If I close my eyes while playing Hypership Out of Control, I can almost hear the din of electronic melodies emanating from the attract modes of nearby cabinets combined with the clapping of plastic as the kid next to me mashes on the colorful, round buttons. I open my eyes and am thankful that my TV doesn’t have unsightly brown cigarette burns scorched onto it, and that I’m able to sit back (okay, lean forward in intense concentration) and enjoy an exhilarating game descended from arcade classics.
Hypership Out of Control has no misgivings about what it is; the name pretty much says it all. Some space rats have infested the ship’s braking system, chewed through some wires and the ship is zipping through the galaxy at an ever-increasing speed. It’s a simple concept, but it’s a reminder that once upon a time, you didn’t need 64-player online multiplayer or the ability to change the color of your character’s underwear to create a fun gaming experience.
At first glance, Hypership might appear to have its roots in the shmup lineage. Like many shmups, there is a tiny spaceship and the only controls are to shoot and move around. But, as the ship continues to accelerate, it rapidly becomes apparent that the shooting takes a backseat to mere survival. Sure, it’s initially easy to avoid the meatball-shaped asteroids and collect the power-ups and abundant coins, but those corridors shrink down in a real hurry, and the space becomes extremely limited. Soon, the game feels like an X-Wing navigating through the tunnel towards the lone weak spot of the Death Star, weaving left and right at ridiculous speeds.
It’s a simple concept that really would be at home in a stand-up arcade cabinet with a joystick. The graphics and sound effects are straight from the 80s, and it has the old arcade hook of combining skill and pattern memorization. No one lacking the foresight of the Force would be able to make to too far on their first try, but there is always the nagging feeling that next time will yield better results.
The only slight hiccup is that the control on the ship feels a little too loose. Moving the analog stick left or right sends the ship zooming off, and for a game based on precise tiny movements, it felt entirely too touchy. It wasn’t enough to ruin the fun, but I definitely wish the ship moved more smoothly.
Hypership supports 4-player cooperative play, or at least 4-player simultaneous play. There isn’t much to actually do cooperatively, but there is at best, a peaceful co-existence. By nature of it being a reflex-testing, focus-based game, it’s definitely not strategically conducive to multiplayer gaming. One more spaceship zipping around the level like a drunk fly is just one more distraction. But, that doesn’t mean mean playing with friends isn’t fun, and at least the ships can freely pass through each other, so there are no worries about collisions or nudging each other into walls.
There’s even a mode to make the background constantly change colors. Do the hypnotic kaleidoscopic backgrounds fundamentally alter the game? Of course not, but it’s kind of like laser bowling. Yes, you’re still throwing that big old marble down the wooden lane, but at least you can pretend you’re actually doing something really cool. That’s kind of what Hypership Out of Control is all about. Sure it can’t really bring back that social atmosphere of arcades long-ago converted into Hot Topics, but if you squint just a bit, you can still pretend.
Hypership Out of Control was provided for review by Fun Infused Games. It is available for 80 MS points ($1).
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