HyperZone is a Rail Shooter developed and published by HAL Laboratory. Released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991, it is HAL's second game for the console, following HAL's Hole in One Golf. HyperZone is notable for its use of the SNES' Mode 7 capabilities, giving the illusion of a three-dimensional space with scrolling floor and ceiling.
Set in 2089, Earth has become uninhabitable as a result of population growth and many nuclear crises. In response, the Earth Council has decided to send a spaceship to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, to look out for an asteroid habitable for humans. But the player is opposed by a civilization of half-organic half-mechanical creatures birthed from the radiation and trash dumped there.
The game plays like a combination of F-Zero, Nintendo's own launch title for the SNES, and of Sega's Space Harrier. The player controls a spaceship to move around and shoot enemies. Once the player accumulates enough points, their ship is replaced by another ship with different abilities. The ships available in the game are:
- BM 4: The starting ship and the Jack of All Trades. Is equipped with a basic blaster.
- H Wing: The second ship, obtained when the player accumulates 30,000 points. Is equipped with the Hyper Blast weapon.
- P-7: The third ship, obtained when the player accumulates 60,000 points. Is equipped with a stronger version of the Hyper Blast.
- RW 91: The fourth ship, a Lightning Bruiser that can be obtained when the player accumulates 80,000 points.
- X 003: The fifth ship, obtained when the player accumulates 140,000 points. When going off-course with this ship, the player won't lose speed, but will still lose energy.
- BM 4 Reform: The sixth and final ship, obtained when the player accumulates 140,000 points. A retooled BM 4 with the fastest charging time for the Hyper Blast.
Perhaps because of its limited marketing and generic cover art, title and premise, HyperZone never earned much popularity as the other games it shared a shelf with, was subjected to mostly average or outright negative reviews, and as of today never re-released to modern consoles. Despite this, the game did gain some form of recognition when it appeared on Nickelodeon's Nick Arcade during the show's original run in 1992 while SNES enthusiasts still love it for its colorful graphics and music.
This game contains examples of
- All There in the Manual: The game's plot can only be found in its manual.
- Body Horror: The final boss of the game is an embryotic creature with a very large brain.
- Company Cross-References: Three names of the game's stages, Grass Land, Ripple Field, and Hyper Zone would later be used in Kirby's Dream Land 3.
- Console Cameo: The boss of Old Capital is themed after the four buttons of the SNES controller. It's a little less obvious if you play it in the west, since the boss can shoot orbs colored in red, blue, green and yellow, like the buttons of the Super Famicom, while in the western Super Nintendo they're colored in different shades of purple.
- Create Your Own Villain: The enemies in the game are stated in the manual to have been created as the result of nuclear wars waged by the humans.
- Charged Attack: The Hyper Blast weapon, obtained with the H Wing ship. The further the players upgrades their ship, the faster they can charge the weapon.
- Fiery Salamander: The boss of Blast Furnace is a reptilian creature made of fire. Ripple Field has a blue-colored Palette Swap themed after ice.
- Foul Flower: The boss of Grass Land is a purple sentient flower that can send petals at the player.
- Lethal Lava Land: The second stage, Blast Furnace, is an Artificial Sun created to smelt waste materials.
- The Place: The game is named after the final stage, the Hyper Zone.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The fifth stage, Ripple Field, is set on an asteroid that was subjected to a nuclear winter.