Hyper Iria

[Obiwanshinobi]

Now this game really needs to be translated to English. Not only the 1991 Japanese flick Zeiram is up (down?) there with the underdogs such as Hardware (a.k.a. M.A.R.K. 13), i.e. Alien 3 has fuck all and a half on it in my humble opinion, but also the Super Famicom side scroller Hyper Iria (apparently based on the anime based on the live action film) is quite good as far as I can tell.
First and foremost, reminds me of the mighty Flashback, no less. The animations are on the "cinematic" side, the controls - nuanced yet reliable, and it just nails the feel of playing as the athletic badass beauty wearing a powered exoskeleton, but without over the top superpowers (she double jumps alright, but this may very well be thanks to some groovy device she's equipped with). The sound is underdeveloped (I'd like to hear the footsteps, the machinery humming, those sliding doors making some kind of noise etc.) and graphically it's rather plain for a SNES game, but there is some atmosphere to it. Although I have not found any traces of Keita Amemiya's involvement with this game, the pixel art delivers and there is a fair share of funky designs to behold here.
I'd like to play it properly, but it's rather wordy and rich in menus I do not quite comprehend. Iria and her dorje-like computer chat rather a lot and the plot seems to be fairly developed. So yeah, translators and romhackers seeking to prove themselves should check this game out.
Just in case you wonder, double tapping left or right makes her run.

[drauch]

I've always meant to play this. Looks super good. I will now take the ambition and finally try it!

[Skykid]

I always meant to get around to bagging one of these too, but I watched some Youtube vids and read some fairly negative stuff about it being mundane I sort of put it to the back of the 'wants' list.

It would be nice to hear some positive stuff about it from those who have given it serious time, but I thought bar having to text skip some bits you didn't need to know Japanese to play it through?

[Obiwanshinobi]

See, it's not quite unlike Resident Evil. The ammunition is limited and sparse, the continues are limited and there is some password system, apparently. You collect some items and I don't even know whether the computer tells you what to do wih them, or you are supposed to work it out by yourself. I imagine playing it on a real hardware, without resorting to savestates, in a language you don't understand might be trickier than developers intended. If you like "survival adventures" (broadly speaking: Resident Evil, Flashback...), this can be your kind of game, but then again, would you play Biohazard or Flashback with no comprehension of the text? I can enjoy some games in languages I don't know as an extra challenge, but here it doesn't feel quite right.
What feels right is the atmosphere, the animations, the controls (limited movement mid-air, but less rigid than early Castlevanias or Mamono Hunter Youko on the MD) and the kicking. It gets along with my memories of the film. Calling the graphics "plain" I didn't mean to diss the art; it just does nothing special for a SNES game.

[sven666]

had it for years, its a mediocre game at best.

i actually learnt quite a bit of german in order to play the first resident evil which i for some reason only had the german dubbed version of.. there is no lure like that in hyper iria tho.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I wouldn't pay over the roof for a kosher cartridge, but... mediocre? Ho-hum. The air kick feels nearly as good as in Elevator Action Returns - that and the animations alone sort of elevate it beyond mediocrity in my book. I guess it's just the playable character that clicked with me. If anything, Zeiram fans should give it a go (everybody else should watch Zeiram for there's precious little to dislike about it).
Hyper Iria doesn't feel a lot like an arcade game, I must admit, and there are certainly slicker, faster paced Japan-only sidescrollers for the Super Famicom (Magical Pop'n), but it attempts to do stuff I'd like to see more in 2D games, and - as far as I can tell - there's nothing particulary broken about it.

[greg]

The movie Zeiram was great, and I'm not much into Japanese SF live-action movies. Hyper Iria is an extension of Iria: Zeiram the Animation, which is a prequel to the movie. It explains how her brother is killed (or perhaps not?) along with Bob on a mission to capture the first Zeiram. Bob's personality is transferred to a computer AI and becomes Iria's guide.

I have this game, played it through a few times, like it a lot, and have a review for the game on my Super Famicom site. Undamned and I are on a Super Famicom game streak, and we recently discussed Hyper Iria. He apparently doesn't care for it, but I like it a lot.

Obiwanshinobi, a Japanese reading ability isn't quite totally required. I'd recommend studying and learning the kanji for up, down, left right, and stairs (kaidan). Your computer, Bob, will give you guidance on where to go in the levels, so you must pay attention to what he's telling you. This sort of gameplay was later expanded in Burning Rangers for the Sega Saturn.

I suppose it's possible to have no Japanese-reading ability and guess your way through the game in trial-and-error, but you will have the most difficulty on the third level. This level is the most difficult to navigate through, especially if you can't read Japanese. You have to find several computer rooms that have been infested by the Zeiram faces that cling to the ceilings. The first few are easy to find, but a lot of people have a difficult time finding the fourth computer room. I'd received a lot of questions about this from readers of my site. The fourth computer room is particularly tricky to find. If I remember right, there is one elevator that will go up two levels. Jump off to the left before you reach the second stop up and keep going left to find the fourth room. Then you need to face the final boss back in the first computer room you probably found at the very beginning of the level. Finish off the big blob with grenades and guns and then kill the Zeiram face on the ceiling. The flying grenades are helpful against these guys, or you can double jump up and shoot your guns.

