Syder Arcade is a side-scrolling space shooter with bullet-hell aspects. The levels are basically a large tunnel and most of the levels go left to right, but others play more like an arena. You can move left or right, and need to press a button to flip the direction you are facing. There’s a radar to see where upcoming enemies are.
There are 4 different ships each with a different weapon and different special power. The bullets often feel a bit on the weak side, so the stronger enemies seem very bullet-spongey.
You move faster vertically than horizontally. Although holding forward for a few seconds activates a speed boost. When you combine this with some camera panning, the movement feels a bit awkward, and looks very jerky. To be honest, this isn’t a big problem for the most part, but the final level requires you to move through tunnels and it is so easy to jerk into the walls.
This level also has a respawn problem where it positions you next to/in the wall so it is instant death. I felt the overall design of this level didn’t suit the game mechanics. Some enemies were positioned in places where most ships couldn’t hit without special attacks or positioning your ship pixels away from a wall.
You can play individual levels rather than starting again from scratch so this does alleviate the frustrations with the game.
The game didn’t feel as thrilling as many other shooting games. The slow movement and weak attacks slow the game’s pace down. The final level was a huge negative, but the better levels aren't even that good.