Review: Hyperballoid HD

Lucas Zen Hannon battles ancient mystics and galactic warriors to bring you his review of Hyperballoid HD… sort of.

Alright, so the header is a bit hyperbolic.

Hyperballoid HD is a PSN-exclusive, high definition upgrade of Alawar Entertainment’s popular PC franchise of the same name.  The title gives a player a two-dimensional playing space, a bunch of bricks, a ball, and a paddle - confined to the horizontal “bottom” of the screen - to hit the ball with.  Yes, Hyperballoid is a “Brickbreaker”-esque game.

Wait!  Hyperballoid HD has plenty of merits deserving praise. In fact, the title’s most attractive feature is its unapologetic approach to the genre in itself.

Herein you will find neither fancy menu screens nor unlockables - other than successive levels.  Hyperballoid HD does not attempt to weasel its way into your HDD with a horrid backstory; it does not aim to enrapture you with a palette-swapped paddle “upgrades” for your endeavours – “No,” whispers HHD’s development team: “what you see is what you get.”  It does not slip into delusions of granduer, yet is proud of what it is.

HHD is so comfortable with its existence that it offers no explanation on how to play the game unless you go looking for it.  It understands you’ve played similar games before, dear reader.  It understands you.

This isn’t to say the title has no quirks and nuances to help it stand out.  Featuring two 50-level campaigns, Alawar has provided a meaty - albeit casual - experience.  Rarely are bricks piled one line over another in a wall-like arrangement – patterns are often instead vibrant little brickscapes, reflective of the current level’s theme. One campaign is inspired by ancient history, lore and mythology – the other, space, astrological symbols and such.  Each level has moving parts: 50-brick Trojan Horses enter stage right, unbreakable steel perimeters fade in only to fade back out, flying saucer bricks fly home to a motherstar, snake-like formations slither across the screen.  While hardly dynamic or groundbreaking, there’s just enough happening on each level to keep it feeling fresh as the player progresses from one level to the next.

Also often included in each level are “pushable”, physics-based blocks. Hitting one will send it flying off, pushing other blocks out of their neat arrangments.  Again, nothing revolutionary, but, to this author’s knowledge, Hyperballoid HD-specific.

Hitting pink, glowing bricks releases one of the 39 different powerups, which then starts falling down towards the player’s side of the screen.  Those expected are in attendance, with cannons, “sticky” paddles, extra lives, bonus points, three-way ball splits, paddle expanders, and other such do-gooders all appearing in good form.  The real fun comes in, however, when some of the more rare or dramatic powerups are caught in quick succession.  Balls split in eight ways, then split again, shoot out horizontal lightning, become little minelayers that place timed mines on each brick they touch, and other such assorted chaos.  The most fun to be had the game is when you hit the nab the powerups in the most efficient order; shamefully, such opportunities are either rare or are marred by collecting one of the game’s few “bad” powerups.

Powerups are level specific and do not appear to be random. If the player hits all glowing bricks and either fails to capture any of them or loses his life, the pace and experience becomes painful.  Bricks that could have been ousted with a touch of an exploding, splash-damage ball now takes four or five hits to destroy, a once swift ball now moves unbearably slow, small, huddled clusters of bricks now seem impossible to hit, and so on.  Luckily, Alawar has included one particular feature to ease the pain: The warp-level powerup. If there are a small amount of bricks left onscreen, a blue and green, unique powerup will fall from the sky.  Capturing it completes the level, instantly – reader, you know not what you’ve been missing in similar games until this saving grace comes reaching towards your paddle, like an merciful touch from above.

As the title suggests, game displays in full, vibrant 1080p.  I have only one issue with the Hyperballoid’s graphics: there is occasional slowdown when things get hectic.  For such a (seemingly) processor-light title, any slowdown seems a bit inexcusable, even if uncommon and relatively inconsequential.  Despite that, the graphics are crisp and are otherwise in working order.  They won’t take take you off mysterious ancient worlds nor envoke the level of mystery the natural cosmos provides, but are functional, and do their job.

The soundtrack consists of two main, looping tracks - one for each campaign.  Each track is rather long, and are not as repetitive as one might assume – the transition between dynamic, fast paced segments and ambient, quiet lows is seemless.  One peculiarity I was quite pleased with is the option to use your own custom soundtrack, a feature not many developers choose to adopt (yet is almost unanimously praised whenever it finds itself included).  While certainly a nice gesture by Alawar, a button to skip the current track would have been lovely, as I’ve found myself having to sit through unwanted songs quite often.  Certainly not a huge deal by any stretch, but – hey – it would’ve been nice.

Alawar’s Hyperballoid HD is not immersive.  It isn’t going to have you laying in bed, questioning the motives or relationship of the paddle and ball.  Controls are not enterprising (in fact, with regards to the optional SIXAXIS control scheme, are quite horrid), visuals are crisp yet forgettable and the audio – if not substituted with the player’s own soundtrack – quickly becomes background music, something to accompany the impacts and small explosions.  And it is perfectly fine with that. 

It’s casual.  It’s accessable.  If you want an affordable, simple title that delivers, enveloping you in the esprit de brickbreaker, Hyperballoid HD will do you no wrong.

Pluses

+ Variety is key in this genre – 39 powerups help keep progression from becoming old, quickly.
+ 100 levels: two campaigns with 50 levels apiece.  It’ll more than pay for itself.
+ A custom soundtrack option means you can break bricks to the Tchaikovsky.  Or Avril Levigne.  We won’t judge you.  Honest.
+ Full 1080p resolution support.  Have at it on your 60 inch; this game scales up well.

Minuses

- Unless you want to look like you’re trying to steer a horse-drawn carriage, don’t turn on the motion control.  Seriously.  It’s bad.
- Experience wears thin.  I expect a title like this is supposed to be played a few levels a day, tops – playing it “wrong,” in quick succession, is mind-numbing.
- Occasional – yet not game breaking – slowdown.  Rather strange.
- The pace can get slow; quite unfortunate for a rather shallow title.  It’s a blast when a slew of things are going on onscreen, but such occurances are once a level… at best.

Available now on Playstation 3 for PAL regions (3.99 EUR), with NA release forthcoming.
PEGI Rating: 3
Obtained all but two trophies; played through all 100 levels.
A promotional copy of the PlayStation 3 version of the game was provided by Alawar Entertainment for review purposes.

Final Verdict:  It works.  It isn’t groundbreaking, doesn’t insult you with the fluff and gives you what you ask of it.  It doesn’t feel revolutonary, but functions as a great break up between titles for those in the “core” crowd – especially considering its price.  This is Alawar’s second outing on the platform, and though we can certainly understand treading friendly waters, we’d like it if they took just a bit more risk.