HyperScan - Game console by Mattel

HyperScan is a home game console from Mattel. He used radio frequency identification (RFID) along with traditional video game technology. The included game is rated "T" (for teens, not suitable for children under 13), while the other games are rated "E10+" (not suitable for children under 10) by the ESRB. The console used UDF format CDs. HyperScan has two controller ports, as well as a 13.56MHz RFID scanner that reads and writes "cards", which in turn activate features and save data from the game. Players can upgrade their characters' abilities by scanning cards. The games retailed for $19.99 and the console itself for $69.99 at launch, but at the end of its very short lifespan prices dropped to $9.99 for the system, $1.99 for the games.

The system was sold in two versions: a cube and a 2-player value package. The cube box version was the version sold in stores. It included the system, controller, X-Men game disc and 6 X-Men cards. Valuable two-player packs were sold online (but could be liquidated in stores) and included an extra controller and 12 extra X-Men cards.

The system was universally panned by critics for its clunky design, broken controls, poor library, long loading screens, and unnecessary use of character select cards, and was officially discontinued in 2007. Magazine "World PC".

The HyperScan RFID systems were provided by Innovision Research and Technology plc, a UK-based semiconductor design company that specializes in RFID systems and chip design.

Games for the system were sold as $20 "Game Packs", which consisted of a game disc accompanied by six game cards (seven for Spider-Man). Additional cards, which contained characters, abilities, moves, and levels when scanned, were part of a six-card "Booster Pack" available for $10 per pack. As with most trading card sets, the cards were randomized, meaning a player looking for a specific card to unlock that element of the game may have had to purchase multiple booster packs to get it (while still getting multiple cards for a different aspect of the game). game), or exchange it for another with a friend, as was probably intended by the card aspect of Hyperscan.

Several boosters were dedicated to specific games, with the X-Men intending to have 102 cards to unlock parts of the game, according to the instruction manual, in separate "red" and "black" series; the latter was never released due to the console's cancellation, leaving half of the game locked behind a paywall that, short of some kind of hack that unlocks the entire game, can never be lifted.

Only 5 games are known to have been released, 2 of which have been cancelled.