HyperZone (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
417A playthrough of HAL's 1991 rail-shooter for the Super Nintendo, HyperZone.
Released less than a month after the official American launch of the SNES, HAL's HyperZone was almost immediately consigned to obscurity. Not only did it have the misfortune of sharing shelf space with F-Zero, but it was saddled with the most generic name ever, and its cover made it look like it was trying to be a vanilla Gradius clone. I remember seeing it sold everywhere that sold the SNES at the time - it was one of only a handful of games available for awhile - but I also remember seeing it be among the first SNES titles that landed on the discount shelf. In September, it was a $55 game, and shortly after Christmas I seem to recall seeing it at Montgomery Ward for $40, hiding on the bottom shelf alongside The Chessmaster and Ultraman.
While HyperZone isn't something that I would necessarily call "classic," it is much better than its apparent lack of a legacy might lead you to believe.
HyperZone's gameplay and presentation strike a fair balance between F-Zero and Space Harrier, largely thanks to its all-in investment in Mode 7 effects. Each of the tracks are made up of two separate, vertically-mirrored planes that sandwich the play area, effectively creating the illusion of indoor space by putting a roof on the playing field. The smooth, fast-moving backgrounds look amazing for a 1991 console title, and though the pseudo-scaling of the enemy sprites does pixelate them when they're close to the screen, that doesn't change the fact that HyperZone was a throughly remarkable looking game so early in the SNES's life.
But even though the game looks like a racer with its flying space car, the focus is all on the shooting action. Like Space Harrier, you can move in any direction on a 2D plane, and you shoot down things that come flying at you from "deeper" in the screen. There are recharge pads (like F-Zero) and occasional split in stage's paths, but it all feels like a (slightly tweaked) rock solid recreation of the Space Harrier's classic gameplay. Some of those bosses are fairly brazen clones of ones from the Sega game, selling the comparison even further.
Ome stand-out thing that I really liked in HyperZone was the way the game boosts your firepower. At certain point thresholds, you'll receive an upgraded ship with increased firepower and speed, and each new vehicle comes with its own unique HUD, which I thought was a really neat little touch. And if you feel like playing again after you beat it, the game even allows you to begin the second loop with the most powerful car. The system is shallow, sure, but it is a neat little flourish that provides a cool incentive to shoot for higher scores.
Its fixation with enemies that are mostly simple, featureless shapes does leave HyperZone a bit wanting in personality, but if you ever wanted a Sega arcade-style 3D experience on the SNES, this early 16-bit HAL offering delivers an impressively fast and fluid rail-shooter experience. It's worth checking out.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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