Pros: Very Fun Gameplay, Puzzling, Level Editor
Cons: Could Use a Jump Mechanic
The bottom line: Hyper Lode Runner is one of the Best Puzzlers for the Game Boy.
In all honesty, outside of Pokemon and the occasional diamond in the rough, I've not had much luck with the original Gameboy. Recently I've come into a rather large box of used games for the handy little portable. Thankfully I've still got my GBA SP. Either way, I knew that there just had to be more quality games for the platform, and one of the more interesting looking titles I found was Hyper Lode Runner. Is this one of the standout titles for the original Gameboy, or is it a hyper disaster? Read on to find out.

The Lode Runner name is one that I've heard of, but this is my first experience with the series. Before Hyper Lode Runner I honestly wouldn't have been able to tell you what kind of game your typical Lode Runner is. Quite frankly I'm glad I gave it a chance.

Hyper Lode Runner

I couldn't find any real evidence of a story; you simply are a treasure hunter who's seeking gold. It gets the job done well enough.

So basically, as this treasure hunter, you're job is to gather up all the riches in each level. Upon doing so, you'll move to the next. It may sound easy, but it's really not. First off, you've got three enemies (or rival treasure hunters) which run, climb and fall after you. One touch and you're dead. What's worse is that your laser gun doesn't do anything to them; it's only used for blasting temporary holes in the brick environments.

Okay so you're not a total pacifist. These enemies can fall into the holes you blast in the bricks, and they'll be stuck there for several seconds. If the hole happens to fill by itself (occurs ever ten seconds or so) when your enemy is inside they will be effectively buried alive. Gruesome. You also can be buried alive yourself, and no, your treasure hunter cannot simply jump out. As a matter of fact, he can't jump at all.

Almost all of the environments are packed with various little quirks that you'll have to make use of. Though your character cannot jump he's not completely non-athletic; he can climb ladders with the best of them, and he can also shimmy across horizontal ropes. The bad part is that the enemies too can make use of these, and if you're not careful, they can trap you in between them, Pac-Man style.

Most of the gold in this game is underneath these bricks, and so you must strategically zap areas away, but leave yourself an escape route so as to not get stuck or buried alive. It's much more difficult than it sounds; believe me, especially in the later levels which throw even more obstacles to the mix. It's possible even to get stuck without dying, at which point you'll have to restart the level by pressing the select button. You'll need to double up your thinking cap on this one.

The game comes with several rather cool features. First off, you don't have to play the levels in order. The bad part of this is that you won't have the option for all 50 of them until you've made some progress in the game, at which point you'll be awarded a password. Hyper Lode Runner also has a VS mode for linking up, but finding someone else who has this game would probably be impossible nowadays. The best of the features however, is the level editor. You can create your own level, but it takes some brainpower. I've not yet made a fully playable one.

The graphics are decent for an early title on the original Game Boy. I've been spoiled a bit, so it's difficult to go back to black and white display, but oh well. The characters are rather small, while the building blocks for the environments are large. This makes the levels feel bigger than they actually are. The animation is fairly smooth, and I can't notice any real slowdown. Overall the graphics are more than adequate for this kind of game.

The sound is very low tech, with a few bleeps and blips in succession. I say that because you can't really call it music, more like, just a sound. It's nothing special, but it's got some serious retro appeal and I can't make myself hate it. The sound effects are about the same quality.

Control is nice. There's not much else to say, because while there are no real problems, there's nothing especially terrific here. It does take a short while to get used to the level editor, but because that's an optional feature it's not that big a deal. I do kinda wish the game had the ability to jump though, because I found myself doing it almost instinctively at every turn.

Final Recommendation
Hyper Lode Runner is a very fun and difficult puzzle game that will keep you coming back. It can get a bit frustrating at times, but it's easy to jump right back in. If you're looking for a Gameboy game that will keep you busy, then this is it.