You're crazy-climbing the inner city no more. As one of a party of three adventurers, your mission is to scale mystic mountain peaks, Big Ben-style clock towers, and even enormous beanstalks, all to gather various items and move on to the next stop on your quest. Obstacles such as an avalanche of killer boulders and monkeys tossing bananas at you could send you plummeting to your death. The three characters along for the adventure have different rates of speed and endurance (as in endurance for things falling on their heads, though nothing will save you from a huge boulder). Watch out for falling rocks! (Nichibutsu Ltd., 1996 - for Playstation)

This is one fiendishly difficult game. Normally, when I put together a Phosphor Dot Fossil, I play to get as far as I can in the game so you can get a glimpse of as many levels as possible. Not everyone reading this has all of these games, so I try to show you everything that I can.

Not so with Hyper Crazy Climber. This game kicks my butt so mercilessly it's almost not fun. Part of my frustration lies in the fact that I can't read the docs, which are all in Japanese (which isn't really Nichibutsu's fault, mind you). Somewhere in there probably lies the key to getting rid of the pesky monkeys who relieve me of two out of my three lives before I even make it high enough to get killed by the avalanche. Therefore, I'm really only able to show you shots of the first level.

That said, the graphics are really good, offering a lot of eye candy without taking anything away from game play. The controls seem pretty smooth, as with the other Playstation editions of Crazy Climber on Nichibutsu Arcade Classics and Crazy Climber 2000 - it's just that I get killed before I get too far in the game. With the quest structure of the game, Hyper Crazy Climber is clearly Crazy Climber by way of Super Mario Bros.

It's also the hardest-to-find of Nichibutsu's retro titles, so good luck in finding it (note eBay search box below) - and be prepared to put up a fight for it.

There's only thing I can't figure out about Hyper Crazy Climber. With all of these fantasy settings, what's with the game start screens of the New York City skyline? And anymore, it's almost an eerie sight. Sure is pretty, though.

Rating:  Four quarters - a couple of minor irritants, but mostly a compelling and addictive game.

Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com editor/webmaster

(Someday, these intro screens won't be out-of-date anymore.)