Hyper is Australia's leading multi-format gaming magazine. It consistently delivers all the information a gamer could want on all the next-generation consoles, handhelds, mobile phones and PC gaming as well as the latest Blu-Ray movie release.
DEVELOPER Nintendo PLATFORM Switch RELEASE DATE April 2017 Everyone’s favourite Mario Kart is their first Mario Kart. But at least everyone can agree that Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U was the best Mario Kart in years. Unfortunately, no one played it because no one bought a Wii U. To redress this Nintendo is packaging together Mario Kart 8, its two substantial DLC packs, and a clutch of new features into this Deluxe edition for the Switch. Notably the Battle Mode, sadly undernourished in MK8, is getting some more meat on its bones with a team-based mode called Renegade Roundup, uh, rounding out a selection of five different modes. There’s also the return of the feather item, last seen in Super Mario Kart, which lets players jump into the…
DEVELOPER Deep Silver/Codemasters PLATFORM PS4, XB1, PC RELEASE DATE April 2017 HYPER has of course had numerous “Golden Ages” throughout its radiant 24-year history, but perhaps the most brilliant of all spanned the first half of 2005 when Cam, Wilks, Staines, Malky and The Ghost of David Wildgoose, among others, would gather round the HYPER couch day after day to play Mashed. Rivalries were forged in the heat of point-based, top-down racing, friendships skated across the thin ice of The Greatest Video Game Race Track Of All Time, Polar Wharf, and magazine publishing deadlines were forgotten in favour of revenge. Mashed was really just a superb update to 16-bit era classic Micro Machines, and so we’re hopeful that Micro Machines World Series will in turn be a superb update of…
DEVELOPER Nintendo PLATFORM Switch RELEASE DATE May 2017 Like launch title 1-2 Switch, Arms feels like Nintendo stretching to design a game that maybe just falls short of being possible only on its new hardware, but definitely makes very specific use of some of its more unusual features. It’s a 1-on-1 fighting game that takes advantage of the fact the Switch’s Joy-Con controllers can be separated and held independently. The idea being that each Joy-Con becomes, in essence, an extension of your arms; swing your fist and your ridiculously costumed avatar will do likewise, only they have arms like coiled springs and can launch their fists halfway across the colourful arena to smack their opponents from 20 feet away. Arms definitely looks fun and possesses a Splatoon-esque exuberance, but there…
DEVELOPER NetherRealm PLATFORM PS4, XB1 RELEASE DATE May 2017 There’s something refreshing, almost bold, about a sequel that eschews the title colon subtitle formula. Injustice 2 is simply Injustice 2. Gone is the clumsy subtitle, Gods Among Us, that pulled all the punch from the original. This is Injustice - only now there’s 2 of it. Built on the foundations of NetherRealm Studios’ expertise with the recent Mortal Kombat renaissance, Injustice was an incredibly solid bout of DC-themed biffo, presented with the kind of spectacle that suited its superhero roster. Injustice 2 might seem like a conservative sequel - in addition to promising the standard new superheroes and supervillains to fight as, NetherRealm seem really keen to tell us all about the “epic” new storyline - yet the ability to…
DEVELOPER Forged by Geeks PLATFORM Boardgame RELEASE DATE May 2017 Funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign and based on the hugely popular PC tower defence game of the same name. While the single player experience of the videogame may not seem like a particularly easy fit for a boardgame, Forged by Geeks has made some clever design decisions that look to be able to transpose the frantic action of a tower defence videogame to a slower, more tactically minded multiplayer tabletop experience. The boardgame revolves around a modular board that allows players to construct a large variety of maps with between one and three lanes for the enemies to move down. Alongside the lanes the board has spaces to place tower miniatures. The flow of the game should be much…
THE INFLUENCE OF FIREFLY IS CLEARLY VISIBLE... THE SHIP IS AS MUCH OF A CHARACTER AS THE PLAYERS DEVELOPER Free League PLATFORM Tabletop RPG RELEASE DATE Available Now Fria Ligan/Free League may not be a particularly well-known name in tabletop roleplaying circles – at least not in comparison to giants like Wizards of the Coast or Paizo Publishing – but when it comes to quality games, the Swedish designer and publisher is hard to beat. The latest pen and paper RPG from Free League, Coriolis, is described as “Arabian Nights in space”, and while the high concept pitch does give an idea what the game is about, that description barely scratches the surface. Set in the Third Horizon, a remote area of space comprised of around 30 systems and cut…
