Sega found its feet in the arcades and has tried all sorts of experiments over the years, but perhaps one of the most unique was Hang-On, which had players sit on a physical motorbike, equipped with basic motion sensors for tilting, as well as handlebars to control acceleration and braking. It's certainly an idea you don't see very often, even today, and thankfully the game itself was up to the task too.
Like all great Arcade titles Hang-On is simple on the surface but surprisingly deep. Players had to guide the driver down a linear road through a series of checkpoints, round bends and past opposing players before the timer runs out. It also had the technical chops to match its ingenious hardware; Hang-On was the first 16-bit Arcade title, and used a special breed of 'Super Scaler' technology for some wonderfully smooth visuals that still hold up today.
Simple as it was, taking corners was a surprisingly tough act to master. With no analogue controls, the bike would nudge itself closer and closer to the tarmac as it turned, and if leaned too hard and too fast, it would start to skid and eventually lose control. Conversely, not leaning enough would see the bike slowly drift into the outside of the corner and into scenery, which obviously wasn't desired either. The best tactic was to swing back and forth to remain on the road safely, instead of a smooth turn, and with corners mischievously becoming sharper in later checkpoints and with those pesky other riders to avoid, the later sections become joyfully difficult to survive.
Hang-On was enough of a hit to make it to consoles - without the giant motorbike, obviously - and a faithful port on the Mega Drive was released, as well as a scaled down offering for Master System. Two years later Sega produced sequel Super Hang-On, which expanded on its single linear route to four varied continents with multiple endings, with the biker taking off their helmet to reveal an old man smoking a pipe, or in another scenario, a woman with flowing locks. Also ported to the Mega Drive, Super Hang-On added bike upgrades over the course of its campaign.
Unlike OutRun, which received a modern arcade incarnation and console ports, the Hang-On name has since all but disappeared from Sega's catalogue. However, it continued to pay tribute to the novel racer with cameos across many of its other titles. Power Drift and Sonic Racers both featured hidden unlockable motorbikes with the Hang-On name, while the game itself was included in the portable Sega Arcade Gallery as well as both Shenmue instalments. While Hang-On was short lived, at the very least it perhaps gave Sega the confidence to continue creating novel arcade stands, such as 18 Wheeler's oversized trucker wheel to After Burner's iconic revolving cockpit.
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