SUPER HANG-ON

 SUPER HANG-ON is a single-player motorcycle race simulation from Data East. A
conversion of the arcade hit from Sega, HANG-ON offers excellent graphics and
high-speed animation, four continents with multiple stages, mouse or joystick
control, and copy protection. (This review is based on the Atari ST version;
IBM-PC version notes follow.)

 The four continents (Africa, Asia, America, and Europe) do double-duty as
difficulty levels: Beginner, Junior, Senior, and Expert. Each level contains
multiple stages (as few as six, as many as 18); each stage must be completed
before the timer runs out, and an additional 30 seconds will be added to the
time you didn't use on the previous stage. If you run out of time before passing
the checkpoint marking the end of any stage, the game is over.

 The race itself is preceded by Menu Options, Continent Selection, and Music
Selection screens. The Menu screen lets you choose mouse or joystick control, as
well as adjust the controller's sensitivity, which governs touchiness and speed
(Low, Medium, or High) at which the bike enters a lean during a turn. The Music
screen features "four racey tunes" and the ever-popular "no racey tunes."

 The ST race display consists of a scrolling road -- appropriately lined with
light poles, billboards, trees, rocks, signs, barrels, whatever -- along which
you guide your bike. Scenery indigenous to the continent lies on the horizon,
and other racers zip along the road with you. At the top of the screen you'll
find high score, current score, elapsed time, speed, and continent indicators,
as well as a horizontal bar that is filled incrementally as stages are
completed.

 Either mouse or joystick controls HANG-ON. Move the stick left or right and the
bike will lean in that direction; forward accelerates and backward brakes. At
280 kph, the speed display turns red, at which point a button-press will invoke
Nitro for even greater speeds. When using the mouse, the left button
accelerates, the right button invokes Nitro, and the Spacebar brakes.
Directional lean is determined by the position of the mouse on your computer
desk -- which is another way of saying that the mouse might as well be on the
road. The joystick works best.

 The SUPER HANG-ON package comes with two copy-protected disks, an IBM
instruction guide, and an ST/Amiga reference card. To play the game, you'll need
512K of RAM, and a color monitor.

 Graphics on the ST are clear and bright, colorful and detailed. The
smooth-scrolling roads twist and turn and rise and dip as well as (or better
than) most road-race simulations, and the animation moves like lightning, even
at high speeds. On curves, the bike leans over so far you'd think it has
sidewheels. Hit an obstacle or otherwise lose control and both bike and rider
take what should be a fatal fall. Fortunately, it isn't, although precious time
will be lost.

 If high-speed arcade action is your thing, SUPER HANG-ON delivers.

 IBM-PC VERSION NOTES

 The IBM-PC version of SUPER HANG-ON is distributed on both 5-1/4" and 3-1/2"
diskettes. You may install the game only once on your hard drive, after which
you'll need to follow an uninstall procedure in order to reformat the drive or
move the program to a different computer.

 SUPER HANG-ON supports the Hercules Mono Adapter, CGA, EGA, and Tandy 1000
graphics modes. The EGA graphics are quite nice -- from the finely detailed
trees to the variety of billboards lining the highway. (When looking at the
package, note that only the illustration on the right of the rear cover
represents an IBM-PC screen.)

 You can play the game using either a joystick or the keyboard, although both
Data East and I recommend the joystick. Nevertheless, joystick control is rather
annoying: You have to push the stick forward when pressing the "fire" button for
a bit of Nitro injection, but that cuts down on the already minimal steering
response. The temptation is to leave the stick dead-center and just steer (you
don't need to keep the stick forward in order to maintain speed), but that means
you'll remain the slowest bike on the road at a mere 244 kph.

 Those who've encountered the arcade version already know whether they'll like
SUPER HANG-ON. For those who haven't, my only warning is that this game doesn't
offer anything resembling the "feel" of riding a motorcycle. SUPER HANG-ON is
easy to master -- possibly too easy. However, as someone who has always enjoyed
POLE POSITION and its various descendants, I found this game fairly addictive
for a short period of time.

 SUPER HANG-ON is published and distributed by Data East.

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