Screenshots from VG Museum

Year released: 1985 (SEGA Master System)

Number of Players: 1

Graphics: A view from behind the character is given. The colors are bright but don't hurt the eyes, and the graphics are plain overall.

Play control: Button 2 to accelerate, button 1 to brake. Left and right on the D-pad to move left and right, and up and down to switch gears (I guess you would call them gears). As you get faster, you have to press down to go up a gear and be able to move faster, then as you get even faster, you have to press down to up another gear. Move up a gear when you're too slow, and you'll accelerate slowly.

Sound: Music is non-existant except for the title screen. The actual game is just motor and crashing sounds.

Challenge: Clear the amount of kilometers given in the top right corner of the screen (labelled "LEFT" in the screenshot) in the amount of time you have (where the "51" is in the screenshot). In that sense, it is like Outrun. However, Hang-On has a lot more fellow drivers on the road than Outrun does, and you will have to manuever around moving objects in the road will happen much more often than in Outrun. There's not a whole fleet you have to deal with at once, there's generally a motorcycle, then just some open road for a few, then another motorcycle.

Gameplay: Hang-On is exciting and fast, especially while one has to manage the gears correctly to be slow enough around curves and the breaks correctly to get around motorcycles while maintaining a decent speed. The time-based gameplay works well with the game--Hang-On doesn't need courses or structure.

Bottom line: Hang-On leaps into the action quickly but, without any real variation (just more motorcycles and harder curves), it gets old just as quick. A nice game to waste short bits of time on.

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