VGEsoterica
Member
First of all it's been a ton of fun talking Hyper with people here. I am surprised by the amount of people who actually have some love for the platform. I thought it would be "oh yeah that thing" or "never heard of it", but apparently I am not the only one who enjoys these games! Which makes me super happy. Maybe SNK will read this and give us a Hyper compilation (they won't lol)
It took me six months of active searching to finally find a copy of Offbeat Racer. Its by far the rarest of the seven games on the platform. Finally found a working cart in Japan and had it send stateside to complete my Hyper fullset. Weirdly it's rarity doesn't really equal expensive. It was $350 plus shipping. Since there had never been a decent capture of it before I wanted to get it to a) actually play it b) complete my collection and c) be able to get a 1080p60 capture.
SNK definitely improved from the first driving game (Round Trip RV) to this ; definitely way more of an "arcadey" feel...like a SF Rush light. Some jumps but it doesnt push it too much although I wish they'd gone a bit further with it myself. Handling wise it feels very similar to Cruis'n USA. Graphically it's much improved over Round Trip RV. Better textures, performance, and way less polygon breakup than we've seen in other Hyper games. Just goes to show SNK was getting the hang of 3D design. Bummer we never got another arcade racer from them even after they transitioned to other platforms. I'd have loved to see what they would have come up with had they continued making racing games.
I've never seen a cab in the wild though. Considering Offbeat Racer was considered way rarer than Round Trip RV, that's probably not super surprising. Then again I've never seen a Round Trip RV cab either so....lol.
Anyone ever get a chance to play this? If anyone is ever in Chicago and wants to challenge me...you know where to find me haha
It took me six months of active searching to finally find a copy of Offbeat Racer. Its by far the rarest of the seven games on the platform. Finally found a working cart in Japan and had it send stateside to complete my Hyper fullset. Weirdly it's rarity doesn't really equal expensive. It was $350 plus shipping. Since there had never been a decent capture of it before I wanted to get it to a) actually play it b) complete my collection and c) be able to get a 1080p60 capture.
SNK definitely improved from the first driving game (Round Trip RV) to this ; definitely way more of an "arcadey" feel...like a SF Rush light. Some jumps but it doesnt push it too much although I wish they'd gone a bit further with it myself. Handling wise it feels very similar to Cruis'n USA. Graphically it's much improved over Round Trip RV. Better textures, performance, and way less polygon breakup than we've seen in other Hyper games. Just goes to show SNK was getting the hang of 3D design. Bummer we never got another arcade racer from them even after they transitioned to other platforms. I'd have loved to see what they would have come up with had they continued making racing games.
I've never seen a cab in the wild though. Considering Offbeat Racer was considered way rarer than Round Trip RV, that's probably not super surprising. Then again I've never seen a Round Trip RV cab either so....lol.
Anyone ever get a chance to play this? If anyone is ever in Chicago and wants to challenge me...you know where to find me haha