The 1989 MSX2 shooter Hydefos just launched on Switch

D4 Enterprise released the 1989 MSX2 side-scrolling shooter Hydefos on Nintendo Switch today. The port is part of the ongoing EGGCONSOLE series and is available on the eShop for $6.49.

Hydefos is interesting because of the hardware it originally ran on. The MSX2 was a brilliant microcomputer standard that gave us early entries in franchises like Metal Gear and Aleste. It was excellent for role-playing games and slower adventure titles. It was notoriously terrible at fast-paced action. The hardware lacked native support for smooth scrolling. This meant most shoot 'em ups on the platform suffered from choppy, character-by-character screen movement.

Hertz, the original developer, figured out how to bypass those limitations. They built a custom software scrolling routine that made Hydefos run at speeds comparable to arcade machines of the era. They managed to pull this off while putting large, multi-segmented mechanical bosses on the screen.

The gameplay loop goes beyond just holding down the fire button. Hydefos has a system called Hyde control. Instead of relying entirely on random item drops, you dock at supply bases scattered throughout the stages. These bases let you swap out your support units and change your main ship entirely.

Your choices in the game actually matter. The stages branch depending on your actions. This forces you to take different routes to save Planet Tiar. You cannot see everything in a single playthrough.

The game cycles through several distinct environments. The first level drops you into "Darkblue World!" with a heavy blue color palette. Later stages get much more complex. Instead of just flying straight to the right, you have to navigate tight vertical spaces in green-tinted industrial zones.

The EGGCONSOLE wrapper

Project EGG has been operating in Japan for over two decades. The service originally focused strictly on PC distribution. It acted as a digital archive for obscure Japanese microcomputer games from the PC-88, PC-98, and MSX eras. The EGGCONSOLE initiative is a more recent effort to bring these emulated versions to the Nintendo Switch. Hydefos is the 107th release in this Switch lineup.

Like other EGGCONSOLE releases, this is a straight emulation of the original hardware rather than a modern remaster. D4 Enterprise kept the experience entirely authentic. They did not add a scene select function, so you have to play through the branching paths from the beginning each time.

You can play with standard Switch controllers, but the emulator also supports USB keyboards if you want the actual 1980s home computer feel. Just plug a keyboard into the Switch dock and you can pretend you are sitting in front of a CRT monitor.

The enemies in Hydefos are called Metal Creatures. These act as the primary bosses occupying each area. Beating them requires memorizing their attack patterns and making sure you brought the right Hyde control setup from the previous supply base. If you go in with the wrong ship configuration, the fights become a massive headache.

Hertz only existed for a few years before vanishing in the early 1990s. They are mostly remembered today for Psychic World, an action platformer that also utilized their smooth scrolling tech. They left behind a small catalog of games that squeezed every drop of performance out of the MSX2. Having them on a portable console beats hunting down original floppy disks on auction sites.