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Developed and published by Sega in 1987
Developed as a sequel to the original Hang-On, Super Hang-On was released by Sega into arcades some time during 1987. As was typical for the time, a deluxe sit-down cabinet was available in the form of a motorcycle, complete with appropriate controls.
The premise of the game is simple. You must complete a point-to-point race across a set number of stages, avoiding road-side obstacles and other riders while reaching checkpoints before the time limit expires. Unlike OutRun, Super Hang-On's courses are linear, but each difficulty contains a completely unique set of stages so there is some replay value here.
An addition to the sequel is inclusion of a turbo boost that can be activated once the bike reaches it's normal maximum speed of 280 kph. Activating the boost will accelerate the bike to an eye-popping 324 kph, but should be used with extreme caution when entering corners; you'll quickly find yourself skidding off the track and ending up making a very nasty stain on the tarmac.
It's interesting to note that the developers purposely designed the controls so that the bike doesn't begin to corner until the rider shifts his weight to the corresponding side of the bike. This means that 'S' bends can be particularly troublesome to handle because you can't instantly steer left or right; you have to wait for the biker to cycle through a number of animation frames before the effect is felt.
Graphically, Super Hang-On might not look as flashy as OutRun, but it simply cannot be touched for sheer, raw speed. This game moves so quickly that it will leave scorch marks on your retinas and is a testament to the power of the 'Super-Scalar' arcade boards that Sega used to power some of their most iconic games. The main player sprite is crisp, sharp and well drawn; there are multiple frames to the "hang-off" animation when the bike steers and gives a convincing sense of weight to the driving.
As with OutRun, the game allows the player to select one of four different music tracks to accompany their ride. Although the music of a high standard, none of the tunes come anywhere near to being as catchy or memorable as those from it's car-based sibling.
Obviously, you expect a coin-op to be difficult (considering owners want players to keep spending money), but Super Hang-On is whole new kind of tough. Whereas OutRun had roads up to 5 lanes wide, Super Hang-On has a fixed width road of 2 lanes and never deviates from this. The narrower road makes for a considerably tougher game and your reactions will be sorely tested as you try to stay on the road. The more difficult courses also seem to spawn more opponent bikers during the later stages, meaning you'll lost more precious seconds due to collisions and dismounts.
It's this level of difficulty that makes Super Hang-On somewhat unpalatable. Getting dismounted pretty much guarantees that you won't reach the end of the course in time and the sheer concentration needed to play the game will probably leave you feeling a little ragged.
It's worth mentioning that the game has dip switch settings for both game difficulty and the amount of bonus time awarded when reaching a checkpoint. This longplay and review was done using default "Normal" value for both settings.
With it's super-fast graphics and flashy cabinet, Super Hang-On is a visual spectacle that you should try at least once. However, the difficulty level and concentration required to play this makes me question whether it possesses the "just one more go" factor of other titles.
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