Welcome to our review of Ultra Hyperball, best described as 8-bit rhythm game extravaganza.
When I first saw a video on YouTube about this game, I was rather skeptical about how it would play. All you seemed to do, was time your jumps just right and follow the visual queues on the screen to get the ball higher.
Yes, the game is all about that exact thing. All you need to do is bounce the ball every time and make it go higher and higher in order to reach a certain goal/height. You are the player that needs to jump, basically hitting the ball at a preset time during its’ fall… But there is more, taking real life physics aside, you need to hit the ball at the highest of your jump, which did feel counterintuitive, to say the least.
I honestly can not say this game got me hooked, aside from a few attempts to keep myself going in order to see what was next, I gave up pretty early on into the game. I let it rest a few hours, went back into Splatoon 2 and then later tried again. Alas but no, this game offers so little and it was not to my likings at all.
The solo player is plain boring to me, literally, nothing happens or goes wrong if you just do the jumping according to the way the game explained it, there is no real challenge at all in this mode.
The team mode is where you use the touchscreen of the Nintendo Switch in order to manipulate your team in order to keep the ball up for a set amount of time, compared to the original, this was a lot more challenging!
Next is the Tilt mode, where you use motion controls to move your player in order to keep the ball up for a set amount of times, this was by far the most difficult mode I encountered as I did stop playing this mode shortly after getting to it.
Next up, Run. By using the thumbstick, you walk left and right, jumping when the ball finally drops and trying to beat a set height. This was the only real fun mode I encountered myself.
Last mode I played, Ultimate, using motion controls to get high scores. This was surprisingly easier than I had expected it to be, but again, it did not sell me on this game.
Every time you finish a level, you get rewards like new players, which was a welcome addition to a relatively boring game…
I wish I could make this game sound entertaining or fun, but to be frank, it was a dud. Not the worst of games though and I am certain that should you enjoy rhythm games, this one might be crazy enough to tickle your fancy. Sadly, this was not the case for me.
In conclusion, I guess it is quite clear that I personally did not enjoy this game very much. When I played it, I always got the feeling I was playing a free game on my smartphone, not a game I would buy on my switch.
I did enjoy one part of the game and though I doubt I will replay it often, I do think it might be worth checking out on YouTube like I did. So you too get a feel what the game is all about prior to buying it.
My rating is a mere 30%…
