooter game developed by Joy Van.

Gameplay

Gameplay showing the first boss.

The game's a very simple vertical shooter where the player controls the titular combat helicopter.  The game is three levels long, with every level being set up the same way: a wave of fighter jets that don't touch the bottom of the screen, a wave that does, two patrol copters, a wave of weaker copters that slightly curve towards the player, a fast wave of divebombers, then finally a boss.  Aside from enemy/level graphics, the only difference between each level are the bosses.

The player starts off slow and with a basic gun, but defeating enemies will yield power-ups that include various weapons and health power-ups.  If the player collects the same gun continuously the firing speed will increase then afterwards the player's speed.  Collecting another power-up will put their weapon at the first strength level of the new weapon (though speed-ups will stay around.)  The player can still fight even if their fuel reaches zero, however if an attack that will bring the total to less than 0 connects the Sidewinder will explode and it's game over.

After clearing all three stages, the game loops and continues to do so until the player gets a game over.  There's no ending or credits whatsoever.

Trivia

• The game's rushed, almost tech demo-like state could possibly be because another game's manual mentions a Journey to the West game that never got released; given the order the games were listed it's possibly this was hastily made to replace it.
• Mission Cobra's title doesn't animate the letters at all, with the logo always being visible.  In Sidewinder's English release (by HES, Milmar and Sachen themselves) three bullet holes appear for a logo, and the Chinese release has a Chinese logo appear.
• The Milmar release, while being in NES format, can either be an English Sachen revision or a Chinese revision.  It varies with each copy.

Gallery

Mission Cobra's title screen.

Sidewinder's Chinese title screen.

Another gameplay shot of stage 1.

Complete Milmar copy released in Brazil.

Famicom cartridge in a yellow Joy Van case.

Famicom box - front. Photo courtesy of samding.