Hang-On - SEGA - 1985 - First time playing?: Beyond trying it for a couple of minutes, yes

Looking at it from a modern perspective, Hang-On isn't really the most exciting game in the world. It's about as basic as a racing game can get. An entirely flat road with no branching paths that occasionally curves left and right, the same width the entire time, with random NPC racers scattered across the road that will make you immediately explode if you lightly touch them because crash physics are too advanced for a 1985 game. In spite of the game having eight courses to race on, due to them all looking the same I genuinely can't even tell the difference between them. Then you beat the eighth and final course and in classic early 8-bit fashion you get no reward and the game just loops back to the first course.

Anyway, I actually like Hang-On.

There's obviously some historical appreciation there. As a Master System launch title, it's a pretty solid first impression of what the console can do, pulling off a pseudo 3D effect even in spite of the Master System not supporting sprite scaling like the arcade version of Hang-On did. Not only that, but it's buttery smooth as well. The game holds a constant 60fps and the smooth animation of the road you're riding on combined with the high framerate give an excellent sense of speed. It's a very simple game, but a solid tech demo that shows the capability the Master System has for adapting advanced arcade games of the time.

Personally though, I like Hang-On because I find it relaxing. I feel like that probably isn't what a racing game is meant to make you feel, but this game is honestly trance-inducing to me, with its hypnotically smooth pseudo-3D animation, alongside atmospheric touches such as the day and night cycle and sound design.

The arcade version of Hang-On is naturally more exciting. More detailed graphics, in game music, a cool motorcycle shaped cabinet that you physically tilt to steer, it's got a lot going for it that's lost in translation. It's also however a more demanding and short lived game, only having a single difficult course that is about five minutes long. As mentioned earlier, the Master System version has eight courses by comparison, even if they do all look the same, and those courses also loop endlessly. The result is that once you get a feel for how the game works, Master System Hang-On essentially allows you to ride endlessly down a never ending road at high speed for as long as you want. The game really isn't very hard, a rarity for these kinds of early arcade style racers. It does however, require concentration as the penalty for crashing is pretty severe. Hang-On is a time attack game. You're not actually racing the other motorbikers, they're just there to provide hazards for you to swerve around. The actual objective is to reach each checkpoint before the time limit runs out. If you crash, then the explosion animation followed by you respawning and having to start accelerating again from a dead halt is going to cut into time severely, typically only allowing one or two crashes before you've not got enough time to finish the race. It's high stakes at first, but once you get a feel for the motorbike’s controls, it's more than reasonable.

Speed control is more important than steering here, honestly. The faster you are, the less control you'll have when hitting corners, potentially resulting in you drifting off the road and crashing into a cactus. When the road is straight you can drive at full speed, but when turning you want to let go of the accelerator and lightly tap it to maintain a lower speed. The game is very good at giving you the necessary feedback to figure out how fast you can safely accelerate while turning. Your wheels will screech and kick up smoke if you're going too fast and starting to drift off the track, letting you know immediately that it's time to slow down. On the other hand, if NPC racers are overtaking you or matching your speed, that's a good sign that you can likely afford to go a little bit faster. Once you start picking up on those tells that the game gives you, the level of control you have over your bike feels fantastic and extremely precise, allowing you to slip past other racers with finesse and flow..

Unusually for me, I even like the lack of music. I usually find it boring when games don't have any BGM, and Hang-On’s arcade version has an excellent soundtrack that's sorely missing here, yet the sound effects in the Master System version have their own atmospheric qualities. The engine sounds have a white noise-esque vibe and they are gentle enough that I don't find them grating like I often do in other racing games, and I never get tired of hearing the satisfying sound of whooshing past another racer. It helps that the sound design is another layer of feedback helping you manage speed control as well.

The precision of the controls and excellent feedback of the audiovisual design work together superbly to make Hang-On feel great to play. It's simple, shallow even, sure, but playing it well honestly feels like a stim thanks to how satisfyingly smooth and fluid of a game it is. It's a great chill out game, and while later racing games on the console like Out Run are more exciting for sure, that relaxing flow of Hang-On makes it enjoyable to play even alongside the more sophisticated games on the console. Whether or not the fact that this game puts me into a trance is a good thing or a boring thing is hard for me to say, but I'm happy to endlessly ride down those smooth scrolling pseudo 3D roads for a few minutes when it's time to unwind.

Also, the back of the bike looks like a penguin.

Page written by MSX_POCKY, 17th February 2025