Race for your life
If you've ever seen the movie Tron, then Hypercycles might just be of interest to you. It's not a classic game by any stretch of the imagination but it does a semi-decent job of replicating the thrills and spills of the movie's legendary light cycle sequences and is thus worth at least a cursory look. The background to the game tells how the evil Dr. Devaro lures the unwary into his own personal realm, which is known as The Grid. Once there, he forces to play his twisted games for his own amusement and which generally involve pitting the hapless newcomers on the titular hypercycles and forcing them to race against a bunch of twisted psychopaths. The whole thing plays out in first person perspective, with the player racing around a series of maze-like levels, avoiding their rivals, grabbing missiles and other powerups, and seeking out the numerous rings which litter each stage. Collecting these rings allows you to progress to the next level, with thirty available and if you reach the last, presumably you gain your freedom. Hypercycles is pretty simple stuff, lacking in much resembling variety or depth but it manages to be mildly entertaining despite this. The visuals aren't exactly much to write home about, which is unsurprising given the game's shareware heritage, and are noticeably lacking in detail or textures. However, things do move around at a decent pace which is perhaps slightly more important. The level design is equally middle-of-the-road but the game just about manages to transcend all this averageness thanks to simply being jolly good fun. Not a must play by any means, but a fun little timewaster.
