Hybrid Heaven (N64)

Developer:

Konami Osaka

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Release Date:

1999

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Systems:

Nintendo 64

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Super Adventures is back again! It's only going to be around for eight weeks before going back into hibernation over the winter, but I'm going to be writing about so many games. Like, maybe even eight of them.

First I'm playing an N64 game called Hybrid Heaven. It's one of those games that I've been meaning to check out for years, but it's finally completed the arduous climb to the top of my 'to play' list. It made it just in time as well, as it's the game's 20th anniversary this year, though that's true of a lot of N64 titles. In fact my half-assed research on Wikipedia tells me that about a third of the system's games came out during 1999. Then after 2000 the console dropped like a rock for some reason (PlayStation 2).

Hybrid Heaven wasn't exactly the N64's biggest hit, but I don't feel like it can be that obscure, at least not to people who owned the system. I think it's probably one of those games that lots of people have heard of but not necessarily played themselves. It's one of the few carts my family had for the console back in the day and I even I haven't played it, though my brother did spoil the twist for me.

The game was nice enough to give me two title screens to pick from for my screenshot up there, but I decided to go with the one with menu options on it instead of the one with the Twin Towers filling the screen... because it gives me an excuse to talk about the resolution!

A few N64 games offer a 'high resolution' option if you've got the Expansion Pak installed, which doubles the resolution to 640x480. Or at least that's what you'd expect it to do, but it was apparently more like 480x360 for most games (or even less in widescreen). Hybrid Heaven seems to be one of the few N64 games that actually does something close to proper 640x480... but I've heard that the frame rate's terrible in that mode so I'm going to leave it on standard definition.

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Though here's a glimpse of what those fuzzy low res textures could look like in a slightly less fuzzy, slightly higher resolution image. The main giveaway that's not typical N64 res is that you can actually kind of tell that a tiny monster has climbed to the top of the Expansion Pak.

I've always liked these 'expanded RAM detected' screens in games, as it made me feel special for having those extra 4 MB plugged in (or having an extra 512 kB inside my Amiga's case in my Amiga's case). Sure I didn't always know what difference it made, in fact I barely ever knew, but it had to do something or else it wouldn't have told me it'd been detected!

Anyway, the game has three difficulty options: 'Ultimate', 'Hard' and 'Normal', so if I pick normal I'll be playing it on the easiest mode available. I usually play games on normal mode or the default so I can judge the difficulty fairly... so easiest it is then.

The game starts with a man sitting in a dark room flicking through channels. Actually before that there was a picture of the White House, with the text "Washington D.C. 19. Dec. 2000" written under it, but I don't think it was implying that he's renting an apartment there.

Judging by the sound effects he skips past a cartoon and a western and settles on watching the news. He and I are very different people.

When the cutscene cuts to the TV it looks more like a press conference, but I'm fairly sure it's a news report. Oh it must be a news report about a guy making a speech! The N64 wasn't really the best system for proper lip sync (or proper mouths) so I just assumed the voice I was hearing must have been his.

This is actually footage of the US President giving a press conference, telling everyone that he and the Russian President have decided that nukes are rubbish, so they're going to meet up in New York in five days to sign an agreement to have less of them.

Then the man from the press conference arrives at the guy's door!

If you're wondering why he's standing there naked... so's the man at the door. He tells him to put some clothes on and act like a human, so they can carry out their plan to replace the President with a sinister doppelgänger and begin the invasion of Earth on schedule. I get the feeling these might be bad guys.

The cutscene ends with the mysterious naked man listening to a mysterious woman on his answering machine, who asks him to meet her in New York. Though not for evil this time, just for Christmas; she doesn't seem to be part of their alien conspiracy. Plus she calls him 'Johnny' so I finally have something better to call him than 'mysterious naked guy'.

By pure chance Johnny and mysterious answering machine woman both end up in the same New York subway station at the same time, though she's a bit confused when he completely ignores her, so she walks over to see what he's up to.

Johnny's here to meet with his contact Mr Diaz, to acquire the tools and weapons he'll need for his mission. Though what he actually gets is shot, as Diaz immediately draws a pistol and murders him! The two secret service looking people behind him are a little shocked by this and restrain him.

I was starting to worry about mysterious answering machine woman at this point, but Johnny's body fizzles away to nothing and the agents aren't that concerned about witnesses when there's no evidence. They do feel like they have to drag Diaz to their hidden elevator though, so they can take him down into the Sci-Fi Zone.

