Hyper Duel

[poloplayr]

Whoa! Really cool to hear you're pleased with it! Any chance of seeing any pics?

[Iron Draggon]

Sorry, but I don't have any way to take screenshots yet. But I can tell you what it's like. It's something like a cross between Assault Suit Leynos 2 and Thunderforce 5, and from what I've heard it's basically Macross, but done much better. I can't comment on how it compares to Macross, because I don't own any Macross games yet, and I've never played any either. But if they're anything like this game, I just might have to add some to my wishlist!

It's distinctively Technosoft, and the backgrounds and enemies look straight out of the Thunderforce series. So imagine a Thunderforce game with the ability to transform into a mech at any time. You have the same kind of weapons and weapon pods that help you fight, but they're way smarter than the ones in any of the Thunderforce games. Usually they take the form of mechs, and they fight for you very much like your allies in Assault Suit Leynos 2, but much smarter than those as well. They're incredibly smart! The AI in this game is some of the best that I've ever seen in any shmup.

So there you are, flying through gorgeous Technosoft backgrounds, fighting against awesome Technosoft enemies, with these badass little helper mechs helping you out! Plus your weapons change depending on what form you take, and of course depending on which ship/mech you're using. You can change the buttons to your liking, but what you have is a fire button for your ship form, a fire button for your mech form, and a fire button for your special weapon. So to change forms, all you do is use the other fire button, and you transform instantly. And I'm not sure, but I think that your special weapon changes depending on which form you take too. So it's awesome! I can't get over how cool it is. If this was an experiment, it worked very well.

You have 3 pilots to choose from, each with their own ship/mech and it's own unique weapons. So lots of replay value, especially if you choose to limit yourself to only playing as the ships or only playing as the mechs. The mechs are harder to control, because their weapons work differently, but they're also more powerful, so that's probably why it harder to aim their weapons, although otherwise they control just as well as the ships do. Anyhow, so theoretically you have 9 different ways to play, and 2 different modes to play in. There's the arcade mode and the Saturn mode, and then you can use each of the 3 ships as either ship only, mech only, or ship and mech both. But of course the best way to play it is by switching back and forth between ship and mech, the way that it was meant to be played. So if you do that, you only have 3 different ship/mech combos to use and 2 different modes.

So I'm very glad that it really does live up to all the hype that I've heard about it. I was afraid that I might be disappointed about spending that much money on it, even though I knew that it would be very cool, because every Technosoft game that I've ever played has been very cool. Especially their shmups. But I was not prepared for this. I was afraid that it might be like Blast Wind, which is very cool, but hardly worth alot even if it did cost alot.

But this, oh man, is it ever worth it! BTW, just for all of you here who are absolutely ill and shaking your heads in disbelief right now, be aware that my copy did have a crack in the case, near the spine card on the front, which is part of the reason why I decided to go ahead and open it. If I had known that it would arrive like that, I would've asked for a discount on the price, because that certainly should've affected the resale value of it somewhat.

Anyhow, as far as I'm concerned, it was well worth every single penny of what I had to pay for it, even if it is worth much less than that now that I've opened it and played it. It will always be worth that much to me, just to have it in my collection, in absolutely mint condition. And of course, for the fact that I got to be the lucky guy to open it and play it for the first time! That alone was worth the extra money that it cost for the priviledge, to me.

So I still prefer to look at it as though I had never passed it up like an idiot 10 years ago, way back in the day when I first had the chance to buy it. Opening it and playing it for the very first time was just like it would've been back then, except even more so, because of how long it took me to get another chance to buy a factory sealed one and how much the price was this time! It just can't be described, but it was all just so totally worth it all!

[shai hulud]

congratulations on the purchase, and even more so on enjoying the game. nothing worse than waiting to get a so called great game and then being upset with it. happened to me a few times and then i would try to lie myself into enjoying it.