HANY ON THE ROAD
AKA: HONEY ON THE ROAD
はにい・おんざ・ろおど

MAKER: FACE
RELEASE DATE: 14 SEPTEMBER 1990
STYLE: ACTION
FORMAT: HUCARD
RATING:

 

Overview
He might look like a condom, but Hany is one active little guy. Following on from Hany in the Sky (released the year before), Hany on the Road is a scrolling action game and bears a strong resemblance to Shockway Rider, a game released a few years before on the Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad CPC. You control Hany (or Lemon if you are playing a two player game) who must run the length of the 'road' to reach the goal. The road is divided up into four walkways, which you can instantly switch to by pushing up and down on the pad. Depending on the stage, the walkways have various behaviours: some auto scroll, with the faster at the bottom of the screen, others are push-scroll and some even scroll in multiple directions just to shake things up. They are also littered with enemies and obstacles, such as the fiery rocks that rain down from a volcano in the background.
Unfortunately for Hany and friend, he's not blessed with a weapon of any kind, so to protect yourself you have to rely on dodging and jumping to stay alive. There are also plenty of items to collect that give anything from points to lives and some that clear the screen of enemies if you can get to them in time. Once the level is complete, you are on to the next one and are sometimes given a choice of which route to take.

Comment
Hany on the Road is a great idea and benefits from being the only game of its type on the PC Engine. It looks good, with well drawn sprites, nice use of colour and some neat visual effects here and there. Audio is what I have come to expect from Face - light, jolly and catchy. And to begin with the game is a lot of fun to play. It can take a deal of concentration to dodge and jump when things get frantic on screen and the levels themselves provide some welcome variety within the format. The point at which the game fails is the learning curve, which is far too steep. The first two or three levels are fairly easy to clear, but without practice you can very quickly lose all your lives and have to start again from the beginning of the area. Not the level, the whole area, forcing you to replay the initial stages time and time again. It doesn't help that some enemies require very precise jumping to avoid and you can often feel that things are a little unfair. It's a shame because if the difficulty was more gradual, or the restart points placed more regularly, then this would probably be a game that I could very much recommend. As it stands I feel this is a game that you should try before you buy, and if you are someone who relishes a challenge then you may well find something here for you.
sunteam_paul

 

 

Screens

Gameplay Video Longplay Video from World of Longplays