Hypership Still Out of Control Review

The name Hypership Still Out of Control makes a lot of sense. It’s not really a sequel to Hypership Out of Control: it’s just more of the same. Of course, the original is still pretty cool, but those expecting an actual sequel will be very disappointed.

The premise is the same: players control a constantly-accelerating space fighter that shoots automatically, but mostly they’re trying to dodge the asteroids and assorted obstacles that get in the way. Power-ups for screen-clearing bombs, extra lives, and heavier firepower can be collected, all while just trying to stay alive. There are several modes that serve as mild variations on the core concept; the most different being Coin Down, which has players trying to constantly collect coins to keep the game going instead of being governed by the number of lives they have.

If this all sounds familiar, it’s because the game is identical to the original Hypership Out of Control, including the game modes and ship arts. This is all clued away in the fact that not even the App Store information has been changed much. The icon is a different color and carries a “STILL” badge on it. The description text is identical save for the word “still” added to the first sentence. Seriously, I had to go back to the original game in order to see what was new. It could be much better explained in the App Store text as to just what this actually is in relation to the original: more of a remix than a true sequel.

Still, as a frantic shoot-em-up it’s challenging and the high-speed gameplay stands out. The controls are fantastic for the fast-paced action. Ship movement happens at a 1:1 ratio with the movement of one’s finger, with the controls being offset as well, so it’s possible to move the finger away from the ship and still move it. This scheme makes it easy to rapidly maneuver through hazards without obscuring what’s going on. I picked up on it consciously when I was flying at high speed and swiped across and back to pick up some coins in a short gap just instinctively. That’s how responsive the controls are. Unfortunately, as the game is built to run at the same aspect ratio on all devices, there are some black bars on the sides on the iPad and on the bottom on widescreen iPhones, which are dead areas for the touch controls. This thankfully isn’t a big issue on the iPad, especially the Mini. Cleaner pixel art for Retina iPads would be appreciated as well.

While Hypership Still Out of Control being more of the same is disappointing, at worst it serves as a good reminder that high-speed space shmuppery is pretty cool.