Diaz decides he doesn't much want to be dragged around though and manages to take out one of the agents before falling off the lift himself! Fortunately it's one of those advanced anti-grav lifts so he has a soft landing and escapes into the secret underground base. Man this intro is nuts.

Good sound effects though; it reminds me of an audio drama. Shame it's probably about to run out of voices soon, as N64 game cartridges weren't really designed for long conversations.

And that's the end of the cutscene. Could've been over sooner if I'd skipped it, but then I'd would've had no idea who I'm playing as or what their motives and intentions are. I'd be completely confused!

Well now that it's letting me walk around I can at least be sure that I'm controlling Diaz. Though I have no clue what his objective is, or what he's going to do if I walk over to that technician at the console.

Oh, they had a chat about the security code being changed and then he gave me a code key! It was a very one sided conversation though, as Diaz seems to be one of those silent protagonists. In fact everyone's silent down here as the voices have been replaced with text.

To use the key I'll need to find a locked door and a device to renew the code, so I'm going to climb down the ladder in front of me and go look for them.

A FEW CORRIDORS LATER

The code key renewal device wasn't too hard to find. I just kept walking down the only path available to me until I hit a dead end and there it was. Plus I've also found a Life Charger S in the box next to it. Probably not as good as Life Charger M or L but I'll take all the life charging I can get.

Now that I've renewed my code key I suppose I'll need to find a door to open with it. Actually I walked by the locked door on the way here, so I think I've got this first puzzle solved.

I've been coming across these little drones as I've been wandering around the base. They're not as friendly as the technicians as they'll shoot at me if I enter their tiny viewing cone, but they're pretty harmless and easy to dodge. Plus I've just learned that I have a pistol defuser to shoot them with, and they explode in two hits.

Gun combat is similar to Resident Evil 4, as you hold down R to aim and tap A or the Z trigger to fire. The difference is that in this you only have to be vaguely facing the right way for the bullets to end up where they're needed. Plus the defuser is one of the weakest sounding pistols I've ever come across in a game. Takes all the satisfaction out of firing it.

Right now I've been locked inside a circular corridor full of drones with a couple of rooms around the outside, and I don't know what the game wants me to do. This room has a box and a there's a blue forcefield behind it, but I can't push the box into the forcefield and shooting things doesn't seem to help, so I'm a bit stuck.

Oh I can blow up the box! I just had to shoot it more. There was some kind of blue flashing thing on the wall behind the box so I shot that too and the forcefield went down.

I've found a save room! Plus it also healed up the tiny amount of health those little drones cost me, restoring my blue circle to full.

It's a bit of a surprise that I've only been playing this for 23 minutes, considering all the time I wasted running around in a circle shooting drones before I figured out how to get the forcefield down. I was wondering at first if this was going to be a bit of a Metroidvania (or at least a bit of a Metal Gear Solid), but I'm getting the impression it's much more linear than that.

Sneaky game, hiding the next forcefield control behind a crate where the camera couldn't see it. I do have some control over the camera, and it turns to match my direction when I stop, but while I'm walking around it does its own thing so it wasn't all that obvious this flashing red device was here.

The game's really reminding me of Fade to Black so far, which was a pioneering third person 3D action-adventure starring a guy in a brown leather jacket and jeans who had to fight his way through a futuristic base. Only this feels like what Fade to Black could've been like if it had been developed after Tomb Raider had been released, when people had a far better idea of what a 3D third person action game should play like. Hybrid Heaven's a little awkward, but it could've been much much worse.

SOON

Oh so that's what that computer did!

When I got past that red forcefield I came across a terminal and tried to use it, but all the text was written in alien. This didn't stop Diaz though and he kept on pressing things as the text went from green, to yellow, to red, and then an alarm went off. So now I know it must have been the 'bio weapons have been set loose into the facility' alarm.

The technician thought that someone else must opened the cells, until he realised it was me, Diaz. Fortunately he gets stabbed in the back by an escaped bio weapon before he can go around and tell everyone, and he fizzles away like Johnny in the intro.

Okay this is new. I've been locked in with the bio weapon, but I can't shoot him because the controls have changed. Plus I've gained a 'Power' and a 'Stamina' bar and the red text seems to want me to wait.

I'll just back away from the creature trying to stab me then while I wait.

This is also new!

Once the creature got too close the game paused to offer me these three choices. None of them seem all that great, though 'Counter' seems like the most likely to harm him instead of me, so I'll go with that.

As far as I can tell I avoided his Mid R Hook and countered with a Mid R Punch, hitting him for 25 damage.

