And now, a gallery of all stages from Hany on the Road, for your enjoyment
Hany on the Road (PC Engine) is such a good game. I absolutely love the creativity and visual variety in it, and I've been thinking for a while about making a little post here to show that off.
It's a kind of simple arcade-style lane-based runner game. You can switch between four lanes, have a very short-range kick attack, often there are enemies or other obstacles, sometimes the stages autoscroll.
Visually and thematically, the game uses Japanese folklore in a playful way. Your own character is a Haniwa, a kind of clay figure, and the enemies are often well-known mythical beings.
Title Screen
This title screen is already pretty amazing. It's an homage to a painting by Rene Magritte: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golconda_(Magritte)
Stage A
The game starts off fairly simple, not much special going on in the first stage. We get to see some neat Dogu style statues.
Stage B
Still pretty similar to stage A, but we get some nice patterns in the background.
Stage C
This stage scrolls from right to left. We're above the clouds, and the enemies are little angel babies (or probably Oni, they look a bit like Lum from Urusei Yatsura). This stage will come back near the end of the game, with a vengeance.
Stage D
A river with logs, where we're harassed by some kinda cute kappas.
Stage E
A volcano is erupting, dropping fiery rocks onto our lanes. This stage has no regular enemies, but it's already hard enough to avoid being pancaked by the falling rocks.
Stage F
Our lanes are traditional Japanese rooftops, and the lanes are moving in opposite directions (which makes me wonder how we're actually reaching the end of the stage).
Stage G
The first boss stage. There's a full regular stage before the boss fight, but there isn't much happening there. This boss has stretchy arms that are to be avoided.
Stage H
Funny little tengu guys with palm leaf fans are trying to push us away. It also looks like they're wearing hawaiian shirts, or maybe it's some kind of traditional clothing I'm not familiar with.
Stage I
This stage is hard. These pits seem to be impossible to predict, they just pop up directly in front of you and you'll fall in frequently.
Stage J
These grumpy wall enemies will charge at you when you get onto their lane. I think the moving wall is also some kind of youkai?
Stage K
Tatami mats, kappas, some spike pits, and this stage also has the sword item which lets you run through a lot of enemies if you swing it furiously.
Stage L
This stage has some minor slidey ice physics going on. The penguins also slide sometimes, which I sadly didn't capture here.
Stage M
Kappas are wherever there is water I suppose, even in the sewers. The lanes can also sink under the water slowly.
Stage N
One of my favorite stages because of the mechanics. These little boats have gun turrets, which you as well as the enemy takos can fire.
Stage O
Second boss. It's one of those traditional festival lions, spitting out little heads that you have to hit back at it.
Stage P
One of the more unique stages. It's an autoscroller, and scrolls so fast that regular Hany can't keep up and is stuck at the edge of the screen. Thankfully there is a power-up that turns you into a much faster car. These running lizards have no issues keeping up with the scrolling speed though.
Stage Q
These pipe lanes drop away temporarily in a fixed pattern. Also some knifey dolls to harass you while you're stuck because of a missing lane.
Stage R
These conveyor belts are a minor inconvenience. Worse are the red enemies because they can change lanes to chase you (which most enemies cannot do). This stage also has my favorite power-up, which turns you into a big, nearly invincible statue.
Stage S
Nighttime stage with a nice city skyline background, and some difficult platforming. Some of the paths are dead ends, which you can't see in advance. Also has another type of red enemy, which can change lanes.
Stage T
Maybe I should have made a gif of this, but that's effort. This stage is in complete darkness most of the time, so you can't see the pits. Every few seconds a lightning bolt will light up the environment for a short time.
Stage U
Lanes full of quicksand where you sink in if you don't keep jumping, and these terrifying cacti pop up everywhere.
Stage V
Pretty cool visual design here, as we run through the time travel dimension. These piranha-like enemies swim under the lanes most of the time, until they jump up to get you.
Stage W
Hands-down my favorite stage. A horde of Japanese school girls (probably Sukeban, aka delinquents) tries to trip you up and push you onto the train tracks, so that the trains will run you over. Sometimes a whole bunch of them will gang up on you.
Stage X
This would be a great final stage. In the flaming inferno, these sun faces and floating rocks are slowly drifting through the screen. You can stand on the rocks while they're on screen.
Stage Y
Third boss fight. Before the boss, there is some difficult platforming with small moving platforms. The boss itself is similar to the previous one, except it's faster and much better at dodging.
Stage Z
The overworld map makes it look as if this was the final stage, but not quite. These ghostly pits are constantly appearing under you, or moving through the screen, daring you to fall in. Another stage with the fun statue power-up, but the statue does not protect you from falling into pits.
Stage π
We might be through the English alphabet, but not through the game. The lanes here keep crumbling, while these pudgy little yellow angels try to grab onto your legs to slow you down.
Stage Ω
Lots of cute fire-breathing dragons, and less cute red gourd enemies.
Stage Σ
The little angels / Oni are back, and now they're all charged up and shoot lightning. This autoscrolling stage also keeps speeding up, and it gets pretty difficult to keep up with it.
Final Stage
The last stage, with the final boss. This boss fight is interesting, with a group of little dancing figures, where one of them has a slightly brighter color and that's the only weak point.
The Underworld
When you lose your last life by falling into a pit, you don't get an immediate game over, instead switching to this underworld stage. The game gives you a few extra lives, and if you make it through the stage, you can keep any lives that are left, and restart the stage you died on. If you lose all your lives here, it's still a game over.
Bonus Stage
In some stages, if you finish the stage on the correct lane, you might get a hidden bonus. Some stages have warps that let you skip a few stages, others give you a few extra lives, and then there's the bonus stages. Here you can collect extra lives, and blue potions which also add up to extra lives.
Soundtrack
While I've got you here, let me also recommend the soundtrack of the game, which manages to create some great, cheerful tracks with its simple chiptunes.