Platform: Arcade
Region: NTSC-U
Country: United States of America
Developer(s): Sega AM2 R&D Division
Publishers(s): Sega of America, Inc.
ReleaseDate: 1985-12-28
Players: 1
Co-op: No
Space Harrier
Space Harrier is a 1985 arcade video game developed by Sega R&D1 and released by Sega Enterprises Inc. in the USA on December 28, 1985. Space Harrier is played in a third-person perspective behind the protagonist, set in a surreal world composed of brightly colored landscapes adorned with checkerboard-style grounds and stationary objects such as trees or stone pillars. At the start of gameplay, players are greeted with a voice sample speaking "Welcome to the Fantasy Zone. Get ready!", in addition to "You're doing great!" with the successful completion of a stage. The title player character, simply named Harrier, navigates a continuous series of eighteen distinct stages while utilizing an underarm jet-propelled laser cannon that enables Harrier to simultaneously fly and shoot. The objective is simply to destroy all enemies - who range from prehistoric animals and Chinese dragons to flying robots, airborne geometric objects and alien pods - all while remaining in constant motion in order to dodge projectiles and immovable ground obstacles. Fifteen of the game's eighteen stages contain a boss at the end that must be killed in order to progress to the next level; the final stage is a rush of seven past bosses encountered up to that point that appear individually and are identified by name at the bottom of the screen. The two other levels are bonus stages that contain no enemies and where Harrier mounts an invincible catlike dragon named Uriah, whom the player maneuvers to smash through landscape obstacles and collect bonus points. After all lives are lost, players have the option of continuing gameplay with the insertion of an extra coin. As Space Harrier has no storyline, after the completion of all stages, only "The End" is displayed before the game returns to the title screen and attract mode, regardless of how many of the player's extra lives remain.
Trailer: YouTube
ESRB Rating: E - Everyone
Genre(s): Action | Shooter