There was a message on the pause screen saying I could press 'R' to grab him, so I walked over to try that. I messed it up though and got the same three options, so I chose 'Step' this time to dodge out of the way. Now I have to choose which direction I want to step in!

Well, uh, stepping towards him probably won't help so I won't go that way. Can't say that I really understand all the pros and cons of each of the remaining seven directions though, so I'll just step to the side.

My attempt to sidestep failed and I took 5 damage, so I tried to grab him again and succeeded this time. But now I need to make a decision about what to do now I've grabbed him! It's like a Choose Your Own Fight book.

Seems like we're both playing by the same rules here, so I can be the one inflicting the 'Step', 'Guard' or 'Counter' choice on him all the time if I get close enough for our moves to connect and then hit the attack button first.

It worked! I finished him off with a R Middle Kick that he failed to Step away from, and got awarded an A rank for my incredible display of raw natural talent.

The game also gave me two new moves: Upper R Hook, and Upper L Hook, and I have no idea what makes them a better choice than my kicks, or my other punches for that matter. All I know is that I need to go backtrack to the save chamber to heal. Should just be next door if I remember.

Aww, the door's locked! Those bastards.

Great, more bloody drones. Plus they've got exploding Roombas patrolling the floor now as well. All less deadly than a good punch to the face, but I'd rather avoid pain if possible.

I was surprised to find that the other folks working down here are still blissfully unaware that I betrayed them, so I don't have to worry about them attacking me just yet. In fact they're all being very helpful. I almost feel guilty that Diaz's secret agenda involves setting loose vicious creatures to stalk them through the corridors and kill them.

After yet more corridors full of drones I got into my second fight, and I think I've figured out what I'm doing now.

I mean I have no idea what punch or kick to pick from; it's like I'm taking a multiple choice test for a subject I slept through and they're not exactly giving me any clues. But I have worked out what the green power bar does.

The bar charges up during the fight and when it gets 25% of the way across I get to take an action, like using an item or throwing an upper right hook. But if I let the power bar charge up fully my attack will be much stronger. Then once I've taken an action the bar resets and I have to back away from the enemy until it fills up again.

Though what I'm actually is doing now is using my regenerating stamina to run the hell away from the enemy and get some distance between us so I can stand still for a minute and catch my breath. My power comes back much faster if I'm not moving.

He exploded, I got a level up, I'm fairly satisfied with this outcome.

Man, my defence really got a huge boost there, going up 50%. Plus I learned Mid R Hook and Mid L Hook; more punches for the punch collection. I've got two pages of the things now.

Also I'm starting to see why a lot of the rooms in this base are empty featureless squares, seeing as they can double as fighting arenas.

SOME MORE ROOMS AND DRONES LATER

Damn man, that brainbuster just took off 70 hit points! The game's been fairly easy so far, but you can get punished hard if you let them get you first.

Seems I'm going to need those Life Charger S health potions I've been hoarding after all. I'll hold on that Battle Charger S for a bit though, in case I really need it later (I don't even know what it does).

While I'm messing around in the menu I decided to have a look at my skills, and it seems each of them levels up individually. Including my 3 billion different punches! It seem strange that the game would encourage me to stick to spamming the same one over and over, so I'm going to assume there's reasons not to do that and carry on using whatever move I feel like.

Also, I've just noticed the music, or at least I've noticed that it's very unnoticeable. It's mostly there for atmosphere and it doesn't seem like there's any risk of it ever breaking into a memorable melody.

A little further on I found another save pod, just as expected. I knew it'd turn up right after I finally used a Life Charger S potion, to make the sacrifice meaningless.

Oh no, the staff here has finally deduced that I killed a bunch of their friends and released the monsters, and now there's an arrest warrant out for me. I liked being undercover and getting to chat with the NPCs, but this technician's having a go at taking me down by himself!

I expected these guys in the orange jumpsuits to be complete pushovers, but he's chasing me down faster than the bio weapons did. Plus he was smart enough to use a Life Charger to get 100 health back. It seems like I've damaged his torso though as it's starting to glow red. Either that or he's activated his nuclear self-destruct implant, you never know with these aliens.

Okay this move doesn't look so great in a still screenshot, but I can assure you that it's actually fantastic. The game's pretty screenshot resistant in general unfortunately.

I'd been getting into a routine of hit and fade attacks; hanging back until my power's full, running in to hit them, then getting as far away as I could to stop and recharge. But then I realised that my full-power attacks were knocking him down, which means I probably had a different set of attacks to choose from for when he's picking himself off the floor.

