Released in 1994
Available in 
Genre: Shooting
Space Harrier
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Released in 1994 |
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Available in |
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Genre: Shooting |
Originally released in arcades in 1985, Space Harrier had never seen a really good SEGA console port. The 32X version changed that, which was released in 1994 -almost 10 years after the arcade game. Featuring all of the levels and enemies along with the large sprites and smooth scaling, this was as good as it got until the SEGA Saturn version of Space Harrier was released. The only problems with this version are that it runs at 30 frames per second, whilst the arcade game ran at 60 (After Burner also has this issue). This port also seems to suffer from some slow-down at certain points, such as when a boss moves in close to you for the first time, but this doesn't happen that often.
As with After Burner Complete, the reaction the gaming press gave to this version was mostly negative. Several reviewers questioned the point of SEGA releasing an old game for their new system, although this was the best version of it yet.
Contents
1) Info
2) Cheats
3) Prototype
4) Trivia
Info
Welcome to the Fantasy Zone -a zone which has been taken over by a whole army of evil creatures and robots. You play as the Space Harrier, who is armed with a jet cannon -allowing him to fly at any time as well as being able to shoot. You can move anywhere around the screen, but you'll always be automatically moving forwards through each stage.
The majority of enemies in the game only take 1 hit to kill, but you will also die if you get shot, or collide with an enemy or certain scenery. Move around the screen to avoid enemy fire, but be careful as you'll also have to dodge anything else that could get in your way -including rocks, towers and giant mushrooms. Stages 5 and 12 are bonus stages where you get to ride on the back of Uriah, a white dragon. Here you must move around to destroy as much scenery as possible (you cannot die in these stages) to earn lots of bonus points.
At the end of most levels is a boss, who takes multiple hits to kill and often has a fairly obvious weak spot. In total there are 18 stages, with the last one being a survival stage where you must fight against several bosses you've already fought. Get through this and you'll be treated to an extremely disappointing ending sequence.
Continue option
When you run out of lives, the game will end. When the title screen appears, a continue option will be available, allowing you to continue from a certain level.
Arcade mode
At the SEGA logo, press A, C and start on player 2's controller. A voice should say "get ready!". When the intro starts, "press start button " will be changed to "insert coin" and a credit counter will be shown at the bottom left of the screen. Press start on controller one to start the game with three credits.
Diagnostics screen
At the SEGA logo, press A, C and start on player 2's controller. A voice should say "get ready!". At the title screen, press A, B, C and start on player 1's controller. This should bring up the diagnostics menu, which has a lot of tests menus and a dip switch menu, although I don't think you can change anything on the latter.
There is currently one prototype available for this game, which has a build date of September 20th, 1994. I haven't looked into it fully, but the only noticeable difference I found was that the options screen has a different background than what the final version uses.
Advertising material reveals that the original title for this port was Super Space Harrier.
This port was programmed by Rutubo Games, who also did the 32X version of After Burner Complete. Their later works would including porting After Burner II, OutRun, The King of Fighters '95 and some other games to the SEGA Saturn.
