Customer Reviews

HSX: Hypersonic.xtreme

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For $10 there's no other game out there that matches this value. The tragedy of HSX is that it feels unfinished. The game does not save record times for player-made tracks, nor does it save weather on player-made tracks. Some of the sub menus only have one item in them and, overall, the game feels like it needed about five more months of work.

What stands out is that HSX allows players to design their own tracks -- anywhere on Earth -- from scratch. If you, or your child, have an imagination you want to grow, then this game is a constructive way to do it. No violende here (the ships crash, but they come right back), no guns, no blood, just high-throttle racing.

The game itself is not as frantic or fast as, say, F-Zero X, but on the courses your design it can be made to be. I'd have paid far more than $10, even the standard $50, were it finished. Even as it is, it's worth far more than $10.

HSX is much like Wipeout in its gameplay. It has very good weather effects (rain hits the camera like a Rain-X treated windshield), decent music, vehicles (nice variety), racetracks, vibration effects, etc. There are three view modes that should suit all tastes -- or most, anyway. Each track is different (there are five courses, each with six tracks) but not in a night-or-day way, but the sense of speed is fantastic and I looked forward to going onto the next one. Vehicle explosions are good but not of the Burnout variety but rather a small nuclear explosion way. It doesn't change should you miss the jump and run into a ship, a building or the ground...and the struck object shows no damage. These would be elements that would make this game rise above its four stars in my book. that and some sort of story or 'human' touch (people in the stands, standing next to the track in some places, etc.). But not to worry. Where this game really shines is in it's very intuitive track construction mode. I was able to construct a large, basic track in a little over a minute and was racing it seconds later -- loops, corkscrews and all. If I spent a little more time on the track, I would be able to add elements outside the track, change textures of the tracks and railing, and add special features -- hotspots -- on the track to enable accelerations, etc. Graphics-wise, this is one sweet looking package. If you love Wipeout games, you'll definitely enjoy this one.
I really thought this game would have been a bit of a dog considering the price -- especially for a new game. But I must say I was pleasantly surprised.

First off I must admit that I'm a sucker for ultra-stylized games, such as the WipeOut Series, Frequency, the Extreme G series, etc...P>When I got the game, I was a little hesitant, because of the poor resolution of the cover art ...but heck, it could have just been a rush art job.

The game isn't bad, if your expecting something like wipeout, you'll get it in a stripped down version. The controls are very, very, and I mean very loose, making the transition to HSX from WO:Fusion a tad difficult. Here's where the "stripped down" comes into play. The first thing that you'll notice is the very bland HUD (heads up display) featring plain text for speedometer, and boring, basic damage and boost bars. It feels like a beta version. The next thing that you'll notice is that the models are very basic, like that they could have been improved if left in development for another 3 months.

My biggest complaint however is the music, it is dull and boring in-house techno. While the music is fitting, it doesn't add anything to the game like it does in WipeOut and Extreme G.

Finally on the stripped down point, there is no weapon combat. In every stylistic racing game that I've played there has been some form of combat, either as an added feature or almost a primary function. The game feels really lacking without it.

On the positive side, the game is FAST! The best way to describe the speed is that its like EG3 with the boost on all the time, it is ... quick. There also is little to no graphical break up in the speed. I won't comment on frames per second, because a standard tv displays 30 FPS no matter what. But I will comment that the animation isn't choppy.

Also included in the game is the track editor, where you can make your tracks meant for speed or skill. I must warn that the track editor is not meant for everyone and can be a bit confusing and the inteface for it is very clunky.

My final word is that HSX could have went back into development after its arrival in the states. Since the name of G-Surfers was dropped on its trip, why not make it a better game, and if it did become a better game, it could command a higher price tag...so if it was left in the development for a while, it might have been a a really sweet title, but it ends up with that budget feel. If you're looking for a great stylistic racer, go with WO:F first, but if you're looking for a fun budget tile, feel free to pick this one up.

I love futuristic racing games like Wipeout and F-Zero, so, when I found out about HSX, I HAD to get it. Not only did it promise frenetic racing action as in those venerable series, it included a track editor as well! However, actually playing the game was a major let-down compared to what I had expected.

It seems that every positive review of this game has focused on the track editor. That's probably because the track editor is the only thing about it that CAN be viewed positively. Easily rivaling that of the PS3's LittleBigPlanet in its level of control (if not in its technical sophistication), it's one of the best things that I've encountered in ANY game, let alone a gimmicky racing game that I picked up for five bucks. Marrying intuitive simplicity with an informative, yet minimalist, interface, it works beautifully from the basic starting level, with the added features unlocked in tournaments adding even more functionality.

