Great Video Games

Hybrid Heaven apparently derives its name from the different genres involved, including role-playing games (RPGs), action, and fighting. This dynamic combination is most notable in the game's battle mode. Enter a room containing an enemy, and battle mode is activated, presenting you with action-interrupting onscreen choices to fight, defend, or evade. Each of these choices has many associated subchoices, drilling down to the nth degree and, in effect, squashing the game's enjoyment value.

The story, conveyed in the game's painfully long opening cinematic sequence (and not found in the manual), features an American secret agent who walks around his apartment naked, and is then shot in a New York subway. Strangely, players take control of the shooter, guiding him through sparsely populated hallways in an underground facility that breeds human clones and other biological anomalies.

This game is slow and tedious, but may appease RPG fans who have been looking for some dodecahedron dice-rolling fun on their Nintendo 64. An expansion pack can be used for a higher resolution mode and a letterboxed view. The game does have some merit, being a unique title and attempting to tackle a grandiose plot line, but in the end, Hybrid Heaven is a bit too convoluted. --Jeff Young

Pros:

• Interesting mix of game genres
• An odd, yet intricate storyline may have lost a bit of congruity in translation from Japanese

Cons:

• Slow pace
• Strange interface
• Unexciting graphics

User Reviews about Hybrid Heaven

I used to play this game all the time but I dont know what happened to my copy. So when I saw it on here I grabbed it up! Great game for N64. -- N64 heaven

Hybrid Heaven is really one of those games the likes of which you will probably never see again. It is, essentially, one of the many failed attempts of blending various genres of games; it's really a hit or miss depending on which specific genres you choose to mix. Needless to say, you've never seen another wrestling/3rd person action/RPG game. But despite the many flaws obstructing this game from glory (or many positive reviews, for that matter), I still have a special place in my heart for it.

What makes it good is the fact that its overall experience stays with you and is quite memorable. The storyline in itself is worthy of praise. You start the game as Mr. Diaz, working for an organization aiming to replace the president with a clone. They have started the process by replacing one of the president's bodyguards, and left you in charge of supplying him with weapons for the next phase of the operation. But for some reason unknown to you, you shoot the replacement instead. This obviously generates a problem with your employers, and you go on the run inside the group's extensive underground facilities. As the story progresses, you find out that neither your identity nor your employers' is what it seems, and before long you are caught in the middle of an interstellar war.

Sound intriguing? It really is a decent story, and not nearly as confusing as some people might lead you to believe. If you're a fan of stories like those found in Deus Ex or the X-Files TV show, you'll easily warm up to Hybrid Heaven's alien conspiracy plot. It's really worth playing through the game's problems just to advance the storyline, which features the classic "commanders" set of villains which are part of the main cast, and naturally they fall one by one as you progress through the game. I found it nice that each and every one of the main boss characters had their own storylines fleshed out throughout their "level", in a very similar fashion to Skies of Arcadia or the like. The underground locales grow more and more extravagant as you progress deeper and deeper into the earth's crust. At one point in the game I believe you are as low as you can go, and the surrounding area really makes you feel as if you're far, far away from home. Ever see the movie "The Core"? Then you can get a feeling for the constant descending motion as you go farther and farther into the game.

The combat in the game is a very mixed bag. On one hand it's a very interesting combination of turn-based strategy and wrestling combos, but on the other it's placed very awkwardly into the game, often seeming pointless and repetetive. You will only ever encounter one enemy at a time, and when you do the surrounding room will become the battlefield. In battle, you can move around the field as you wish while your battle gauge builds up. Once it has, you can move in and attack, at which point a menu will pop up. At first, you'll have only a few options, but as you level up you can build your gauge to include many follow-up moves as part of a combo (toward the end I could execute 6 punch/kick attacks in a row). You can punch, kick, use an item, guard, or execute a throwdown move. The combo system works here in that you can kick an enemy 5 times and then finish with a scissor hold. The throwdown moves are certainly modeled from WWF throws and holds, and seem a little out of place in an underground sci-fi facility; you don't expect mutants to know how to perform a full nelson, suplex or head drop, but here it is.

The final aspect of the game is the exploration phase, which covers a fair amount of the gameplay. This, too, is a mixed bag, as it often seems boring and nothing more than a means to get to the next storyline moment. You control the character from a 3rd-person perspective, and essentially you have 2 goals in life: shoot electronic sensing devices, and jump/climb/sideshift over boxes. The shooting apsect of the game is rather weak, and aside from one exception, there is no need for it other than to disable sensors so you can pass. The terrain rarely uses more than flat walkways, so there is little need for climbing or sideshifting either. Not much to talk about here.

Finally, the pacing of the game is sporatic at best. There are time that feel rushed, and then there are sections that have endless repetitiveness. A few locations in particular come to mind when I mention the word "repetitive"; you will have your fare share of mindless boredom when traveling through some parts of the facilties, fighting the same 3-minute battle as many as 9 times before finally being able to progress to the next area.

Those things being said, for the most part the battles are fun and engaging. The boss fights, in particular, are a joy to play, as are the cutscenes afterwards. This game has a fair share of memorable moments contained within it, and the rest of the game is worth the play-through to experience them. The end is perfectly crafted, and leaves you with a warm, satisfied feeling, almost as if the game's problems made the ending all that more the rewarding.

Because of the mental patience and effort you must go through to see this game to the end, you probably won't want to play it again for at least a year or two after you finish it. But it is certainly worth experiencing, even once. You owe it to yourself to experience this story. Recommended, if you can find it for a low price. -- Despite its flaws, I always look back on this with a smile.

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO, IS LOOK AT THE REVIEWS LISTED FOR THIS GAME. MOST ARE POSITIVE,.RIGHT? MAJORITY RULES. I FOUND THE GAME QUITE FUN, AND IN MY OPINION, THE VARIOUS MOVES ARE GREAT FUN TO USE. IT MAY SEEM LIKE AT SOME POINT THE GAME IS TOO EASY, BUT STICK IT OUT IT GETS REAL CHALLENGING AT THE END..HOWEVER, YOUR BRAIN IN NOT NECESSARY TO COMPLETE THIS GAME (EXCEPT TO READ) SO JUST GO WITH IT..THE ENDING IS COOOOOOOOOL..WORTH IT IN THE LONG RUN..I LOVE THE ENDING..PLAY IT JUST FOR THAT ALONE..AND, THE PRICE ON AMAZON CANT BE BEAT..REPLAY VALUE PRETTY GOOD AS WELL.. -- A GAMERS HEAVEN

Hybrid heaven lives up to it's name in more ways than one! Not exactly an RPG, and not exactly a fighter, and not really an all out action title either...but more a fusion of all three! A strange yet very X-File'ish story plot to the game takes you underneath the city...with the standard alien/human hybrid conspiracy...that even involves the president! The awesome opening cut scenes are amazing for the N64, with really good Japanese anime style art. So as you go along you really don't know who you are yourself, as the game/plot builds. You're armed with a stunner like pistol to start, mostly used to take out security tripwires and drones. Now the fighting scenes is what really makes this game unique. Instead of an all out button smasher(which isn't a bad thing either), you get a onscreen multiple choice selection of how to attack your enemy...though many have complained about how this attributes to the rather slow pace of the game, this is actually what makes this game unique and deep, and most importantly fun to play. The sounds are very atmoshpheric, and the music is well done throughout. Another shining point has to be the clean graphics, plus the character animations are done very well. Gameplay is fun, and the controls are perfect, utilizing the analog stick. Overall this a title that all RPG fans, and fighting fans that like bit of edge to their games, should own...but one last thing is that you should own a memory pack! -- "...Kill that man..."