is a motorcycle

racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

arcade video game An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-oper ...

released by

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

as the sequel to ''

Hang-On is an arcade racing game released by Sega in 1985 and later ported to the Master System. In the game, the player controls a motorcycle against time and other computer-controlled bikes. It was one of the first arcade games to use 16-bit computi ...

''. It uses a simulated

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

arcade cabinet An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...

, like the original game. An updated version was released in arcades 1991 as ''Limited Edition Hang-On''.

Gameplay

The arcade mode in ''Super Hang-On'' is similar to the original ''Hang-On'', but there is a choice of four tracks to race on which are based on continents, each containing a different number of stages. Also, should the player reach the normal maximum speed of 280 km/h (174.2 mph), a turbo mode is enabled. By using this mode allows the player to reach an even higher top speed of 324 km/h (201.4 mph). Each stage is roughly half the length of a stage in the original ''Hang-On''.

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

is the easiest and shortest out of the four courses (six stages).

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

is the second easiest and is similar in length to the course from the original ''Hang-On'' at ten stages long. The

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

is the second to toughest course, containing 14 stages and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

is the hardest course, being 18 stages long. When the player starts a race, they have their choice of four songs that will play during the race, a feature borrowed from '' Out Run''. The Sega Mega Drive version of the game included the full arcade game, and an additional ''original mode'', which allowed players to recruit sponsors and earn money to buy enhanced components for their bike. The cover for this version has a bike and rider in the same colors as Shinichi Itoh, who competed in the All-Japan 500 cc Championship on a Rothmans Honda NSR500.

Ports

Versions of the game were released for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spec ...

and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

in 1987 with further home conversions following for the Mega Drive/Genesis,

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

X68000 The is a home computer created by Sharp Corporation. It was first released in 1987 and sold only in Japan. The initial model has a 10 Megahertz, MHz Motorola 68000 Central processing unit, CPU, 1 Megabytes, MB of Random Access Memory, ...

, and

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

in 1989 and 1990. The game also appeared on several Mega Drive compilations, namely ''Mega Games I'' (bundled with the console as ''Mega Drive Magnum Set''), and ''Sega 6-Pak''. It was included in '' Sega Arcade Gallery'' for

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

. The arcade version was released on the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

Virtual Console The Virtual Console was a line of downloadable retro video games for Nintendo's Wii and Wii U home video game consoles and the Nintendo 3DS family of handheld systems. The Virtual Console lineup consisted of titles originally released on pa ...

service in Japan on September 14, 2010, and later in North America and Europe on May 3, 2012. Like '' Shinobi'' and its omission of any references to

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...

, the Virtual Console version of ''Super Hang-On'' was slightly altered to avoid any copyright troubles. This includes the replacing of several in-game billboards which used to feature real brand names such as Cibie with similar billboards which mention other Sega games such as ''OutRun'' and ''After Burner''. This version would be released on Xbox Live Arcade in 2012 as part of '' Sega Vintage Collection: Alex Kidd & Co''. Another version of the game was released for the

Nintendo 3DS The is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, ...

via the

Nintendo eShop The is a digital distribution service for the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2, and formerly available via the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo eShop served ...

in Japan on March 27, 2013. The game feature

stereoscopic 3D Stereoscopy, also called stereoscopics or stereo imaging, is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...

and tilt controls which emulate the arcade version. This version was released for North America and Europe on November 28. ''Super Hang-On'' is playable at the in-game arcades in '' Yakuza 0'', '' Yakuza 6'' and '' Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise''.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Super Hang-On'' on their June 1, 1987 issue as being the most-successful upright arcade unit of the month. The ride-on cabinet went on to become Japan's second highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade game of 1987, below '' Out Run''. It was later Japan's seventh highest-grossing arcade game of 1988. Peter Shaw of '' Your Sinclair'' reviewed the arcade game, calling it "brilliant, fast and the most accurate simulation of riding a motorbike" he had played. Mega Action reviewed the Mega Drive version. They called ''Super Hang-On'' one of the best driving games for the Mega Drive, and concluded with a review score of 89%. The ZX Spectrum version scored 10/10 in ''

Sinclair User The ''Sinclair User'' was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum (while also occasionally covering arcade games). Initially published by ECC Publications, and later EMAP, it was pub ...

'' and received the "SU Classic" accolade. It was rated number 27 in the ''Your Sinclair Official Top 100 Games of All Time'' list.

Notes

References

External links