No Hyperbole Here...
Someone gave this Hyper kid some Ritalin...
Published: December 23, 2009
Hyperballoid HD showed up here with very little fanfare late in the holiday season. The timing could have been a little better, since its two biggest competitors, Shatter and Peggle, are relatively recent arrivals, but Hyperballoid finds its own little niche in the "Breakout" genre.
Hyperballoid has much more in common with Arkanoid than with Shatter. The levels are all oriented that same, and the gameplay consists solely of moving the paddle left to right to hit the balls, and grabbing the multitude of powerups that occasionally also allow you to fire from your paddle. The layout of the levels actually calls to mind Peggle more than anything else, with various brick shapes overlayed on a static background image to give the overall impression of a 3D effect, rather than focusing on symmetrical patterns. The controls are as simple as you would expect, with the analog stick controlling the left to right movement and the triggers kicking the speed into overdrive to let you literally fly across the screen. Your ability to cover so much ground quickly makes Hyperballoid particularly easy, since no ball is ever out of reach of your paddle (this whole review is making me miss Kaboom! on the Atari 2600). The only other control is a fire button for when you pick up a powerup that allows you to release projectiles. The game boasts realistic physics, I suppose in the same way that Peggle has realistic physics. Who can tell in a game like this... yes, the ball DOES seem to bounce correctly...
The powerups are where this game really shines. There are over 30 different powerups you can knock free of the gems/blocks as you smash them. These range from making your paddle larger, to weapons like cannons and rocket launchers, to a shadow paddle that follows you, to ones that break the ball into 3 or 8 balls and many, many others. These powerups can also stack, and a handly subtle HUD display in the lower right corner lets you know just how many barriers (that reflect and ball that gets past your paddle) you have built up, or how many more rounds your cannon has. The sheer number and the way the gradually add more into to the mix throughout the game means there is always something fresh and new to discover. Make no mistake, there are a LOT of levels in Hyperballoid. There are two separate campaigns, and each consists of 40+ levels. The two campaigns only seem to differ in that one has background images of space, and the other has images of mayan ruins. An individual level can take 10 or more minutes to clear, so you can look forward to a lot of playtime from this title.
This is where the flaws of Hyperballoid stand out. First and foremost, the game is SLOW. The ball moves at a glacial pace. Like you can get up and do something waiting for it to get back to the paddle at times. It is easily the most noticeable thing playing this game. The "speed up" powerup doesn't even come close to making the game challenging or fast paced. And the dreaded "slow down" powerup (which is correctly listed as a powerDOWN in the instructions) can make the game excruciating, especially when the ball sometimes gets stuck in a horizontal bouncing pattern, slowly traveling back and forth high above the paddle as you wait and wait and wait for it's trajectory to change. Combining the speed of the paddle with the lack of speed of the balls means there is almost no challenge to the game at all. I found the only time I would lose balls was when I would foolishly chase a powerup that was heading the opposite direction of the ball, and even then I didn't care since I had so many in reserve. You can easily juggle 5 balls at once for minutes at a time in this game. Given that there are so many levels, and the slow pace can make each individual one drag out, it requires a real love of the genre to power through to the end of Hyperballoid.
However, if you like this style of game, and Shatter was too "modern" for you, then Hyperballoid is going to deliver a lot of bang for the buck. There is an undeniably huge range of powerups and the game is essentially the ultimate refinement of Arkanoid, honing that basic gameplay to a razor sharp edge. There is certainly room in your gaming life for both Shatter and Hyperballoid, and this title lends itself particularly well to casual gamers with it ease of play and very shallow learning curve. If you like block breaking, you owe it to yourself to check out Hyperballoid HD.
Hyperballoid has much more in common with Arkanoid than with Shatter. The levels are all oriented that same, and the gameplay consists solely of moving the paddle left to right to hit the balls, and grabbing the multitude of powerups that occasionally also allow you to fire from your paddle. The layout of the levels actually calls to mind Peggle more than anything else, with various brick shapes overlayed on a static background image to give the overall impression of a 3D effect, rather than focusing on symmetrical patterns. The controls are as simple as you would expect, with the analog stick controlling the left to right movement and the triggers kicking the speed into overdrive to let you literally fly across the screen. Your ability to cover so much ground quickly makes Hyperballoid particularly easy, since no ball is ever out of reach of your paddle (this whole review is making me miss Kaboom! on the Atari 2600). The only other control is a fire button for when you pick up a powerup that allows you to release projectiles. The game boasts realistic physics, I suppose in the same way that Peggle has realistic physics. Who can tell in a game like this... yes, the ball DOES seem to bounce correctly...
The powerups are where this game really shines. There are over 30 different powerups you can knock free of the gems/blocks as you smash them. These range from making your paddle larger, to weapons like cannons and rocket launchers, to a shadow paddle that follows you, to ones that break the ball into 3 or 8 balls and many, many others. These powerups can also stack, and a handly subtle HUD display in the lower right corner lets you know just how many barriers (that reflect and ball that gets past your paddle) you have built up, or how many more rounds your cannon has. The sheer number and the way the gradually add more into to the mix throughout the game means there is always something fresh and new to discover. Make no mistake, there are a LOT of levels in Hyperballoid. There are two separate campaigns, and each consists of 40+ levels. The two campaigns only seem to differ in that one has background images of space, and the other has images of mayan ruins. An individual level can take 10 or more minutes to clear, so you can look forward to a lot of playtime from this title.
This is where the flaws of Hyperballoid stand out. First and foremost, the game is SLOW. The ball moves at a glacial pace. Like you can get up and do something waiting for it to get back to the paddle at times. It is easily the most noticeable thing playing this game. The "speed up" powerup doesn't even come close to making the game challenging or fast paced. And the dreaded "slow down" powerup (which is correctly listed as a powerDOWN in the instructions) can make the game excruciating, especially when the ball sometimes gets stuck in a horizontal bouncing pattern, slowly traveling back and forth high above the paddle as you wait and wait and wait for it's trajectory to change. Combining the speed of the paddle with the lack of speed of the balls means there is almost no challenge to the game at all. I found the only time I would lose balls was when I would foolishly chase a powerup that was heading the opposite direction of the ball, and even then I didn't care since I had so many in reserve. You can easily juggle 5 balls at once for minutes at a time in this game. Given that there are so many levels, and the slow pace can make each individual one drag out, it requires a real love of the genre to power through to the end of Hyperballoid.
However, if you like this style of game, and Shatter was too "modern" for you, then Hyperballoid is going to deliver a lot of bang for the buck. There is an undeniably huge range of powerups and the game is essentially the ultimate refinement of Arkanoid, honing that basic gameplay to a razor sharp edge. There is certainly room in your gaming life for both Shatter and Hyperballoid, and this title lends itself particularly well to casual gamers with it ease of play and very shallow learning curve. If you like block breaking, you owe it to yourself to check out Hyperballoid HD.
