HarryBalls.com

Rating 3/5 Balls
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System Requirements
OS: Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows Vista
Memory: 256 MB
DirectX: 7.0 or later
CPU: P 1.0GHz
Video: 32MB 3D Video Card

Game Review By Japhy Bartlett

Alawar’s Hyperballoid 2 is, essentially, Arkanoid all over again. (Which in turn, is essentially.. Pong v. a Wall.) You use a mouse to move a paddle, trying to bounce a ball onto some blocks. The blocks break, and sometimes stuff falls down which you can collect or avoid. It’s a theme that’s worked for many - Alawar’s website has an entire section devoted to the genre - and has roots in the dawn of video games.

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Luckily, for a project whose premise seems to be repackaging a timeless classic, Hyperballoid 2 brings a lot of polish to the table. The UI and graphics are crisp and snappy, with an ambient, almost new-age sound track that fits
well with the themed 50-level “worlds”. Tool tips pop up to explain power-ups you haven’t seen before, and how to use them. So you can get right to bouncing balls and collecting shiny things which fall from the sky!

Here’s what you need to know: Power-ups are green, Power-downs are red. It’s difficult to decipher the symbols which represent the different varieties, and to read the text which appears when you collect them. Partly because you have to focus on everything else, but partly because of low contrast graphics (green on green, under a shiny surface!) and small font size.
Of course, ultimately, it doesn’t matter: what, would you have avoided that eight-ball multiplying powerup if only you’d known what it was beforehand? Of course not!

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Hyperballoid 2 shines during the most intense stretches, when there is clearly more happening than you can be expected to follow. In most maps, this was limited to a watershed moment when many power-ups are released at once. Other maps would finish in what felt like seconds, in a blast of bewildering, but satisfying action.

Like the traditional Arkanoid games, sometimes finishing a level comes down to taking
shots at one lowly, hard to reach block. Hyperballoid does a nice job of keeping that
to a minimum. For several levels, as hitting that last block started to become more of
a chore than anything, the lovely “Level Warp” powerup would drop, advancing me to the
next map. It wasn’t totally clear what triggered the mercy rule, (perhaps somehow
linked to the timer tracking my progress?) but it’s a nice innovation that kept things
moving along.

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The game’s executable is clearly internet-aware; itt offered to update itself, and had an option for downloading more music tracks. These are both nice features, but it’s unfortunate to see a completely fresh download which immediately wants to download updates. Clocking in at 32MB, the install is bulky, which leads to my biggest complaint about the game.

This is presumably a game designed for people with relatively short attention spans, and it works well, while you’re playing. The biggest turn-off is the effort required to download and install a new program from an unknown publisher, which despite it’s impressive polish seems to be well within the capablities of Flash.

Ultimately, Hyperballoid 2 is a polished, but forgettable remake of a classic. At worst, a pleasant enough time-waster that’s sort of annoying to install, and at best a pleasant enough time-waster that’s worth a chunky download.

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Buy Now $19.95

System Requirements
OS: Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows Vista
Memory: 256 MB
DirectX: 7.0 or later
CPU: P 1.0GHz
Video: 32MB 3D Video Card

Alawar Games Publishes Hyperballoid 2

Tags: Action Games //