There are a handful of games out there (excluding fighters and racing games) that are basically designed for head-to-head play. Stuff you may or may not have heard of like Twinkle Star Sprites, Mr. Driller 2, Windjammers, Bang Bead, and a few others. While they appeal to a limited audience, they’re often incredibly fun as well, with conflict and competition being the primary motivation. Games like Super Mario Kart keep us playing because even if we’re bored of the tracks, it’s fun to go head to head with your friends.
Super Hiking League DX from Bit Ink Studios and publisher QUByte Interactive is exactly that. A budget-priced head-to-head race through levels. There’s nothing fancy here, no deep plot, and no frills to be seen. The game is simply designed for competitive action! In Super Hiking League DX, you start out as Nelson, a hiker trying to stop a wizard from making the world flat. There’s no depth or meaning to the story though and you’ll dive right into the levels.
Keeping the world from turning into Edwin Abbot’s Flatland might be more challenging than you think though as the 27 levels of the game start short and become increasingly complex over 3 stages of difficulty. Nelson’s goal is to rush to the top of each level and touch the jewel first. In true competition fashion, each level is the best 2 out of 3 tries though, so even if you manage to finally beat the rival climber to the top once, you’ll still have to replicate your performance again! It can be truly frustrating to manage to finally beat a hiker and then realize that you’ll have to do it twice, fail, and start over!
There are four different modes of gameplay within Super Hiking League DX, Arcade, Versus, Race, and Time Attack. Each has its pros and cons but beating a level in the single player Arcade mode unlocks it for the rest of the game, along with the occasional alternate hiker you can select in Versus, Race, or Time Attack. In Arcade mode, you simply have to beat the grey hiker twice to progress and as the levels get tougher, that challenge becomes harder. Levels require using your climbing rope to catch a hold and shoot upwards like a slingshot, but it takes some practice. You can also jump, swim, attack enemies and rival climbers, and even swing hand over hand from rope to rope. It seems like Bit Ink is playing a bit fast and loose with the definition of hiking…
Mastery of your rope and hunting for shortcuts will definitely win you time here and the end of stages sometimes comes down to a single second or two as both hikers fly to the top, sometimes literally. You can adjust your rope to automatic, mixed, or advanced too, though automatic seems to work pretty well most of the time. Knocking your enemy back is often the sole difference between a win and a loss too, and that second win will have you gritting your teeth while sitting forward off the couch to just make that last little….jump! Yessss!
The other game modes in Super Hiking League are similar to Arcade Mode. Versus is self-explanatory, with the ability to play couch co-op with a friend. The same goes for race mode where you’re competing for the best time. In Time Attack Mode, you’re working to get up those leaderboards, though they aren’t online so you’re really only trying to beat yourself and the target times. Arcade mode is probably the most fun for single players, but they’re all pretty good.
Visually, there are a lot of options in Super Hiking League DX as well. The game itself looks somewhat like a Buster Bros. game with a fun, quirky vibe to the graphics and music. The screen is oddly divided though, and it would definitely be nice to have a larger screen for single player modes, but with the vertical screen orientation, not much can be done about that. Speaking of screens, in the main menu, you can also adjust the screen to a CRT mode, a vintage green like an old Apple IIe, a Virtua Boy red, and even black and white. You can add CRT curvature as well, and even control whether the screen shakes on a hit. It’s a fairly robust visual option system for a game that has solid visuals and level designs already. Backgrounds for your races range from mountains to deserts, lava pits to ice caves and more. The level variety is outstanding here, even if you’re only spending a few minutes in each one!
This isn’t a complicated game aside from learning how to use your climbing rope and quickly memorizing levels so don’t expect to be sitting around for days with Super Hiking League DX. However, if you’ve got someone that likes to play it with you, you’ll definitely maximize your value here, especially considering that the game weighs in at a mere $5. While it’s nothing fancy, Super Hiking League DX manages to be surprisingly fun and is a great party game you can pick up cheap for the Switch. This is one budget game that’s definitely worth a look!
This review is based on a digital copy of Super Hiking League DX provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and was excellent in both. Super Hiking League DX is also available for Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC on Steam.