Apple Arcade review #103: Hyperbrawl Tournament

It’s a requirement for Apple Arcade games to work across all devices, support screen sizes from five to fifty inches, and work with touch controls on the iPhone and iPad. It’s a challenge that will always demand some compromises, whether that’s on the phone or, most likely, on the TV and Mac. The iPhone is the most used device, and naturally the primary focus for many developers.

Hyperbrawl Tournament, a multiplayer arcade sports game, does not play well with the iPhone. Everything is tiny: the user interface, the character models, the terrible virtual buttons. It’s hard to see what’s going on and really hard to perform even the basic functions, like throwing the ball into the goal. I often found it difficult to perform even the simplest actions.

On the TV with an Xbox controller, things are better, but unfortunately this is where the game’s other flaws come into focus. It’s not a very attractive game; the players slide around the court, looking like blobs, and animations are rudimentary at best. The mechanics are basic and the controls feel stiff and joyless. Speedball on the Amiga offered a better take on a brutal, futuristic sport, and that was thirty years ago.

I’m not sure which platform the developers were primarily targeting, but it feels like Hyperbrawl was a victim of compromises made for the game to work on everything. I hope Apple changes this requirement over time: asking developers to design their games for phones, tablets, computers and TV screens means some games will suffer, and some games will never get made.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/hyperbrawl-tournament/id1466782466