I loved those games, mostly because both are essentially the same game following the same rule— a controllable sprite that can move up, down, left or right, with the background and scaling objects acting as a sense of propulsion, providing the sensation that you’re flying across terrain at all angles. Hang-On and Outrun were cool, sure. But you couldn’t fly in those games. They were just literally more ‘on-rails’ as it’s description suggests. Space Harrier was one of the first arcade games to incorporate 16-bit graphics and Sega’s Super Scaler technology. It could display pseudo-3D sprite-scaling at high frame rates, as many as 32,000 sprites and fill a moving landscape with them, along with over 32,000 colours displayed simultaneously on the screen. It also introduced a true analog flight stick for movement, with the ability to register movement in any direction as well as measure the degree of push, which could move the player character at different speeds depending on how far the stick is pushed in a certain direction. It broke the mold for shooters, provided us with future racing games of a similar ilk and can also be linked to the beginnings of how 3rd person games would function. Yu Suzuki’s creation would be a template that would continually evolve, with the likes of Star Fox and REZ taking it to a fully next-gen level only years later. Both of these games looked and moved fantastically well but beneath the skin of both lies the DNA of Space Harrier and Yu Suzuki’s vision.

“We are now entering the HyperZone.”

HyperZone is an on-rails shooter that’s straight from the Space Harrier family. Designed by HAL Laboratory (Halken) — the studio behind Kirby, Earthbound, Metal Slader Glory and Super Smash Bros, it was to be the one of the first HAL games for the Super Famicom, with Hole-in-One-Golf being their other title scheduled for release in 1991. The previous year, HAL had witnessed the success of Nintendo’s F-Zero, which took the on-rails driving game into new territory, with it’s blistering frame-rate and mode-7-backed graphics chip providing the funky visuals from the comfort of a home console. As a result, HAL decided to create a game that would bare resemblance to F-Zero and utilise the console’s Mode-7 chip but with maneuverability more akin to Space Harrier and with a similar focus on shooting, high scores and defeating bosses at the end of each level. HyperZone’s plot centers around a lone space pilot who is tasked with exploring new planets, suitable for colonization. Earth is dying and the human race has spread across the solar system, desperate to find habitable planets. Our character explores these hostile planets with bio mechanical aliens standing in the way. Our job is to clear the way for the colony ships to secure each planet.

Visually, it’s very much like F-Zero, with its colorful palette and varied backdrop design but with a little visual nod to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey thrown in for good measure with the 3D effect on both the upper and lower sections of the screen. Each level requires the player to dodge, shoot and defeat a boss. If the player scores enough points, a new ship is unlocked for the following level and once you’re behind the controls of a new ship, the in-game HUD display takes on a different look to reflect the style of each ship’s design. It’s a nice touch, that really makes you want to score as much as possible to unlock everything HyperZone has to offer. Your starting ship is the BM-4, an orange ship with weak guns but enough to get your through the first stage. If enough points are scored, we progress to the H-Wing and charge-shooting is introduced by holding down ‘fire’. These powerful projectiles blow through any enemy they touch and can earn bonus points if several targets are destroyed with one shot. Charge-shooting progressively becomes more powerful with quicker recovery time as you progress through each ship, including the P-7, the RW-91, and the X-003. The final and most powerful ship to unlock is the BM-4 Reform, a heavily enhanced version of the orange BM-4. The BM-4 Reform is typically unlocked by the final stage, but can be accessed at the 7th level if you’re able to chain together enough points.

The frame rate may not be as fast as F-Zer0 with its weighty feel, but what it lacks in speed it make up with charm. And that charm comes in spade-fulls. Its soundtrack, scored by celebrated VG composer, Jun Ishikawa, consists of fourteen tracks, all of which I think some of the best short, looped music coded for the Super Famicom. Ishikawa-san’s score is funky, layered, melodic and very cleverly looped, similar in composition to Yellow Magic Orchestra (for any doubters, check out the track ripplefield). The music is varied and works well with the gaming environment, all of which feels fun, vibrant and reassuringly HAL. It’s a solid Super Famicom experience.

The hidden, half-cooked Easter egg: Anaglyph 3D Mode.

Hidden within the games code is a little beta-build of the game running in semi-Anaglyph 3D, which requires a standard pair of old school red and blue paper glasses. HAL had originally planned to bundle 3D glasses with the game and to have it running entirely in 3D but the decision to flip the visuals back to a standard setting was made after a few stages were tested. However, these stages and the title screen still exist and can be unlocked by accessing the menu screen and pressing Start to trigger the ‘START, NORMAL/REVERSE’ menu. Once this appears, enter the following code: Select, Select, A, B, Select, Select, X, Y, Select, Select, L, R, Up. If done correctly, the title will change from yellow to red. When you begin playing the game, you’ll notice that the backgrounds and objects are doubled. You can turn it off and on by pressing Select. Unfortunately the effect doesn’t fully work as the red and blue colouring wasn’t added to every sprite, leaving this mode very much unfinished but it’s a nice touch for HAL to leave this in as a development footnote.