Sadly, it's been grafted onto one of the worst racing games that I've ever played. The most obviously slipshod aspect is the programming - the engine runs like a three-legged chicken in split-screen mode, and is still noticeably coarse and choppy in single-player races. That would be almost forgiveable if the graphics were visibly intense work for the PS2, but the actual level of detail is closer to that of a late-'90s PC game. Races supposedly take place all over the world, and that international aspect would hypothetically provide ample room for the developers to fill the game with scenic vistas, but there's precious little scenery to differentiate such disparate locations as Missouri and Scandinavia; indeed, nearly all areas in the game share the same "dirt" and "grass" textures, tiled endlessly (and noticeably) over bland, rolling hills, with hardly a tree or building to break up the monotony. The developers attempted to spice up the graphics with "weather" effects, but they're painful to look at: the "rain" - a pale imitation of the effect in the XBOX's Quantum Redshift - is a PS1-quality shower effect with perfectly round "raindrops" fading in and out over it; the others aren't much better. In fact, the only remotely good-looking things in the entire game (apart from the admittedly snazzy menus) are the ship models, although they tend to be ugly when they aren't generic. The flame effects on their engines are another of the few things that the game does well, but they're a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the graphics' glaring flaws.

HSX's gameplay is its other main failure. Speed is average at best by the standards of the genre (in stark contrast to the packaging's bold claim that HSX is "The fastest racing game you can imagine!"), and control is subpar - when the player steers, they're as likely to slide sideways into a wall as they are to actually change direction. Many tracks are riddled with long gaps that the player must ramp over; while such a feature brings increased excitement to other racing games, it only adds to HSX's already high level of frustration. More often than not, the player must boost in order to clear the gaps (assuming that they managed to collect enough boost powerups beforehand), and, even then, it's a toss-up as to whether or not they actually make it across. I must have died a million times from "crashing" into a hill that was clearly below me, and stalling is infuriatingly easy with the game's twitchy aerial controls. The worst thing about missing a jump is the way that the game puts the player back in the race: rather than using an equivalent of F-ZERO's lives-based system or Wipeout's "wuss wagon", it simply puts the player back onto the track in a new ship - far, far behind the other racers. It's tough to even get back up to fifth place after such an episode, let alone to win, and it makes the game as a whole even more frustrating (if that's even possible).

Overall, I was supremely disappointed with HSX. True, I essentially bought it for the wonderful track editor, and that aspect of the game exceeded all of my expectations - but what good is a track editor when I can't enjoy actually playing my tracks? HSX is great as a creative outlet, but it's nearly worthless as a game.

Although Hypersonic Xtreme received mixed reviews from critics, the few gamers who bought this underrated and underappreciated Majesco title were given quite a big surprise for such small price. Although it's been billed as a "Wipeout Clone" who cares? It's a solid futuristic racer that will provide loads of entertainment.
WHAT THE GAME IS: A futuristic racing budget title. It has no actual storyline, it's just a futuristic racing title.
GRAPHICS: Nothing spectacular (Except the nice water effects), but they get the job done and it looks nice for budget title.
MUSIC: Techno of course. The music isn't mind-blowing, but it fits the criteria for this title.
SOUND: The sound was well-crafted and and the sound effects are believable for the most part.
GAMEPLAY: It's solid for the most part, it's not perfect but it gets the basic racing formula right. Unfortunately there are some problems with racing, which is the camera. The camera has a hard time shifting properly which sometimes makes it difficult to see certain parts of the track, which may accidentally kill you. Thankfully this isn't really much of a problem and you will be on your way racing. For those of you hoping for some kind of career mode, you won't find one. This is a casual racing experience and you only do cup series or race on the tracks you created. That is the true appeal of this game; the track builder. It works quite well and you can create some rather crazy tracks (I created tracks so hard and crazy, not only could I not handle them, my opponents couldn't either). It's not a perfect creation tool and does leave certain things to be desired. Still lots of fun and great to use however.
OVERALL: A solid racing title with a great track editor. It's not perfect, but if you need a casual racing fix that's cheap look no further.
THE GOOD: The racing, the music, the sound, the gameplay, and the track editor.
THE BAD: The camera can get in the way, and the game feels a bit too short.

I heared it wasn't supposed to be that good but for 10 dollars how can you go wrong.