Super Hang-On (1987) Walkthrough + Review, ZX Spectrum
31Huge playlist archive with Racing games: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOanVBhqd3vkkE35mCw6x63QFBnU9Xsi
Your objective is to race across four continents, each with a different skill class. Each continent contains a number of stages, and each stage must be completed before the timer counts down to zero. Any time made up on one stage is added to the time allowed on the next stage. To qualify for the next class, you must complete all stages of a continent within the stage times. The higher the class, the more treacherous the track, and the more stages you must complete! To help you, your bike is fitted with the latest hi-tech turbo, which you can kick into life once you reach your bike's regular top speed of 280 km/h.
You can chose to race on four continents. These are AFRICA (Beginner class, 6 stages), ASIA (Junior class, 10 stages), AMERICA (Senior class, 14 stages) and EUROPE (Expert class, 18 stages). There are other bikes on the road but beating these is not important, so they can be thought of as moving obstacles, your real enemy is the time limit.
Technically this motorcycle game has never been surpassed, it gives you a great feeling of speed, there is all kind of effects like hills, the sky going up and down, and the use of the color palette is excellent. You have low and high gear and when you reach 280 km/h you can enable your turbo so you can reach the maximum speed at 324 km/h, but the time limit is really unforgiving. You have to make a flawless run with the turbo enabled as much as possible on all of the stages to stand a chance for completing the class. Bump into a few of the other riders and you will not make it, and if you crash you can forget about completing any of the stages except some of the first ones in the beginner class. And as if things were not tough enough some of the later tracks will have arrow signs for upcoming turns pointing in the wrong direction!
The game is playable and it plays and controls well, it is just a shame the time limit is so tight, a few more seconds on the stages here and there and the game would be much more playable for anyone. For a 1987 release with so much effort put into it, it is also a bit disappointing there is no AY support for 128k users.
The game was published by Electric Dreams Software in 1987.
Rating = 90%
The version played in this video is a Beta disk version made by VAD in 1999 where the beeper music has been changed with AY music in the screen for selecting class: https://vtrd.in/gamez/s/SHO+4VAD.zip