Hang-On To Your Butts
Hang-On & Astro Warrior (The Combo Cartridge) Review
Genre: Compilation
Number of Players: 1-2
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: September 1986 (US)
Platform: Sega Master System
Also Available On: N/A
There are certain games I’ve played on combo cartridges that leave me wondering why they were sold as standalone releases in the first place. I found myself asking that question after playing the Hang-On/Astro Warrior compilation. I mean, don’t get me wrong—it’s nice to have both games on one cartridge. However, such games sometimes boggle the mind as to how they were sold at full price, like the more substantial contemporary releases of the same genre.
Hang-On
First up is Sega’s original racing classic, Hang-On. Initially released in arcades in 1985, it was their first game built on the “Super Scaler” arcade system board, which allowed 16-bit sprites to scale and zoom at high speeds. It was also the first full-body experience arcade game, requiring players to control the on-screen bike by riding on a replica motorcycle and shifting their body left and right as a rider would do in real life.
The game was a highly successful technical marvel in its day, leapfrogging the arcade driving experiences available before its debut. When Hang-On was ported to the Sega Master System, it was vastly scaled back, more closely resembling Namco’s Pole Position.
Your goal is to race from checkpoint to checkpoint to reach the finish line before the timer runs out. Besides the noticeable visual downgrade from the arcade version, Hang-On immediately deviates from a key gameplay parameter — collisions. In the original game, you had to avoid colliding with signs and other road hazards, lest your bike explode spectacularly. Striking another rider didn’t necessarily spell disaster if you could recover quickly and get back on the road.
But here on the Master System, Hang-On enforces a strict no-touching policy. Even the slightest contact with another racer blasts your bike to kingdom come, no matter how slow you were going at the time of contact. Given the short nature of the game, this element was likely added to artificially increase the difficulty, keeping those familiar with the arcade version from winning too easily.
Each change in scenery represents a different checkpoint, there being four in total. And this is where the game began to feel shallow. Anyone expecting a sense of accomplishment and closure to the race is in for a disappointment. There’s no definitive end to the game; it just loops back to the starting area after reaching the final checkpoint.
All you get is a quick message saying, “Congratulations…challenge the next course”. That next course, however, is no different than the one you just raced on. After playing through the same course four times in a row, I gave up hope of seeing any confirmation that I finished the race for real this time.
The good news is that you can add a little variety to the mix by adjusting the difficulty level between one and three. The highest setting places more riders on the road, and they move around a lot, forcing you to be extra careful when negotiating curves. This makes the game more engaging. I admit to doing a short-lived happy dance upon reaching the “final” checkpoint.
The visual presentation isn’t nearly as detailed or fast as the arcade version. Gone are the advertisement signs and highly detailed scenery. Understandably, the character sprites had to be reduced for the game to run smoothly. Even so, there’s still enough here to like. The view around you features crisp, bright colors and a decent sense of speed. The dark colors and city buildings surrounding the night driving segments are the game’s best feature.
Hang-On keeps the audio presentation to a minimum with no music tracks playing as you’re flying down the road. However, the sounds that are in the game are decent enough. I found it surprisingly relaxing to play a racing game where all you hear is the smooth engine of your bike and soft hums of rival bikers vying for a spot on the road.
Astro Warrior
Astro Warrior is a straightforward shoot-’em-up that borrows heavily from the popular shooters that came before it, namely Konami’s Gradius and Salamander/Life Force series. Similar to Gradius, your “Astro Raider” (as your ship is called) starts as an underpowered, slow-moving spacecraft that can eventually be upgraded to fire powerful laser blasts and maneuver nimbly around enemies and their volley of bullets.
You also acquire two spherical drones that mimic your movements and weapon loadout. They’re Gradius’ option drones with the serial numbers filed off. Power-ups (including the drones) are obtained by picking up ship parts that appear on screen, similar to the power-up methods in Salamander/Life Force. And finally, similar to both series, boss enemies are defeated by destroying their “cores”. But unlike the games mentioned above, Astro Warrior is a shorter voyage.
The game is a ridiculously brief affair with only three levels to play through. Like Hang-On, the game loops back to the first level after you destroy the final boss ship. I have read that the game ends after the third loop, but good luck making it that far.
Despite Astro Warrior’s brevity, it is still a formidable shoot-’em-up. This is due in large part to your success being heavily dependent on staying fully powered up. Once you die, you go back to your slow, single-pellet-firing ship, and it’s pretty hard to make progress if you’re anywhere past the first level.
The game tends to be unbalanced, with the hordes of enemies attacking much faster than your ship at default speed. If I managed to make it to the boss ship at the end of the second level during the second loop of the game, my journey would soon end there. Those laser attacks are often too quick to dodge. On the other hand, the danger of collecting too many speed-up items is also present, heightening your chances of colliding with an enemy ship or stray bullet.
And speaking of collecting items, first-time players might not realize that certain objects are meant to be collected since they float down the screen along with the swarms of enemy formations. I initially found myself unwittingly avoiding those much-needed drones and other power-ups, mistaking them for indestructible objects.
Interestingly, the instruction manual provides no visual indication of what the upgrades look like, nor does it describe their utility in the game. Granted, I’m sure there are a fair number of people who had no problem discerning the difference between an enemy and a power-up in this game. However, it seems like a glaring omission not to include a visual indicator or written text somewhere to communicate something crucial for properly playing the game.
It doesn’t help that the starry background goes pitch black when fighting the boss armada ships. When it happened, I found it difficult to accurately judge how far to the side my ship could go. While that may sound like a minor nitpick, it matters a lot when you have to keep your eye on the boss character on the upper portion of the screen to anticipate when it’s going to start shooting at you.
The game has only a few music tracks to accompany your journey to the stars. But where it lacks in variety, it makes up for it with solid tunes (albeit simplistic) that pair well with action on screen.
The same goes for the sound effects of lasers firing, crunchy explosions, and so on. It should also be noted that, like Hang-On, Astro Warrior has an impressive color palette that gives most early NES games a run for their money.
With the plethora of robust racing and shoot-em-ups out there, Hang-On and Astro Warrior are two games that I would hesitate to purchase as separate cartridges. While Hang-On is an enjoyable game in brief sessions, it lacks the longevity you would expect from a racing game of that era, since you’ve seen all there is to see after five minutes or so.
Astro Warrior gets even less credit because it gives the player nothing more than the bare necessities when most of the other competing home console ports of shoot-’em-ups were giving us more content in terms of level variety and world building. Looping back to the beginning after the third level and simply increasing the difficulty doesn’t suffice.
If I were trying to prove to a friend that the Master System was the superior gaming console back in its heyday, I wouldn’t want to use these games as an example, assuming the difference in colors displayed wasn’t the issue being argued.
In the end, it was a far better idea to get these games as a combo cart instead of purchasing them separately. At least that way, if Astro Warrior isn’t your jam, you’d still have a 50/50 chance of enjoying a ride down Hang-On’s never-ending road of mediocrity.