Hang on or Road Rash?

[KimagureMachibuse]

Hang on and Road Rash are both games in the style of arcade racing games but i do ask the question which of the two do you consider to be the better game or series if you feel like saying?

[Air Master Burst]

Arcade versions of the Hang On games
3DO Road Rash
Genesis Road Rash games
Hang On ports
All the later Road Rashes (although apparently 64 has its fans)

[Stevens]

Arcade Hang On is better than anything in the RR series. I really liked RR 2 though.

[Air Master Burst]

There's also Skitchin' if you like Road Rash; I'm pretty sure they use the same engine. It's ok I guess.

[Kriegor]

Super Hang-On is above any Road Rash and most other arcade racing games of that time. You'd have to wait for Daytona USA / Ridge Racer to get something I'd place on the same level but for different reasons.

The thing that makes Super Hang-On so great, even today, much more relevant than OutRun to quote another great racing game of that style, is the bullet hell aspect. There are so many other bikes that you speed through. When you start to get to the end of the harder courses, their number are crazy and the time limit is very strict so you're always making frame by frame decision on what you want your trajectory to look like. The adrenaline is pumping hard. OutRun's traffic is so dense it's not a fault to just brake and wait for an opening. Sometimes you just have to and the time limit accomodates for this. On the other hand, in Super Hang-On, you're on a bike, there is always the space, but with every opponents coming at you at bullet speed and the hard curves (way more curvy tracks), it's a much more challenging and intense experience. The Road Rash are baby games in comparison.

[Sengoku Strider]

It always kinda surprised me that the herky-jerky 12 fps Road Rash games garnered the passionate cult following that they did. But I've never actually played one, so what do I know?

So I can't make a call here except to say that I LOVE the Hang-On games. That first stage of Hang-On GP '95 is so hype, still one of the best arcade racing moments ever. (ProTip: racing wheel >> analogue controller > dpad when it comes to that game). I'm not sure the later tracks live up to it, but they're still intense in their own right. It belongs with Sega Rally & (pick your favourite version of) Daytona in a Saturn Sega racing trinity imo. (There's a really good case to be made for F-1 Live Information as well, but I'll fight one battle at a time on this one).

Kriegor spoke on Super Hang-On above, it deserves as much attention as the 8 & 16-bit ports of Outrun get imo. The Outrun-style selectable soundtrack is fantastic, and the extended single player mode gives the game great staying power (so much so that it seems like SNK just xeroxed it for their Neo Geo launch game Riding Hero). It's also worth noting that despite being the main launch title from all the way back in 1985, the first Hang-On runs smoother as a pseudo-scaler than any Master System game of the 1980s (I don't know how the PAL era stuff shook out), while Super Hang-On does the same with the Mega Drive's early period scalers. I think the same might be said of Hang-On II on the SG-1000, but I'd have to go back & look at a bunch of video to confirm

I was looking at old Japanese arcade rankings a couple of months ago, and the original Hang-On was a really huge hit in its day. It only happened because Yu Suzuki, fresh out of university, had engineering knowledge (probably the single most under-acknowledged element of his legacy). When they first showed it at a trade show Sega were told Japanese players would be too shy to get on the bike, but it wound up being the #1 arcade title for 6 months running, a historical accomplishment which seems to have gone unmentioned in the West (I know it did well outside Japan too, but haven't seen stats). It gave rise to the whole 'taikan' trend of sit-in physical experience cabs which Sega, Namco & Taito did so well in the coming years. It really was a revolutionary title in multiple ways that was light years beyond anything else in game centres at the time on multiple levels. In 1985 95% of arcade games were still running on 8-bit hardware. I can't imagine what seeing massive colourful sprites scaling in 3D at warp speed must have looked like next to the Spy Hunter clones & other racing games of the day.

[Steven]

Damn do I hate being too young to have experienced 80s/90s arcades... but I am from the middle of nowhere where there are no arcades anyway, so I probably would have been screwed either way. Maybe I'll go over to Taito Hey to see if they have (Super) Hang-On. I didn't really look for anything that wasn't made by Toaplan when I was there. Mikado has Daytona USA, OutRun 2 (don't remember what version it is), OutRunners, Scud Race, Sega Rally Championship, Power Drift, and F-Zero AX, but no Hang-On, Super or otherwise.

Anyway Road Rash... exists. The music sucks and the framerate is in the toilet, and it's just... I don't know. It's better than CrazyBus, I guess. If they had not-shit music and ran at 59.92Hz, then I'd probably like them more.

[Air Master Burst]

I just want to defend the honor of 3DO Road Rash here, that version looks and plays great despite a bit of slowdown when things get hectic. The FMVs are a bit much, but it IS a 3DO game, so that kinda just goes with the territory. It was ported to PS1, Saturn, and PC; and as was tradition of the time, each has pros and cons. If the PC version didn't have static backgrounds it would be the best version, but as it stands I still think the 3DO original is the best. Obviously it's not in the same league as Hang On, but it's fun as hell and looks great for a mid-90s console racer.

