Hyperbound (2007)

Platforms: Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Genres: Role-playing (RPG), Simulator
Main story: about 25 hours
Where to get it: Website

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

An experimental EarthBound hack using glitches as narrative metaphor to explore memory loss and identity.

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About

HyperBound is a game hack project that follows the trials and tribulations of an unnamed amnesiac, who is thrust into a world that is completely unknown to him. Playing with the affordances of the Super Nintendo game EarthBound, HyperBound explores ideas associated with videogames such as non-linear narratives and spacial storytelling. The hack’s core game-play mechanic is the use of glitches as a metaphor for the deterioration of memory, with one of the central trials of the game’s story takes place inside the protagonist’s mind. Its first public exhibition took place at the 2007 Axis New Media Festival (from September 7th to September 16th)

More games like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.