Welcome to Cover Art! A section of the site where we look at a retro video game’s box cover art and briefly discuss it’s gameplay and legacy.
Hyper Zone is rail shooter developed by HAL Laboratory. It was released for the Super Nintendo in 1991. Although it’s considered a shallow derivative title, I came to appreciate it thanks to an old friend.
To the average Nintendo gamer, Hyper Zone will probably remind them of F-Zero thanks to the game’s liberal use of the Mode 7 effect. But it is not a racing game; rather you must navigate through an obstacle course whilst shooting down oncoming enemies. Another similarity it shares with Nintendo’s F-Zero is that it has recharge zones which recovers your ships armor. The shooting in the game is also reminiscent of the Sega arcade game, Space Harrier.