During the early stages of my Gamer life there were a few titles that I really enjoyed but was just terrible at. From a certain Hedgehog to the ultimate bane of my gaming existence Arkanoid. The game went on to spawn a variety of spin off titles better known to the cellphone age as Brick Breaker. I did get good at the cellphone version but the arcade would always allude me. Hyperballoid HD is out on the PSN, it takes the brick breaker style and gives an an HD update. How does this game compare to previous Brick Breakers?
Full Review after the break.
Gameplay
What you haven’t played a Brick Breaker. Well it’s a easy enough concept to understand. If you guessed Break Bricks then you’re correct. Essentially you have a paddle at the bottom of your screen. Your goal is to ricochet the ball using you Paddle and break the bricks above. Watch out though if you miss the ball it will fall into a bottomless pit and cost 1 ball. Simple enough right?
Well in Hyperballoid HD it’s much the same but where it really breaks apart from previous titles it’s in the vast arrangement of Power Ups. In other titles there was the Sticky Paddle, Cannon and Split Ball. Pretty basic stuff. Well Hyperballoid HD features some of the most fun power-ups found in the Brick Breaker genre. A couple of my personal favorites were the Fireball, Vacuum Ball and the Nuke. Fireball blasts through just about everything, Vacuum ball makes a vacuum hole when it hits something. As for the Nuke….BOOOOM nice big explosion taking out a couple of items nearby.
The other thing that really stood out for Hyperballoid was the ability to move on to the next level. They don’t just give you a button to press, but if you take enough time on a level and only have a couple of bricks left a next level Capsule will drop from the ceiling. This was one of the best features of the game, with my skills I would have to sit there for almost 15min trying to hit the last block.
Graphics
The game features 2 different aesthetic choices, Ancient World and Space World. Now in terms of the graphics both look pretty descent. Though Ancient World felt (excuse the pun) outdated. It wasn’t that the Bricks, Ball didn’t look nice it was the Background. Often times while playing the Ancient Levels I never felt really at ease, always felt like something was off. The Backgrounds usually featured some Greek, Roman or Egyptian style theme. It just felt a little Windows 95 to me.
When turning on Space World it was a whole different Ball Game. The Backgrounds really fit the atmosphere and it created a nice theme much a kin to Geometry Wars or Peggle. It felt really fresh and much what you would expect for an HD Brick Breaker.
Sound
The SFX were shared between the 2 different styles. Though nothing really stood out, most sounded pretty standard and fit the overall theme. In terms of the Soundtrack similar issue with the Graphics were present. Ancient World again just didn’t feel right. I actually enjoyed the music quite a lot. It was World Music meets Techno. Though when put together with all the other pieces the Theme just didn’t feel Ancient World.
As for Space World there was a very similar Techno-esque type of music bumping. It really was fun and made me want to continue playing. It also kept me entertained and relaxed while playing.
Overall
Hyperballoid HD is a pretty descent game. While it does “Break” away from the genre it still does a solid salute to it. The game isn’t the most revolutionary title but it’s just fun.