Aside from some minor gameplay issues, this is a solid platform game. The wide variety of weapons to choose from is excellent, and some items are more conducive to certain missions than others. I really enjoyed the randomized shmup sequences and I wish that I could encounter them more often, as they were fun and a great way to stock up on ammo. Also a nice plus is that there are no instant death pitfalls that are too often a cliché in platform games. Even falling from great heights does no damage. When you die, you start over at a checkpoint and you have several lives before you have to start all over from the beginning. Dunno why you said the graphics are plain, because I thought they were rather nice, and the sprites are well-animated too.

I'll plug my Super Famicom site again, tee hee hee:

[Obiwanshinobi]

Thanks a lot! This might be my another action adventure of choice then (when I'm done with Monster World IV, that is).

[greg]

I recently picked up the Monster World collection for PS2 myself. I didn't know about Monster World 4 until it was mentioned in the "manga girls with swords" thread and watched some Youtube vids. I do not own any import Megadrive games at all, so this collection for the PS2 was the best way to go.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Fantasy Zone Complete Collection (NOT that polygonal Fantasy Zone remake) is also fantastic.

[greg]

I'm on a roll with this video capture device I'm using for the 100 Super Famicom games video. I think my next project will show how to clear level 3 of Hyper Iria, since it is so tricky (especially for those who can't read Japanese). I'll have to figure out how to add a voiceover track if I want to provide commentary during the replay. I'm totally new to this.

[GaijinPunch]

Fantasy Zone Complete Collection (NOT that polygonal Fantasy Zone remake) is also fantastic.

It is a must for any serious PS2 old ass games collection. It really is that awesome.
Apparently M2 were at some event recently at Mikado and they had SF2 (System 16 version) on a PCB.

[greg]

Hey guys, I just played through the first three levels of Hyper Iria tonight. The third level is a bit tricky. I will play through this third level several times until I get good at it, and then I intend to do a play through video of the level for YouTube soon.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Looking forward to those playthrough vids. Been thinking about Hyper Iria again recently.

[greg]

Looking forward to those playthrough vids. Been thinking about Hyper Iria again recently.

Would you like to see me go through more than just the third level? I can start out at the beginning of the game and film a playthrough. I never thought I'd do a "let's play" vid, but I wouldn't mind. It'll be fun. There's not much content on Youtube when it comes to Hyper Iria, and I do believe it is an underappreciated game.

[Obiwanshinobi]

If you have what it takes to play through it and record your run, it's totally worth it precisely because it's so obscure. Now I know I'll have to play it sooner or later for research purposes and I most likely will get stuck or hit the wall at some point.

[greg]

I have begun!
Level 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYvwA7PRqq4

Level 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZESTwYLhzY

[Obiwanshinobi]

Keep up the good work!
Been hogging SNES library again these days and Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City reminded me of Hyper Iria among other associations. Similar, multi-layered level structure.

[Skykid]

Greg, is this recorded from original hardware? Mind if I ask what capture devices you're using?

[greg]

I'm using an Avermedia DVD EZ Maker USB Gold for capturing. There is zero lag for games. This is the same device I used to record the 2nd "100 Super Famicom Games in 10 minutes" video. I'm becoming more familiar with the software, so while that video was at 240p, this new Iria video is up to 720p HD! The software is Cyberlink Power Director. It gives the option for different video and audio inputs. So what I did was have the SNES S-video going into the device, and the SNES audio bypassing and going directly into the computer speakers. I had the video recording and audio was recorded by my webcam's microphone, which recorded my nerdy voice as well as the speakers playing the SNES audio.

[Skykid]

I'm using an Avermedia DVD EZ Maker USB Gold for capturing. There is zero lag for games. This is the same device I used to record the 2nd "100 Super Famicom Games in 10 minutes" video. I'm becoming more familiar with the software, so while that video was at 240p, this new Iria video is up to 720p HD! The software is Cyberlink Power Director. It gives the option for different video and audio inputs. So what I did was have the SNES S-video going into the device, and the SNES audio bypassing and going directly into the computer speakers. I had the video recording and audio was recorded by my webcam's microphone, which recorded my nerdy voice as well as the speakers playing the SNES audio.

Thanks for the info, you got some decent quality going on there - good to get an S-video input too. Not scart but beats the heck out of composite.

[greg]

The mystery of the difficult third level has now been revealed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSjsBlwtxlE

[greg]

Level 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jvFW0vb50Y

[greg]

I breezed through the frustrating fifth and final level in about 10 minutes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABG-zVzKZdA

[Obiwanshinobi]

I breezed through the frustrating fifth and final level in about 10 minutes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABG-zVzKZdA

Many thanks. It'll spare me a few pains on my way through for sure.