#side arms

Capcom Christmas illustration, by Sensei.

The Anime Influence of Side Arms

Side Arms sits in the middle of Capcom’s loose “Flying Guy” trilogy. While not particularly obscure, it’s generally not as well known as its related games, Section Z and Forgotten Worlds, because its only contemporary console port was to the TurboGrafx-16. Side Arms was the debut work of artist Akira “Akiman” Yasuda, who became world renowned for his later work on the Street Fighter series. It also shamelessly wears its Gundam inspiration on its head. One of the regular enemies you’ll fight are basically just the Zaku robots, famous for its red Cyclops-like eye.

It is fast, it is deadly, it is brutal, and I enjoy how much finesse and speed it requires. It is like fencing with a longsword, in 2x speed.