Hypaball

The Good
I used to play this with my best friend back in the 80's. We were quite evenly matched so I'd say the win ratio was about 50-50. Although the gameplay is very simple, you have to players each and you fly around, trying to catch the ball. When you do, you cant move, and you have a few seconds to throw the ball and try to hit the "basket" that is constantly moving up and down in the middle of the screen. If you miss, your opponent will surely catch it on the other side and get the chance to score. It's easy to learn, but not too easy to master.

You have a few different characters to choose from, with different stats, much like in the Streetsports games. If you like slow but strong characters, who can really throw a ball, you go ahead and choose one like that. Or if you want a weak but fast character... well, you get the idea. The graphics and the sounds are very good for it's time. The era of the C64 was a great time for atmospheric design and clever music and sounds. The primitive technology forced developers (the good ones) to focus on design and innovation to get the desired results. They couldn't rely on photorealism or effects. Hypaball has a great atmosphere and the design and sound is very much a reflection of it's time (the mid-late 80's) and are sure to give old-school players a great deal of nostalgia.

All in all, this is sort of a light Speedball, without the violence but with a similar kind of feeling and atmosphere. Not quite as good, an excellent little forgotten gem.

The Bad
The gameplay is very simple, which makes the game boring quite fast, especially since the matches are so long. You never tire of it completely, but you won't play many matches in a row. Some of the characters are better than others, which means that player one will always pick the best one. This is kind of stupid, although it is ultimately your own skill that matters, rather than the stats of your characters.

The Bottom Line
A good old-school sports game in space, that slightly resembles Speedball, but stands well on it's own two space-legs.