Go! Go! Hypergrind

"Funky, fresh, and fun!"

Spumco, creators of the legendary Ren and Stimpy, finally lend a hand to the world of video games. Similar to Tony Hawk skateboarding games, but with a twist. Much of your doing well relies on maiming, beheading, or otherwise humiliating yourself. Now doesn't that sound fun?

Story

You are a cartoon character. You need money. Therefore, you resolve to try out to be the star on the new TV Show, Go! Go! Hypergrind. Of course there are several other characters competing for this position, including a robotic Frankenstein, and a freaky little girl in a bunny suit. The instruction booklet contains the exact reasons for each character to try out, and their backgrounds are surprisingly detailed and interesting. There are little cut scenes in between Story Mode levels that are somewhat amusing, but mostly come off as awkward due to stiff animation and weak dialogue.
Score: 7/10

Gameplay

Your goal is simple. Run through various wacky, obstacle filled stages, while doing tricks off of ramps, grinding, or causing yourself pain. The trick aspect is pretty similar to other skating games, but disappointingly is not used that often. Most of the missions require you only to perform a Negative Reaction. This includes, flattening yourself into an accordion, setting yourself on fire, blowing yourself up, and covering yourself in feces, among others, all displayed in glorious cartoon style. The main mode is Story Mode, which takes you through each level one by one, doing a bunch of missions such as plain old tricks, Negative Reactions, or even race and battle tournaments against opponents. All of these are pretty decent, and kept fresh by the new levels you unlock as you go. Also available is freeride mode, in which you play for as long as you want on any level, mode, where you play for two minutes and try to obtain a high score, and of course multiplayer mode, which will be discussed later. This combination of gameplay choices makes for a generally enjoyable experience.
Score: 7/10

Graphics

The game is filled with wonderfully toony cel-shaded goodness. This game has got Spumco written all over it. Even a casual observer of their work can recognize the distinctive character and level design. Everything is detailed and complete. Fly into a chainsaw, and your head comes neatly sliced off. Knock into a bucket of paint and rich, gooey paint covers your body. Just the pure style and evident hard work put into the graphics are gratifying.
Score: 9/10

Music/Sound

From the opening movie, to later stages, these songs will put you in the game and get stuck in your head later on. Unfortunately, the looping during levels, and the fact that there only are ten songs, means you'll be hearing these tunes alot. Still, there was obvious effort in the quality of this soundtrack. As sound effects go, you've got your basic set of character yells, grinding noises and cartoon sounds. Nothing incredible, but it works fine.
Score: 8/10

Control/Camera

Controls are simple enough to handle. At first glance things are fairly complicated and difficult to perform. However, once you go through the tutorial, everything is a piece of cake. You'll find in fact that you don't even need to use some of the techniques. As long as you can jump with A, grind with Y, and perform Negative Reactions by pressing X right before hitting an object, you're pretty much set. The camera is also pretty consistently decent, and doesn't get out of hand much. I sometimes felt like it was a little too close to the character, and constraining my view, but that's probably just me.
Score: 8/10

Replay Value

Hypergrind's gameplay is genuinely fun. Sadly, there are only so many times you can blow your guy's head up before it just gets old. To remedy this, we are given a fairly large collection of art, movies, stages, characters, and status-enhancing gear to unlock. This may take you as long as it would to go through Story Mode a couple of times. Another option is the multiplayer. There are the standard battle and race modes, which can be somewhat enjoyable, and the unique where you must literally push your opponent off the screen, until his portion of the split-screen vanishes. These are fun for a few times with your friends, but nothing too long-lasting.
Score: 6/10

Finale:

In a world of old, hackneyed game ideas and techniques, Go! Go! Hypergrind
is a welcome submission. You'll have a blast pulling off all kinds of insane stunts to the amusement of yourself and your friends. Under normal circumstances, I would say you should perhaps rent it and see if you still like it after a while. However as it stands, this game is only $15 NEW! This is more than a bargain. This is a miracle. Don't wait. Next time you're out at the mall, and you've got some extra cash burning a hole in your pocket, stop by and pick this one up. You won't regret it. For fifteen bucks, what's to regret?

Final Score: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/25/04