I got the Megadrive working over Christmas, and like in 1993 when I unboxed this beaut, I got Mega Games 1. Imagine it… 3 games! SUCH WOW!

Arrrrgh Super Hang-on. Like World Cup Italia ’90, if you are over 25 I guarantee you will have played this game, however, I don’t know anybody with fond memories of it.
In fact, I can’t think of anybody I know who likes it…

The Game

Super Hang-on is a port of a decent 1987 arcade racing game with a tilting Bike cabinet, and is the sequel to Hang-on.

With arcade racing games, you get… Check point racing. I hate check point racing. There really is no joy in them.

You get a minute to do the first stage. Great, you can do the level in about 50 seconds. You then get about 45 seconds to do stage two… So if you’re good not terrible you’ll get to stage 3, where you will have about 25 seconds to do a 40-50 second section.

Check point racing games were unfair, they were hard, and only the biggest spod would ever get far in them.Super Hang-On does nothing to stray from the formula.

You do get easy/medium/hard/difficult settings.

• Africa is “easy, and has 6 stages
• Asia has 10 stages, and is very similar to the Hang-On game in style and length
• America is Hard, and has 14 tedious stages
• Europe is next to impossible and has 18 stages

The scenery is different in each setting, Africa is deserts, America is fields, deserts, and city scapes…

So as you progress the environs will change around you. This was a nice feature, but it is a feature many of you will never see .

Game Modes

Unlike the arcades, home consoles were treated to a fairly comprehensive “Original Mode” (terrible name), that RPG style allowed you to progress and race different people in best if 7 series.

This was where the fun was at. Ignore the shitty arcade version, and play Original Mode. Here you bought upgrades, new bikes and raced to victory…

Well, in theory anyway… The first level is next to impossible. Basically, you race against a different person each level, and then you’re rewarded cash for how you did. This is a little like snowballing. You start with nothing, lose the first race, get a tiny bit of money, upgrade, lose the next race (not as badly), upgrade, lose next race slightly better, upgrade. Now… You’re in a best of 7, you need to win the next race or it is over… And usually it was for me. But if you’re able to win this race, you pick up an unstoppable momentum, where you will destroy the competition.

This pattern repeats for level 2 and 3. But by level 4, you actually need to develop skill. If RPG racing is your bag, you might enjoy it. It isn’t my bag, and certainly isn’t as fun as Rock n’Roll Racing which had a similar (and much better) system.

Graphics

Super Hang-On actually looks pretty good. The 16bit graphics are fairly timeless, and still a joy to look at.

Depending on the version of the game you had, some of the billboards contained copyrighted material such as Marilyn Monroe, though I have never seen this, and am unable to verify. All I remember is that fucking Toucan. I am haunted by it, for reasons that involve me being unable to steer a sodding motorbike.

 

 

Also, I could never tell if this billboard is for KoK or NoK. Either way… I loved KoK…

 

Music

When you start a race you choose 1 of 4 songs that’ll play, this was similar to games such as Out Run, and fairly common at the time. But to be honest, I never really paid any attention. I sat and played for a couple of hours the other day, and frankly, could tell you what each track is. You can listen to it on youtube, but it isnt especially interesting…

Overall

I just didn’t like it… I remember not like it as a child, and I still don’t like it. It has improived with age, i’ll give it that. There is a lot of depth in Original Mode, and a lot of skill in the Arcade. It is just boring to play.

Pros: Not playing it

Cons: The game, checkpoint racing

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