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We at the LAP Project decided to dust off the old CLD-A100 and record another LaserActive game for all of you patient people! This time, it's Hyperion, Taito's final (and best) original LaserActive title. This rail shooter, which plays akin to the classic MSX shooter Astron Belt, was released in 1994.
Hyperion is widely considered the best game on the LaserActive, and for good reason - it has tight visuals, excellent music and sound, well-balanced difficulty (it's one of the easier rail shooters for the LaserActive, but it's no cakewalk), and massive adrenaline-pumping FMV bosses. Unlike the other rail shooters for the LaserActive (Pyramid Patrol, Hi Roller Battle, Space Berserker, Vajra 1 and 2), you actually can move your ship in Hyperion, in order to dodge enemy fire - as well as FMV hazards like asteroids and canyon walls. There are only two kinds of powerups to collect - bullet upgrades (red) and shield recovery items (green). You get four screen-clearing bombs per stage, which are displayed below the score. Other than that, there's no type of secondary mechanic (nothing like Pyramid Patrol's charge shot), so odds are you'll simply be leaning on the fire button for the duration of the game.
What Hyperion lacks in depth, however, it makes up for with a very unique feature for a LaserActive game - two-player co-op! Two players can pilot their Hyperaxis fighters side-by-side, thanks to the over-the-shoulder camera. Unfortunately, it's not pictured in this playthrough.
As far as story, the game's pretty light on details - the English manual apparently explains the narrative, but little of it is mentioned in-game. We don't have a copy of the English manual on hand, so what you see here is what you get. This game was produced in English during development - there is no Japanese version of the dialogue. As a result, the translation is quite wonky.
We know it's been a while, but we're not dead! Glad you're still with us.