HYPER
SPORTS
Imagine,
£8.95 cass, joystick and keys
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Here it is at last . . . the long awaited Hyper Sports.
The game was a follow up to the huge arcade (and much
copied) hit Track and Field. There is the same
sort of scoring, and the same gameplay still applies.
In each event you have a certain target which you have
to reach to qualify. If you don't meet this requirement
then your game will end, if on the other hand, you do
then you'll automatically move on to the next event.
Hyper
Sports is a direct copy from the arcade game barring
only one aspect, the pole vaulting event. Why this has
happened I don't know, but still there are six of the
original events there and they are copied in their entirety.
The
game kicks off with an exhausting freestyle swimming
event. This is similar in style to the 110 metre hurdles
in Track and Field. You have to belt along by
hurling your joystick from side to side and when the
prompt 'breathe' comes up press the fire button. Don't
leave it too long to press fire, otherwise your man
will slow up completely and don't press the fire button
when your man's head is underwater because, not unsurprisingly,
this causes him to cough and splutter and slow up for
ages (enough to cost you the race).
Once
the swimming is over, it's time to go outside for the
skeet shooting. Your man sits at the bottom centre of
the screen with a doubled barreled shotgun in his hand.
He aims this gun automatically and this is represented
by two floating boxes on screen. As the skeets move
through it, press left or right to fire one of the barrels.
If you qualify then you get a wink and a grin from your
man, if you don't then he gives you a sour look. This
isn't too hard or taxing and gives you a little rest
to summon enough strength to tackle . . .
The
horse vaulting. This is a real toughie, despite the
automatic run up to the springboard. When you reach
it the skill takes over -- press fire when you do and
he bounces onto the horse, wait until he's doing a horizontal
hand stand then press fire button again and hurl the
joystick around the room. This is a really tricky event
and takes quite a bit of practice to be able to qualify
regularly.
After
that spot of bother comes the nice and relaxing archery
event. Pick your wind speed with the fire button and
you're off. A target is winched down the screen and
you have to decide when to release your arrow and at
what angle it should be shot at. It all sounds really
complex but is in fact a doddle to do.
After
the Robin Hood impersonation comes the triple jump,
yet another event to give you a coronary. Speed up to
the scratch line (forget that your wrist is being held
together by two ligaments and a bit of stringy flesh)
and press fire button trying to get as near to 45 degrees
as possible. Repeat twice for the step and the jump.
It's quite tricky getting the timing but once mastered
some huge jumps are easy to accomplish.
The
final event is the weightlifting. Choose the weight
you want to tackle by moving the joystick left or right
and then press fire. To lift the weight, try to mash
the joystick until the weightlifter flashes. When he
does, press fire; this 'snatches' the weight above his
head. Keep on pummelling the stick until the judges
lights all go white. If they do then it's a successful
lift.
Once
that is over it's back to the swimming again, only this
time all the qualifying targets have been upped, sapping
even more of your rapidly diminishing strength.
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