Hyper Gunsport

Genre: Arcade / Sports (Misc.)

Players: 1-4 Team Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Hyper Gunsport, released in 2022 on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch, is an Arcade-style game that leans into the Sports genre with a few small Fighting Game elements tossed into the mix as well, basically asking the question, “what if there were a sport like Volleyball, but where teams hit the ball back and forth by shooting at it?”

The game makes use of a nice 2D pixel art presentation that can get pretty busy when the bullets really start flying, but still manages to have all of the important elements discernable. These visuals do a great job conveying the game’s futuristic setting, with a good variety in the different venues you’ll be competing in, including a floating barge, just outside of a graffiti-tagged apartment complex, and in front of a neon-lit street surely inspired by Blade Runner. These visuals are backed by a nice synthesized soundtrack, though unfortunately the only song I can find a link for is the game’s excellent vocal ending theme.

For the gameplay, the game has players in teams of two (with AI-controlled players filling the gaps) on a court with a net like a tennis or volleyball match, with each team having one keeper and one striker. The keeper, like a goalie, is forced to stay put toward the back of his team’s side of the court, but in exchange for this limited mobility they have an increased fire rate and fire a spread of shots instead of one. The striker, on the other hand, fires single shots and does so less frequently, but can move around on their team’s side of the net, and even jump up for a brief moment to help them spike the ball downward.

In addition, if the pair can time it so they both hit the ball at the same time, they’ll unleash a power attack that hits the ball hard and is more difficult to counter. And much like in Fighting Games, teams also have power bars that gradually fill up to unleash a super move, and different teams can make use of different mechanics, such as Congo’s use of yo-yo weapons.

I like a lot of what this game has to offer, but I also feel like the gameplay it’s aiming for doesn’t quite “gel” the way I’d like it to. Even as a keeper, your rate of fire feels agonizingly slow, and it’s even worse for strikers. And while being able to jump as a striker is nice, the jumping mechanics are just not at all satisfying. Additionally, I wish the game did more to indicate what makes each of the game’s teams different without having to go in and play them to try to figure it out for yourself.

I can see the reasons why some of these decisions were made – letting players fire their guns would make matches more chaotic and less strategic, but I can’t help but feel like surely there must have been a better way to do this.

In the end, I still enjoyed Hyper Gunsport, and I think it’s a fun and unique take on an “alternate” Sports title. And the presentation here is fantastic, really selling the game’s interesting and unusual vision of the future that this sport belongs to. I just wish the gameplay itself resonated more with me. As-is, I’m sure others will likely enjoy this game, but I definitely feel like this game could do with some improvements.

tl;dr – Hyper Gunsport is an Arcade-style game with strong Sports elements that has players in 2v2 matches in a futuristic sport like tennis or volleyball where players hit the ball back and forth by shooting the ball with guns. It’s a fun premise, and the futuristic presentation is great, but the gameplay mechanics leave something to be desired.

Grade: C+

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