Super Hang-On

Copyright : Sega | Reviewed by : scooby1970

Super Hang-On for those of you who do not remember, was a great Sega Arcade game, where you sat on a replica motor-bike and drove around some really great circuits. Many hours of fun were had in the local arcades and this game was always busy. So, how does the CPC version hold up?

Graphics

Well, the loading screen has a drawing of a simple motorbike and the Super Hang-On writing on screen, all in glorious Mode 1 - 4 colours! Surely the game will be more colourful? The next screen, once you have loaded lets you choose your level. This is in Mode 0 and has more colours! Things are looking up!

Then it hits you, the game kicks in to the menu screen, and flicks to the high-scores... It's a Speccy Port! Nooooo! This game uses just four colours, and on the actual game screen itself the whole ting is very very monochrome!

That said, the sprites used to draw your motorbike are pretty simular to the sprites used in the arcade game. All the other bikes, and trackside objects are all monochrome, but thankfully they all run rather smoothly and the game runs at quite a fair rate.

Sound

Sound is functional, and you'll here the sound of the motorbikes. There is a little tune while you decide your level, but it's not really that interesting or well put together. And of course, we're missing all those great Super Hang-On tunes!

Gameplay & Final Comments

This is a strange one. Although the game looks like a speccy port (and indeed it is!), it actually plays really well. The game stays close to the original arcade hit, and at the end of the day, the gameplay is the most important part of the game.

In hindsight, the game could have, and probably should have been written using the CPCs Mode 0 graphics, which would have made it far better graphically. We know the CPC could be pushed beyond Speccy limits, and it's a shame that Electric Dreams did not utilise the CPCs power. (That said, take a look at the shocking blocky-high colour C64 version, perhaps it's better we had the Speccy Port!)

So, a rather average conversion, that probably could have been alot more... And what happened to the music that Hang-On was famous for? Did they forget it on the CPC???