A mode of play on Guitar Hero that speeds up the notes and spreads them out, making them easier to read. Whether Hyper Speed is cheating or not is often a topic of debate.
Many in favor of HS have had previous experience in
music games such as Pump It Up, DrumMania, Guitar Freaks, Dance Dance Revolution, and Beatmania IIDX, all of which have speed modifiers. Speed mods have come to be widely accepted by many players in the
music game community and to say to these
people that Hyper Speed is cheating would be
like starting a fight with an entire (American) football team.
Pro-HS players with no previous
music game experience argue that Hyper Speed does not change the notes or the song, and may make songs *harder* by halving the time
one has to read the notes.
Additionally, Hyper Speed is the only code that scores can be saved under, and the Guitar Hero ranking site Score Hero accepts scores acheived with Hyper Speed.
Those against HS argue that it makes the
game easier, and thus it is grounds for cheating. In addition, when the code for HS is entered, the text "CHEAT ENABLED: HYPER SPEED" pops up--thus, some consider this a cheat in the technical sense. However, others may counter this argument, saying that the "Performance Mode" modifier, which hides the
game's HUD and also rings up the "CHEAT ENABLED" text, would also be cheating despite making the
game more difficult.
Random
player: "I just beat Jordan Expert...I used Hyper Speed though, does it count?"
Pro-HS
player: "Who cares, I've been using hi-speed codes for years."
Anti-HS
player: "Yes it is, I'd rather see someone fail a song on Easy without Hyper Speed than see someone get 5 stars with HS!"