Anyway Road Rash... exists. The music sucks and the framerate is in the toilet, and it's just... I don't know. It's better than CrazyBus, I guess. If they had not-shit music and ran at 59.92Hz, then I'd probably like them more.

Also, the licensed soundtrack absolutely slaps if you have any appreciation for early-mid 90s rock. The presence of Monster Magnet alone makes it better than like 90% of licensed soundtracks. The only better one from that era is probably Quarantine, which also got a 3DO release, and gets bonus points for both being a better game and actually playing the licensed music during gameplay instead of just attract mode videos.

(Unless we're counting that PS1 Wu Tang game, it was pretty janky but the music was top tier for obvious reasons)

[Steven]

I've wanted to play 3DO Road Rash for some time, but I don't have a 3DO. Might try the Saturn version, though. Too bad plenty of old Windows games do not work on modern Windows, sadly.

[it290]

These aren't really comparable games in my opinion. Hang-On is a classic arcade time attack racer, Road Rash is a console game with lots of upgrades, a career mode, and heavy focus on combat. For sheer gameplay mechanics Hang-On is much tighter than any RR game, but playing RR2 in split screen mode on the Hawaii course with a powerful bike and doing those loco jumps while whipping NPCs with the chain was mad fun back in the day. I'm sure that experience doesn't hold up at all now, but there's still not a lot that recreates that exact sort of feel. Hang-On may be a little basic by comparison, but it's smooth, playable, and timeless. Still, apples and oranges—really no point in comparing the two when they set out to achieve totally different things.

[CIT]

Team Hang-On here.

Just gonna mention here that if you like Hang-On, I highly recommend Super Burnout on the Atari Jaguar. It’s basically an arcade quality Super Hang-On clone, with silky smooth 60fps bitmap scaling and it’s all on cartridge. Basically the main reason I even own a Jaguar.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Hang On EASILY.

[cj iwakura]

Road Rash CD does have Soundgarden and hilarious FMV scenes of your driver getting arrested, beaten up, or having his ride demolished, so there's that.

[To Far Away Times]

I enjoyed Road Rash II quite a bit, but this is not a fair comparison.

Super Hang On is one of the greatest sprite based racers of all time. I consider it equally as good as Outrun. Those are my 1 and 1a favorite arcade racers of all time. I can't choose.

[null1024]

I never was huge on Road Rash, and the thing I liked the most about it is that it's doing real sprite scaling. It's okay. Mostly played RR1 on Genesis and then the Saturn version of RR.
In contrast, back when I still had my 3DS, there was a point where Super Hang-On accounted for like 80% of my playtime on the machine [and the only reason that changed was because OutRun and Space Harrier came out]. Even the Genesis version of SHO [which seems to run at like 80% of the speed of the arcade] plays quite well, and has a neat home mode.

These aren't really comparable games in my opinion. Hang-On is a classic arcade time attack racer, Road Rash is a console game with lots of upgrades, a career mode, and heavy focus on combat.

The Genesis version of SHO actually has a home console mode with upgrades and career progression!

[Sengoku Strider]

I am hard pressed to come up with a more awesome "ZOMG I'm Racing!!" tune than this one:

https://youtu.be/0P53yw0sA8U

[Mortificator]

I'm kind of partial to Enduro Racer

Damn do I hate being too young to have experienced 80s/90s arcades... but I am from the middle of nowhere where there are no arcades anyway, so I probably would have been screwed either way.

You would have got some action, cabs were all over back in the day. Gas stations, grocery stores, doctor's offices...

[Sengoku Strider]

I'm kind of partial to Enduro Racer

Damn do I hate being too young to have experienced 80s/90s arcades... but I am from the middle of nowhere where there are no arcades anyway, so I probably would have been screwed either way.

You would have got some action, cabs were all over back in the day. Gas stations, grocery stores, doctor's offices...

Convenience stores. It's so weird to think of now, that convenience stores used to be major summer hangouts. When Street Fighter II hit it was practically everywhere, and if you got good you could make a handful of quarters last all afternoon so long as scrubs kept challenging you.

[Steven]

You would have got some action, cabs were all over back in the day. Gas stations, grocery stores, doctor's offices...

Not in Alaska... I saw pinball tables occasionally, but the only arcade cabinets around were at a local movie theater and some random place I went with my friend once. There wasn't much at the theater, either. The only things that I specifically remember them having were Galaxian and Star Wars Trilogy Arcade, which took up like a third of the floor space in the little game room all by itself (I guess it was technically most likely the movie theater's arcade, but I really don't remember).

