Sega Ages Space Harrier

Genre: On-Rails Shooter

Players: 1, Online Leaderboards

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Review:

Space Harrier is a classic faux-3D On-Rails Shooter originally released to arcades in 1985. For a more modern comparison, think of this as a game in the same vein as Star Fox, albeit released before the age of polygonal 3D graphics.

Given the graphical limitations of the era, to some degree this game’s visual shortcomings are understandable – the landscapes are simple and repetitive, and their only features stick out like a sore thumb. Also, it is often difficult to determine where things are relative to each other in the 3D space as… well, there isn’t a 3D space per se, but a facsimile created with sprites and background animations.

Still, despite the graphics clearly showing their age, they’re also still pretty imaginative, with bright, colorful worlds, unusual enemies, and a fast pace that keeps the action level jacked up. Also, the use of multiple sprites to create dragon-like enemies makes for some memorable boss fights.

The gameplay here mostly holds up pretty well, although not without a few issues here and there. For starters, players may want to mess with the controls in the settings – by default they are reversed, and many may prefer them to be standard. More frustrating are elements built into the gameplay, like your character always returning to dead-center of the screen whenever you’re not pressing a direction. Also, your character is so large that it can block your view of enemies and obstacles, cutting down your reaction time. Finally, the gameplay can get a bit repetitive at times, though the fast pace helps to keep this from becoming too much of an issue.

Developer M2 has done their usual superb job with this release of the game, including a new Komainu Barrier mode that gives you helper characters who create a shield protecting you from collisions, though you in turn need to keep them safe from harm. It’s a nice alternate way to play the game that helps to reduce the frustration of ramming into the game’s scenery all the time.

In addition to this, there’s M2’s usual slew of additions in their ports – save states, replays, online leaderboards, different display options, music player, the works.

In short, Sega Ages Space Harrier is a top-notch port of a solid On-Rails Shooter, and although the graphical limitations of its time have made for both visuals and gameplay that’s dated by today’s standards, but still fun to play as long as you aren’t put off by the game’s age.

tl;dr – Space Harrier is a classic On-Rails Shooter originally released to arcades in 1985. While the limitations of the time mean that both the visuals and the gameplay show their age, this is nevertheless still a fun game even today, and it’s a solid port too. Definitely worth a look for fans of classic games or those looking for a solid action title.

Grade: B-

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