Space Cheetah Hyper Runner review

Hyper Time

Space Cheetah Hyper Runner is a sci-fi themed parkour racing game with exploration, sandbox, and even sports elements. If you could not guess from the extravagant title, the setting of this game is both wild and bizarre. In the outlandish sci-fi competition known as “Hyper Games”, you play as a sort of supernatural alien cyborg cheetah as you race through a range of challenging speed-run parkour races in an array of settings, such as abandoned space stations, distant planets, and even artificial virtual Cyberspace. In its design vision, the game utilizes an interesting plan that combines free-roam exploration, speed running, parkour, and sports-like characteristics to create a fairly distinct final experience. In Space Cheetah’s core game mode, you will have to first score points using a variety of methods such as passing through highlighted checkpoints or scoring goals in futuristic football, and after collecting a total of 100 points you will have to figure out how to navigate the path that leads to the finish line

. Beyond the main “Classic Solo” campaign, the game also features three other modes which are available on each level: “Time Trial”, a mode that removes all scoring and point systems and challenges the player’s pure speed running skills by enforcing a time limit; “Race to 100”, another velocity-based game mode where instead of having to get to the finish line you have to quickly collect 100 points before the timer runs out; and “Story Mode”, a more casual setting that encourages you to search for hidden collectibles that reveal fragments of the game’s lore. Additionally, Space Cheetah offers an additional “Custom Mode” which allows players to personalize the experience as they see fit by adjusting win/loss conditions and even each level’s gravity strength. Space Cheetah’s core gameplay loop is highly based on momentum and action synergies which makes all the different modes fun to try out as you test how much your skills and reaction times have been improving. It is also important to note that the game features an open philosophy when it comes to level design that makes figuring out the ideal path for each game mode both entertaining and challenging.

Hyper Eyesore

Just calling Space Cheetah’s visual presentation poor would be a true understatement. This is a game that not only is graphically flawed but can even be genuinely hard to look at in certain moments. These aesthetic issues materialize in many different ways and are consistently present throughout the game without any exception. These range from grotesque-looking textures to a horrible color palette, to lack of graphical consistency, to bad claustrophobic skyboxes, to clunky post-processing effects, and much more. There are of course many subgenres and types of games where graphical elegance is only a secondary aspect that may not necessarily hold back the overall experience even when poorly executed.

Unfortunately, Space Cheetah does not fall into this category as it belongs to a genre where a carefully crafted visual presentation matters a lot, on both an aesthetic and a practical level. Carefully crafted landscapes and a well-thought-out aesthetic vision make traversing through the worlds of parkour and racing games feel like a fluid and pleasant adventure that encourages you to keep coming back. At the same time, visual clarity, cohesion, and harmony are important on a practical level as they help the player enjoy an experience that feels smooth and precise rather than cluttered and vertigo-inducing. And if that’s not all, the game’s visuals seem to get even messier and more cluttered the further you advance through the game. At a certain point, Space Cheetah even introduces some intentionally weird glitchy-looking particle objects that act as obstacles around the level and make navigating the game’s courses even more of an eyesore. In a game all about navigation, exploration, speed, and constant traversal, graphical issues of that capacity are a major detriment and could even make more sensitive players feel genuinely dizzy.

Not so Hyper Yet

The severe visual problem is without a doubt one of Space Cheetah’s biggest drawbacks, but it is far from the game’s only issue. On the dimension of game design, for example, Space Cheetah tries to experiment but fails to forge an engaging and coherent identity. Many levels can feel repetitive, uninspired, or just cluttered with a bunch of seemingly random objects without any sense of structure or form. On top of that, the game also reveals apparent problems concerning development choices and practical execution. Elements such as player movement, collisions, central mechanics, physics, the acceleration system, sound design, and other essential pillars, are nowhere near polished enough and would require a significant amount of additional work to reach a sufficient level of quality and many would have to be completely restructured and remade. There were however certain elements and ideas in Space Cheetah that I thought were clever, fresh, and on certain occasions well-executed. For example, I did enjoy discovering the ways the game aimed to combine all these different genres and sub-genres to create an experience that feels distinct, swift, and comprehensive.

I appreciated the velocity-packed and momentum-based gameplay direction as well as some of the in-level objects such as the physics-controlled platforms and the trampoline nets. I also thought the open philosophy on level design skillfully encouraged exploration and alternative paths and was an overall refreshing take compared to more linear titles. Unfortunately, the game’s fundamental issues surrounding design, execution, and visual presentation are more than enough to overshadow some of the more clever and unique aspects. Space Cheetah Hyper Runner would be acceptable as an early prototype or game jam that mainly aimed to showcase certain concepts and the developer’s greater vision. However, in its current state, the game does not meet the quality threshold that would make it a worthwhile fully-priced final product.