87th game played so far
Genre: Racing
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1987
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Super Hang-On is a motor cycling racing game. That’s the big thing to say here. To be honest, not knowing the genre, there’s not much more we can say about it this time. It’s a big racing game from its days, played by actually sitting on a bike, leaning, braking and accelerating.
Solid racer or dated gimmick?
Our Thoughts
As I explained before, I have a slight link to racing, as long as we’re using (rally) cars. Having no such link to motor cycles, this game is quite far removed from me. No insightful commentary from me on this.
I can safely say that neither of us will be having much in the way of insightful commentary and that’s not just because we don’t know about motorcycles (since that sort of knowledge isn’t required). The other day we were discussing how hard it will be to pick our favourite game of this 50 and how hard to pick the duffer… but I do believe we have come across it.
At the same time, I just can’t get too picky about it, as this is very much a game of its time. 24 years old now, it looks and feels dated, but has a simple premise: Race around the track as fast as you can, making sure you aren’t too slow. This is helped by its choice of control scheme, which involved some of that actual racing feel. That’s true, the original arcade version did involve the player mounting an actual motorcycle with them actually tilting it to turn. However, this was ported to many consoles including the PSN, Sega Mega Drive and Commodore 64 with a substantial level of acclaim. Therfore, the playing of this on a port makes a form of sense. Plus it’s a lot easier for us to accomplish… arcade cabinets don’t fit in our games box. Yet…
Yet since we have had to make some allowances on this blog I hope we won’t be begrudged for playing these games in a more convenient form than scouring London’s arcades. And we’ve already started that anyway…
To the point, the game itself. The graphics… meh. As you can see, basic, but fitting with what you could get at the time. Gameplay… simple but solid. The checkpoint system shows up in many later games, and will have been there before, but is good overall. You go left and right, brake and accelerate, and have to navigate around the bends, avoid fellow racers (or obstacles next to the road if you stray) and then you just have to be fast.
I think we all know the reason this is on the list, it was one of the first motorbike arcade games that got the controls working. Yet there are so many racing games out there that have since been able to improve on this on every facet imaginable. It’s a fun game, we just want to go back to the games we prefer more and that we know work better.
Final Thoughts
It’s a simple game. Good, solid racing fun. Nothing we’ve seen before, and others have done it better, but as it’s one of the first, I guess this should be there. It’s fun, but I wouldn’t make a detour just to play this game.