Turns out that I was right, and I can also break out some wrestling moves. It may only be a 25% power Boston Crab I'm inflicting on him, but it seems to hurt.

Speaking of hurt, I was injured in that fight as well, but it seems to have done me some good. It's not just my skills and my stats that level up, it's my individual limbs as well! Makes me wonder if I should've let those bio weapons break a leg or an arm while I had the chance, as my A rank successes may have left me weaker than I could've been.

The game doesn't do random encounters and the only things that respawn are the drones and the Roomba mines so far, so I may have a finite amount of battles available here to get my levels from. Anyway, I'm running back to the last save chamber to get healed up.

There's another one of those boxes with a glowing core, up on the top right. I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to shoot them all or not, but I'm fairly certain I won't be hitting it from down here. I can barely aim upwards and my range seems to be crap. But I have a plan! I'm going to go over there, climb the crates, and shoot at it from the top!

Well it turns out I can only climb up onto a ledge that's one crate high, so that plan failed. I went to check the next room along, but there was another red forcefield in there so it seems I'm heading back the way I came to look for a switch.

Here I am in a different room somewhere nearby. Or maybe it's the same room, I can't tell!

I really wish I had a better map screen than that tiny mini-map down there on the right. I could've used it to show you where I was, and where I wanted to go, so you'd have a better idea of how all these screenshots connect.

At least now I can be certain that this isn't the same room... because I just fell off. I was trying to jump over this gap using the red diamond box as a stepping stone, but I just shimmied across the blue ledge on the right by my fingertips in the end. At least now I know I don't take falling damage. Plus I'm fairly sure I must be on the right path and the forcefield switch must be right through here.

Hey, I've reached the box I was trying to shoot earlier! I tried jumping over to it, but it doesn't actually lead anywhere. They're just a bunch of floating boxes.

I was getting confused here because I was looking for a switch to deactivate the red forcefield but this is the end of the road and there's nothing here. Well, except for a box to shoot. So I looked back through my screenshots and realised that I'd hit the switch ages ago and forgotten about it. The forcefield's already down!

LATER, AFTER THE FORCEFIELD

Well this doesn't look good. In fact it looks like a 'superpowered boss charging up to full strength' kind of situation. I'm starting to think that forcefield was there for a reason.

This reminds me, I ran into an enemy a short while back who teleported into the room using a yellow square in the floor. So I kicked his ass and moved on. Then I realised I hadn't checked the whole room for doors and treasure, so I went back in and he respawned! That was the first and only time an enemy's come back and let me fight them twice, and it probably would've worked a third time too.

I'm bringing this up because it occurs to me now that it would've been an opportunity for some grinding and I probably should've taken it before facing whatever the hell this is.

I mean look at me, I'm a total weakling with level 1 arms and a level 1 head! Though I do have the legs of a kickboxing cyclist, so that might help.

Hey, he's not so big. Though there's boss music playing and he's chasing me down relentlessly and I'm starting to have concerns.

This monster is definitely a step above the creatures I've been dealing with so far, as I'm struggling to get some distance between us so I can stop and build up my power. Not just to fight back, but to use health items as well.

Well what doesn't kill Diaz makes him stronger, so this will probably be a good thing for him in the long term. Though it inflicted 66 damage and I've got 49 HP left, so if the monster does this again it's going to be what does kill Diaz.

I'm just glad he never attacks me when I'm lying down. I need the rest to get some of my power back!

I got an E rank for the fight in the end, partly due to all the times I unleashed a full power assault and he just stepped out of the way, but I'm sure he's just as annoyed about all the times I did it to him. Plus he's dead now and I won, so there's a silver lining.

Boss fight, no problem. I can take anyone.

Well except for this guy who sneaked up behind Diaz in the next cutscene and knocked him out in one hit. I guess his third person camera awareness only works when I'm controlling him.

Diaz is brought before an evil villain, so he can say evil villain things and discuss his evil plan. But there's no harm in him telling Diaz everything I suppose, because he's one of them and already knows everything. Also they're going to take him off for brainwashing, because he's so badass that killing him would be a waste.

He's not badass enough to escape before they seal him into the brainwashing cylinder though. So that seems like a good point for me to quit playing. Seeing as he's doomed with no possible chance of escape.

I'm turning the game off right... now.

SOON

I really am going to turn this off, but I just want to run away from this giant monster for a bit first, maybe fight a few battles along the way as I struggle to stay one step ahead while it smashes through walls. I've been playing the game for 1h 50 minutes, so another 10 minutes won't hurt...


