 All the way back in my first English-friendly Super Famicom video, I mentioned a game called Hyper Area, and while the game is certainly playable without knowing Japanese, I lamented that Western audiences are missing out on a large portion of what is no doubt a quality game. Well, finally, thanks to the kind folks at Dynamic Designs and Matt's Messy Room, there now exists an English patch, so we English-speaking folk can experience this game in its full glory. Hyper Area is a story-driven action-platformer based on a mid-1990s OVA anime series called Iria, Zerum the Animation, which in turn was based on a live-action film from the 80s simply called Zerum. You play as Iria, a bounty hunter who, paired up with her robot compadre named Bob, is chasing Zerum, a hideous remorseless monster who can't be reasoned with, and must be stopped at all costs. Where Hyper Area really gets interesting is how it's structured. You start at a menu screen where you can pick between four missions, complete all four, and a final mission is unlocked. Then you move to kind of a transition screen where you discuss the mission with Bob, your robot friend, and occasionally you'll get ambushed and the level will switch to a shoot-em-up kind of thing. That's really a nice touch. Survive that and move on to the mission, which is 2D side-scrolling action-platforming done in large maze-like stages. Your standard attacks against the enemies you encounter are just punches and kicks, but you can earn money by completing missions, so you can buy weapons and ammo, so that at least lends the game some replay value so you can go back and play the game and try some different weapons, or hell try and speedrun through the game without any weapons. Eh, I'd rather just make stuff go boom in as many ways as possible. There's limited ammo here though, so pick your spots wisely. This all sounds cool though, right? And for the most part it is. The problem though is the level design, it's pretty bland. These levels are huge and repetitive, so most of the action gets old quickly. Some missions at least do vary somewhat, I mean there's some goals rather than just blowing up everything like defusing a bomb or rescuing someone, but yeah, I can see how someone might think this game is kinda mediocre on the gameplay side of things. The game is pretty forgiving though, because if you die, you respawn somewhat close by, and all the stuff you previously killed stays dead. What sets Hyper Area apart though is its visual style. The pixel art that looks like it could have been ripped straight from the anime, the sprite work, the colors, the little dialogue boxes in the corner, the enemy and boss design, everything just looks so freaking cool here. Yeah, there are a lot of anime based, super Famicom games like Slayers, Tenshi Muyo and Dragon Ball Z, or even just games with anime styled artwork and cutscenes like Breath of Fire or Ease 3, but all of those games pale in comparison to Hyper Area. This is one of the best looking games on the system. So yeah, Hyper Area is a pretty interesting game. I really dig the unique structure, the monetary system for buying weapons, and of course the overall visual presentation of this game. Like I said though, the level design is pretty dull and the game gets repetitive. If you're looking for exploration based gameplay like this, I'd recommend Phantom 2040 and of course Super Metroid over this. Again, just based on gameplay. But hey, if you want more of the Area universe, there's Zerum Zone for PS1, a one-on-one fighting game released in Japan for PlayStation. It's also worth mentioning that Hyper Area is a really expensive, super Famicom cart and it has been for a long time. So play this game in the brand new English patch any way you're able to. It's a bit flawed, but it's certainly worth playing at least once to see if it's up your alley.