>>29182437In-game on switch they are great.
Gen 1 Hyperbeam was bae.
Gen 2 hyper beam wasn't great, but 75 BP per turn wasn't as bad then.
Gen 3 Hyperbeam was good on Slaking. Same with Giga Impact come gen 4.
Gen 4 Roar of Time has a niche on Dialga, since it can pop an unexpected OHKO on things. Life Orb strat detailed below.
Gen 5 nothing of note. General move power creep hits hard here.
Gen 6, -Ate Hyper Beam can actually be worth it, again for securing unexpected KOs, and because 90BP before stab per turn isn't bad.
If you have a guaranteed way to make your Pokemon faint after using it, Hyper Beam and its relatives are actually quite decent. Betting on a Life Orb to take off your last bit of HP can make it decent, as can hoping for toxic damage, though you can't rely on that.
The biggest flaw with Hyper Beam right now is power creep. 150 B just does not mean what it used to, with 140 BP moves with just a stat drop floating around. Hyper Beam and co need to get buffed up to say, 200bp to make them worth using again. Even then they would still need care to use properly.
