As with the original Lode Runner, this faithful Game Boy adaptation pits you against a screen full of hostile, gold-grabbing adversaries, and your only weapons are a digging laser, your agility, and some very fast thinking. You must scramble around a system of platforms, ladders, and overhead bars, trying to snag gold planted throughout the maze. By strategically digging holes in the platform levels, you can trap your alien pursuers (or yourself, if you walk into the holes). The graphics and sound effects aren't terribly elaborate, but when you keep in mind that most players fell in love with it during the heyday of the Apple II and the Commodore 64, they don't need to be elaborate - the game just needs to be addictive (and it still is). Some of the levels are fiendishly complex, almost too complex for the limited partial view the Game Boy's screen offers, and therefore it's a good thing that Hyper Lode Runner includes some post-NES game play conventions such as the continue option.

Perhaps the most surprising addition is the Edit Mode, which operates just like the edit mode of the original Lode Runner from the Apple II days: players can construct their own levels, or a series of levels, using a paint program approach. If there is but a single drawback, it is the fact that these levels can't be saved for later play. Overall, Hyper Lode Runner is an amazingly feature-packed classic in a pint-sized package.