There is a certain amount of tweaking you can do to an old formula before it begins to lose some of the identity that made it so great in the first place. In some cases this can be of great improvement, much like Fallout 3 altering the RPG feel of Oblivion by adding an FPS element and creating something that people would rate higher than what had came before (well, I did anyway).
More often than not though, it can lead us down a path we would rather not see. Some classics of the older generation have had their insides fiddled about with, given a new lick of paint and some jazzed up ideas that we’re all meant to receive as it’s second coming. Hyperballoid HD has a difficult line to tread and is taking on a lot expanding and aiming to revamp a classic and make it in its own style.
I was (and still am) a fan of Taito’s Arkanoid. It was a simple case of bat and ball working in perfect harmony, with everything working at a speed which you felt was fast enough without being as slow as a week in jail. It was pure, flawless gaming. Now the only problem I have with this new PSN addition is that the difficulty isn’t really there, as after the initial play a sense of boredom began to settle within the first 20 minutes. The ball itself was just too slow to actually cause ANY problems whatsoever, so I decided to try an experiment, mainly to make sure I wasn’t becoming the pixel equivalent of Tommy, the “Pinball Wizard” that The Who kept singing about, although my retro skills are that of legend, of course (get off your high horse – Ed.).
In this test I took the medium difficulty setting and gave myself one life and decided to see how far I could get. I actually got as far as level 15 and only turned it off because I had about 6 lives by this point and just began to lose interest. Considering what has BEEN added to the mix, this shouldn’t be the case. There are plenty of power-ups on offer, from extra barriers and the more standard lengthening or shortening of your bat, to cannons and flamethrowers. Could it be that there are too many power-ups (30 in all) and that in turn it makes the game TOO easy? Even though there are also things you shouldn’t pick up, such as instant life loss, which makes you invisible for the ball to pass through and causing instant death, you never feel a sense of finding it excruciatingly hard.
Call me old fashioned, but in these days of cheats, glitches and easy to finish pieces of software, I want something that’s going to make life a little difficult, especially when you have spend your hard earned money on it. This never really feels like a huge challenge, and it suffers because of it. It’s a real shame because it looks lovely in graphical terms. There may well only be two different worlds, Ancient and Planet, but the objects and levels created are varied enough and never look too tired or samey, with some designs being particularly clever. There are 50 stages in each world, giving you 100 levels in total. There are no online modes to speak of, leaving us with just a one player play through, which doesn’t help when it comes to breathing some extra life into proceedings.
You would probably be expecting me to start having a go and giving it a low end review based on what I’ve said so far. The thing is though, I did have another go on hard and, although it still has a slight lack of the dramatic, level 11 achieved with a healthy supply of lives, it felt much more like the arcade experience I was looking for. I think for a casual gamer and someone who hasn’t really been around long enough to go through the Breakout/Arkanoid arcade years then there really isn’t a great deal to complain about, especially at a rather carrot dangling £4 price tag. Some of the more original ideas do appeal to me and help to spice up the tediousness a bit, like the free moving blocks, which if not set to disappear after one hit will move across the screen and not only provide a different location to be hit by the ball, but also a more varied angle. These can catch you by surprise if not careful and help to add a little difficulty.
The music side doesn’t really pose a problem, mainly because if you get a bit tired of the tunes, which are very fitting to the game style, it has to be said; you can always get custom soundtracks on and listen to your own melodies as you do some block bashing. As a casual gamer’s game it ticks the right boxes and will no doubt provide a decent amount of fun for whoever plays it, not to mention being easy enough for all ages.
It is this easiness however that will possibly make the more hardcore among us think twice before splashing the cash out on it. I have seen worse games at double; even triple the price however, so if you’re looking for something to pass the odd hour, be pleasing on the eye and remind you of the older days without the feeling of the ageing process hitting you like a steam train then it is a recommendable item. I will say this however, if you ARE looking for a clone of the genre that will provide a big degree of difficulty, Break Quest in the PSP Minis section could well suit you better, as it IS difficult and also provides a good selection of power ups. I don’t want to take away from Hyperballoid HD though, as it does an alright job, all things considered. On a personal level I would have liked a very hard difficulty option, but I’ve definitely spent £4 on much, much worse.
VideogameUK verdict: 7/10