That other random place had the After Burner (II? Don't remember) deluxe cabinet thingy, though. God damn do I wish I could play that game in that cabinet again...

[Stevens]

Super Hang On is one of the greatest sprite based racers of all time. I consider it equally as good as Outrun. Those are my 1 and 1a favorite arcade racers of all time. I can't choose.

I need to put some time into SHO.

[BrianC]

What's the census on GP Rider? Haven't played the AC one for a while, but the GG version is actually based more on Super Hang On.

[BloodHawk]

So I'm about 10 years late, but I was going through the Xbox backwards compatible catalog and saw that the Sega Vintage Collection with Alex Kidd has Super Hang-On included with it. Since it's ported by M2 I went ahead and picked it up. I played it a decent amount in the arcades when I was kid but never took it seriously, as just sitting on the machine while pretending I was on a real bike was 90% of the fun for me at that age. Now that I am playing through it again and on a port that is designed for an analog stick, I can definitely see the fun of approaching it almost like a bullet-hell like Kriegor mentioned. I am starting out using the longer timers in the settings, but I am having a blast getting better over time.

[BloodHawk]

Speaking of M2's Sega Vintage Collection with Super Hang-On, it's going to be delisted from the Xbox 360 marketplace on February 7th. I checked and even though it's backwards compatible I couldn't find it on the NA Store page using my XSX, so I think once it's off the 360 store it's going to be gone for good.

[XoPachi]

I want to play

Motor Raid

[sunnshiner]

I used to love Mega Drive Road Rash BITD but I'd much rather play Hang On now and I adore Enduro Racer (I was too small/light to play on the arcade machine BITD, I just couldn't get it to stay in a wheelie )

edit- Motor Raid looks pretty cool, like a post-apocolyptic Manx TT Super Bike

[Sima Tuna]

Super Hang-On is above any Road Rash and most other arcade racing games of that time. You'd have to wait for Daytona USA / Ridge Racer to get something I'd place on the same level but for different reasons.

The thing that makes Super Hang-On so great, even today, much more relevant than OutRun to quote another great racing game of that style, is the bullet hell aspect. There are so many other bikes that you speed through. When you start to get to the end of the harder courses, their number are crazy and the time limit is very strict so you're always making frame by frame decision on what you want your trajectory to look like. The adrenaline is pumping hard. OutRun's traffic is so dense it's not a fault to just brake and wait for an opening. Sometimes you just have to and the time limit accomodates for this. On the other hand, in Super Hang-On, you're on a bike, there is always the space, but with every opponents coming at you at bullet speed and the hard curves (way more curvy tracks), it's a much more challenging and intense experience. The Road Rash are baby games in comparison.

I agree with this.

I saw Super Hang-On in arcades as a kid, but never played it. I didn't get a chance to play until the 3DS port came along. At first, I thought it was "just an outrun clone" or a mediocre arcade racing game. How wrong I was. The more I played Super Hang-On, the more it rose in my estimation. People rave about Outrun, but they should rave about Super Hang-On. Just like Outrun, it has amazing music and visuals for its era. But it's also absolutely nerve-wracking and adrenaline-pumping in a way Outrun isn't. Outrun is a cool game, but as you said, your car has kind of a fat ass. So sometimes you have to break, because traffic can block you completely. Or you might have turns that you simply can't make at full speed. In Super Hang-On, everything feels possible if you have enough skill. The boosting system kicks the gameplay into overdrive, too. Outrun is just, hey I switch to high gear and stay there. But in Super Hang-On, you have to know when to boost. Without boosting, you (probably) won't make your time. But boosting will dramatically increase the difficulty of the course.

In Super Hang-On, you're always flirting with disaster. You have to ride the line of speed vs control while still navigating around aggressive (dickheaded) AI riders.

Super Hang-On is a 1987 game, btw. 1987. It's so far above the competition for that era. There's Super Hang-On, then Outrun, and you have to wait years until anything as good came along. The F-Zero series is one I played a lot as a kid and Super Hang-On reminds me of that, although obviously Super Hang-On predates it.

[Kriegor]

Outrunners is a pretty cool one as well. The tracks are iconic. Trafic is less dense than in OutRun, but you still have a fat ass, so it's in between OutRun and Super Hang-On in terms of cruising speed. Compared to its daddy and mummy, it benefits from better hardware and more content. Notably, car selection is something we missed in previous iterations. It's a game I really recommand to try. It's quite accessible as well, an easy 1cc with default setting. I love how you can start to choose your destination from the very beginning of each run, it helps with replayability. Plenty of possible routes, even though tracks start to overlap on both sides.

Not as intense as Super Hang-On but one of Sega's many arcade racing gems that will ultimately lead them to create the masterpiece that is F-Zero GX.