CONCLUSION

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If I was going to compare Hybrid Heaven to any game, it wouldn't be Metal Gear Solid. They're both late 90s near-future sci-fi adventures featuring third person action, cloned soldiers, and a mad plot, and they're both developed by Konami, but aside from that they're very different games.

Metal Gear Solid's story is dumb enough to be fun, but also deep enough to get you invested and bring you along for the ride during its journey through madness. Hybrid Heaven's is mostly just dumb. I mean the story's fine for what it is, and it starts with an interesting twist on the Invasion of the Body Snatchers trope with one of the Body Snatchers turning on the others for mysterious reasons, but it's basically a cheesy 90s action game plot.

I've been playing it for two hours and I still don't know what caused Diaz to turn on his own people and what he's trying to achieve, but somehow being shut out of the protagonist's head kind of works for me in this case. Him being mute, not so much. In fact the game could use more voices in general, though that's an N64 cart issue, not a game design issue.

It's also mostly the N64's fault that all the corridors are plain and empty, but Hybrid Heaven shares some of the blame. Metal Gear Solid shows how good art design can shine through despite limited hardware, and this does not. The levels are 25% third person action, with platforms to reach, ledges to hang from, and obstacles to navigate, and 75% basic RPG dungeon. And everywhere you go, any way you turn, all you'll find are grey metallic walls with glowing bits. Makes it a bit awkward to figure out where you really are considering that it doesn't have a proper map.

I can only offer second hand opinions on the variety of later levels, but I've read that it's like this all the way through. It's very linear so you're always making progress, but if you're hoping for an epic RPG adventure you'll be disappointed when 12 hours later you're still heading through metal passageways underground. Seems like everything's metal in this game but the music. Not that it's crying out for a metal soundtrack, but something memorable would've been nice, something with a bit of a melody, something more than just 'suitable'. The music does the job, but I wouldn't expect to come across any of these tracks on an N64 remix album.

The controls are also suitable, which is great because I was worried it might have tank controls... or worse. It's the dated camera that's the main problem. Well, 'occasional annoyance' rather than 'problem'. It got in the way of me taking screenshots more than it got in the way of me jumping chasms and spotting drones. Not that it's hard to find a drone in this game, as they're bloody everywhere. And they're rubbish. I appreciate that the game uses its different gameplay styles to add a bit of variety, so it's not just one fight after another until you're totally sick of them. But the classic Tomb Raider style bits aren't great and the Resident Evil 4 shooty sections feel like padding. At least they've not been frustrating though (because I just ignored the drones and ran past when I couldn't be arsed.)

The 'real time with pause' combat was the most interesting part to me, and not just because they filled my attack menu with dozens of different punches and left me to wonder why. There's no special moves and I wasn't summoning fire magic against ice monsters, it was just punches, punches, grapples, kicks and punches. Maybe I was supposed to be keeping notes of the damage each of them do and compare them. It's a really strange combat system, with every attribute, every move, and even your limbs having levels that can be increased through inflicting violence and receiving it. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and limb damage is only temporary, so it seems best to survive as much as you can so you can toughen up and learn your enemy's moves for yourself. I'm aware that the RPG elements are basically bribing me into wanting to play the combat more by making all these numbers go up, but I'm not too bothered where my enjoyment's coming from as long as I'm enjoying it.

Waiting for a bar to fill up before I could hit an enemy annoyed the hell out of me in Secret of Mana and Secret of Evermore, but here it works a lot better. It's not just 'swipe the sword, wait three seconds' over and over, you have to get some distance so you can rest and get the bar to fill up faster. Still lots of waiting though. Plus it's apparently possible to save next to a boss fight you're too under-levelled to beat, without any way to go back to somewhere you can grind for a bit. This is exactly the kind of thing that scares me into over-levelling in these kinds of games, and I don't like it!

Not that there really are any games like Hybrid Heaven. I can usually say 'this isn't the best game of its genre, but it's alright', but here I think I have to say 'this is the best game of its genre... and it's alright.' I'm not sure what genre you'd call it actually, though it's definitely my favourite wrestling game right now, turn based or otherwise. I can't guarantee my interest would last another two hours, the game seems kind of repetitive, but right now it's getting a Not Crap award:

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Hey you read it all, thanks for that! Oh you actually just skimmed through to look at the pictures? Well that's fine too.

What's important now is that you leave me a comment either sharing your opinions about Hybrid Heaven or letting me know what you think the next game is going to be. If you feel like it, I mean.