Club Retro 2019: Master System March

I've played some Captain Silver for Data East month. There are two versions for Master System; the US version only has 4 levels, as it cuts maybe half the game (most likely to get it on smaller cartridge to save money), and is generally a lot easier, while the Japanese (and I think PAL) versions are full ports. I can make it to the final boss pretty easily, but I can't beat it. It just feels like such a random fight. The arcade original is quite weird, but doesn't play well and can get very frustrating.

I like the game, but that weapon range is so piddly. It feels even shorter than Zelda. I plan on beating it one day. Might even happen this month, who knows!

Anyway, I've always sucked at Hang-On. Really, really badly. I never could even clear the first course. Well, it happened again last night, but I decided to jump in again. And lo and behold, it finally clicked. I didn't just beat the first course, I managed to get through all eight courses and loop back to the first, which I also cleared. Literally the only time I loaded a save state was where I dithered around at the start of course 5 trying to decide if I wanted to keep going or not, losing a second, and coming literally within a pixel of making the checkpoint after deciding I'd give it a go.

Ironically, the tightest timing on sections will be the first one in each course. I think they've assumed that it's the "easiest", and thus not given a lot of buffer. But you can keep building up spare time, which gives you a lot more margin for error towards the end. Wreck once in the first section, and you might be able to make it in the later courses. Wreck twice, and you can just hang it up. And by "wreck", I mean explode in a fiery blaze of glory.

The trick ends up being not just to use your gas and brake effectively, but basically learn to feather the gas in turns while you're navigating around other racers. Enough to keep your speed up so you actually pass them, but not so much you start sliding, sending you flying into them or the edge of the road. It's a pretty delicate dance. Learning to recognize how tight the turns are as quickly as possible helps, too, as well as spotting problematic racer placement at the start of curves. Sometimes, just whacking the brakes is the right move, just for preparation before entering the turn.

The game is quite simple, honestly. The courses play out with the same scenery per section, just different layouts. It's a score-attack racer, but it plays really smoothly, and once you figure out the controls (this ain't Outrun!), those are tight as well. Audio is pretty disappointing, though; no cool tunes to get you through. Guess you could cue something up externally and rock on from there, though.

I quite enjoyed finally putting the hurt on this game. Feels good, man. I'll give Hang-On a 7/10.

Yeah, I always sucked at Super Hang-On as well. I have it as part of the Genesis 6-Pak.

(That also had Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, Columns, Sonic, and Revenge of Shinobi.)

And yeah, there's no proper ending to Hang-On, which is why I consider it beaten when it looped.  The biggest difference I noticed in the new course 1 was the increased number of bikes.  The layout appeared to be the same.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think part of the issue also feels like the hitbox for it isn't quite wide enough, either. It feels pretty fiddly to actually land a hit on an enemy, something that also is a problem with Zelda but perhaps to a lesser degree. I do think Golden Axe Warrior has a lot of quality for an outright clone, though; I'd be interested to see how well it held up past the first two dungeons, which is where I stopped playing many years ago. (The save is still intact on my cart!)