Producer: Electric Dreams
Retail Price: £9.99
Author: Chris Wood and ZZKJ, from a Sega coin-op
When you had that Raleigh with stabiliser wheels, no-one would have thought you'd come to this - crouched over a racing motorbike with wheels about to lay rubber across four continents.
You wait at the race's start line, cool, calm and collected. Suddenly the jostling group of bikies that surrounds you is away, scorching off into the distance. You accelerate after them, watching closely the speedo at the top of the screen. When the crucial figure of 280 kph is reached, the bike's turbo kicks in. Then you begin to eat up the other riders as it they were on punctured tricycles.
You're loath to ease off the throttle, knowing that to do so costs you valuable time, but sometimes the situation demands sharp braking. The bike can use all of the road, switching from side to side to avoid the other bikes and apex through the bends of the track.
If your steering isn't all that it might be and you touch another rider, or slip off the main track, speed is lost - and that means valuable time is gone too. And you can't do anything about riders who strike you as they come burning through, losing you yet more seconds.
Worse still, should you make contact with one of the wayside features, an advertising hoarding, a tree or a pile of boulders, you have a wipeout on your hands and the bike is destroyed. No serious injury is involved and you are quickly on a spare, but now time is even tighter.
The clock ticks away all too fast at the head of the screen. Flash beneath the finish gantry before that zero second arrives, and you're on to the next stage with any remaining time carried over. Each successive track asks more of the rider, daring him to go faster and to take more chances before the ever-lowering time limit is reached.
If you successfully ride the six tracks of Africa, you and your machine are transferred to Asia (ten stages), then to America (14 stages), and finally to Europe with its 18 tracks. Each new continent is a greater test of skill than the last, with points building up as you wheelie your way around the world.
After all this, if you feel your bike lacks a little something, you can pep up its capabilities by increasing the sensitivity of its handling - and off you go once more.
COMMENTS
Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: large detailed bikes, with jerky but fast animation
Sound: super biking effects
Options: to colour or not to colour, that is the question... plus three levels of control response
Super Hang-On could easily be called Enduro Racer II - I can find hardly any differences. Riding a road bike rather than a dirt bike doesn't change the game much. Still, there's more colour here than in Enduro Racer - of course that causes some attribute problems, but the extra reality is worth it. If you already own Enduro Racer there's no point in getting this, but it's worth a look if you're shopping for a motorbike aim.
NICK [86%]
After seeing US Gold/Epyx's appalling Super Cycle I was afraid Super Hang-On might be another such arcade great ruined by thoughtlessness. But though it's certainly not up to the standards of Enduro Racer, it's an incredible achievement. The front-end often a cleverly-constructed array of options, though I found only one combination useful: high sensitivity with attributes off. And once you find the right settings the game is a joy, both playable and addictive. The levels of difficulty are just right: it's pretty easy to finish the first two African tracks in your first session, but to get any further requires perseverance and restrained use of the turbo. If you've been looking forward to Super Hang-On you won't be disappointed.
PAUL [85%]
The chance to set your bike's response does a lot for Super Hang-On - you can ride like you want to. And though there are set angles for taking corners, that makes it easier to assess how to tackle each one. The major problem I had was with drunken drivers cutting me up.
BYM [83%]
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