Games Computing
1st May 1984Hyperblast! (English)
This game, which is similar to Space Firebird, shows high resolution arcade-action at its best on a home computer.
As with Jet Boot Jack there is a loading screen which includes a countdown. When the game has loaded you are greeted by a pleasant little tune which also plays after each game.
You control a spaceship moving across the screen above a smooth vertically-scrolling background of stars. Suddenly, out of nowhere, there appears an army of alien creatures. These creatures fly around in random-fashion, each dropping clusters of missiles. To combat this, your spaceship is armed with three missile launchers - one in the centre and two on the wings - which fire alternatively and extemely fast. With this rapid fire action it is possible to clear one wave in a couple of seconds.
Joystick response is good and fast, so that dodging the creatures and their missiles is made easier.
Once you have destroyed ten waves of the same creature, you space warp to another part of the galaxy (with a sound reminiscent of Star Raiders) to fight ten waves of a different creature.
You can select either a one or two player game, demonstration-mode, and the speed of the alien creatures can be slow, fast or very fast. All these are selected by the joystick and 'fire' starts the game, albeit rather abruptly.
If you start off badly in a game you can start again without clearing the high score. Hyperblast! is a very addictive invader-style game which stands out from the crowd.
Not including both players' scores (in the two-player game) on the screen is an unfortunate oversight, but this does not detract from the high arcade-quality of the game.