HyperZone

"Hyper Zone - Not a place where parents send their hyperactive 8 year-old children"

Hyper Zone was released in 1991 by HAL America. It is a 1st-person 1-way shooter, which takes place in a flying car.

Game Play-
7/10

Hyper Zone is a cool shooter, but for some reason it seems a lot like F-Zero in a few ways. The charging up of energy on those little flashing platforms, the barriers, and how you can get hurt if you past them, and other graphical differences that will be discussed later in the review. You shoot from a flying car at enemies, which range from spheres,

Control-
7/10

The control is a little confusing, but after a while you’ll find it to be surprisingly tight. You use left and right to move left and right, one of the main 4 buttons to shoot, and up to go up and down to go down, which can be reversed at the main screen. I found this game to have better control with the SNES Advantage controller.

Audio-
8/10

The music sounds like something futuristic, yet peaceful. I found it to be pretty good, although it was a little overdone and techno-heavy. The sound effects are nice, but sounded a little too misplaced. Some sound effects don’t sound like they’re supposed to sound like. Clicking when an enemy is hit (Just like in a fellow Hal game, Air Fortress), weird shooting sounds at times, etc.

Graphics-
8/10

The graphics look like they were copied exactly out of F-Zero. The barriers, the surroundings, the car design, all reek of F-Zero-ness. Not to say I didn’t like them, I just think it’s a freakish coincidence that something can look like something else so much. The game does take place in unique, well-designed locations with nice-looking surroundings. The enemies are red spheres, yellow squares, and all the other dreaded math shapes, but the all shoot lasers at you. The game also makes good use of the SNES’ Mode 7 capabilities, making a good 3D shooter.

Enjoyability-
8/10

It can be a fun and addicting shooter, if you can get past the fact that it’s so similar to F-Zero. It may not be a huge hinderance to you, but it’s unsettling nonetheless. It creeped me out the first time I played it, and it still kinda does creep me out today.

Score Rundown-

Game Play-7/10

Control-7/10

Audio-8/10

Graphics-8/10

Enjoyability-8/10

=================

Score-38/50

Percentage of Gaming Goodness-76%

Overall-8/10

Doodleheimer’s Recommendationitivity-

Shooter fans rejoice! All others just buy it please. It should please everyone who plays this game to some extent, although you shouldn’t expect too much out of this game if you just really really hate shooting games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/01, Updated 05/20/02