“Excitebike” (Nintendo, 1985)
“Super Hang-On” (Sega, 1987)
They never tell you to beware the ides of June. But they should. Every year, like shiny metal clockwork, the rumblings begin. Through the toll islands they emerge, swarming toward all points Laconia: motorcycles, each one — depending on their after-market accoutrements — with a decibel-smashing exhaust system. As the Granite State once again finds itself hip-deep in celebration of all things vroom-able, what better way to embrace your inner angel from hell than to look back to the summer of 1985. As the 62nd Bike Week was unfolding across Weirs Beach that summer, two motorcycle-themed games fought for your quarters: “Excitebike” and “Hang-On.”
“Excitebike” was one of the 17 launch titles available for the Nintendo Entertainment System. More motocross than motorcycle, Player 1 selects his bike and takes to the track. The track comes in three styles: flat, incline, and decline. Accelerate with either the A button or the B button, which offers faster acceleration but at the risk of overheating. Don’t hit the patches of mud, other racers, or veer off the track. If you do, you’ll wipe out and spend the most frustratingly slow five seconds of your life as your rider “sprints” back to his bike.
Outside of the title screen, “Excitebike” is devoid of music. The constant drone of your bike accelerating and/or nose-diving into a miscalculated jump ramp can become a bit mind-numbing. But it’s that monotonous drone in place of an actual soundtrack that serves as one of the most endearing parts of “Hang-On,” Sega’s foray into digitized bike races. It’s a sound effect that I can only describe as “warped UFO,” and it happens every time your bike passes another player. It’s disorienting at first, but soon becomes comforting.
Is “Hang-On” the superior game? There’s no question. Its graphics — a first-person horizon view — are miles ahead of “Excitebike,” as are its gameplay, plot, and replay-ability. Yet, “Excitebike” wins this fight due to its popularity. That doesn’t make it fair, just true. For every 20 friends with an NES, I knew one with a Sega Master System. Its lack of availability outside of arcades made “Hang-On” the unfair also-ran to “Excitebike,” a game you’d only revisit after playing all your other cartridges.
“Hang-On” didn’t win the battle, but it did win the motorcycle video game war. “Super Hang-On” (1987) had you racing across six continents, with a brake bar that selects which songs you’d like to hear while racing. “Super” burned up more arcade calories than an hour of skee-ball. With even crisper graphics than its predecessor, “Super” saw the player literally riding a plastic replica of the game bike while wildly shifting her weight left to right to control the bike’s movements, finding her knee as dangerously close to the ground as the illustrations on the console depicted. A group of people gather to watch “Super Hang-On.” “Excitebike” is played alone in the basement. That makes more people familiar — and complimentary — toward the interactive “Super Hang-On.” If you only have time to earn just one bike game badge before the Diablos roll into town, make it “Super Hang-On.”
Hidden Gem: “Super-Hang On”
Total Junk: “Excitebike”