Space Harrier
Reviewed by Michael LoCascio
For whatever reason, NEC chose to redo a number of games
that had appeared on the 8-bit Sega Master System for their
Turbografx-16 machine. Fantasy Zone, R-Type and Ys are all
examples of classic Sega games that NEC added some audio and
visual flair to, and I must admit that while they didn't
score any points for originality, NEC did a great job of
updating what were already some wonderful titles. Space
Harrier was among these titles, which may seem rather odd
since Sega had already released a sequel to the game for the
Genesis. But regardless of the circumstances, I'm quite glad
that NEC did release Space Harrier, as it is a fast-paced,
enjoyable shooter that benefited from the Turbo's advanced
capabilities.
Space Harrier's plot is certainly simple enough: evil beings
from another world have invaded the once peaceful planet of
Dragon Land, and you're the flying warrior who must
annihilate them. You'll view the action from behind your
harrier; the landscape will scroll towards you and objects
will gradually grow larger as they approach, thus giving the
action a three-dimensional look. Armed with a powerful,
high-tech side arm, your harrier will have to make his way
through eighteen difficult stages before Dragon Land will be liberated.
You'll be able to take a break from the fast, furious action
during stages five and twelve, as these levels are nothing
more than bonus rounds. A big, friendly white dragon will
allow you to hop on its back and ride it through the entire
stage. For some reason, this big lug has always reminded me
of that dog-dragon creature in The Neverending Story... but
in any event, your job during these levels is simply to make
the dragon crash through as much of the scenery as you
possibly can. The more obstacles you wreck, the more points
you'll earn. Attain five million points and you'll be
rewarded with an extra life.
The controls in Space Harrier are quite simple and respond
extremely well. Crank up the turbo switches on your control
pad and hold down either button, and your harrier will fire
away. One neat aspect is the ability to choose from
'normal' and 'reverse' controls. In Reverse Mode,
pressing up on the control pad will cause your harrier to
descend, while pressing down will cause him to move upwards.
I usually stick with Normal Mode, but the controls are
equally responsive either way, making your decision
completely a matter of personal taste.
Space Harrier is an extremely difficult game. Enemy
creatures will continually bombard you, and while you deal
with them, you also have to be wary of the obstacles that
the landscape throws at you. Particularly troublesome are
the enormous trees and giant pillars that are scattered
about in almost every stage. Trees aren't such a huge
concern because you can destroy them with your shots, but
the indestructible pillars can present a very big problem,
especially since the action is so fast and you don't have
much time to react when you're about to run into them. There
are also numerous smaller roadblocks to deal with on the
ground. Running through bushes will only trip you up a bit,
but crashing into a rock will mean instant death.
There isn't a life meter for your character in this game, so
colliding with an obstacle or getting hit by enemy fire will
mean the loss of one life. You'll only have three lives to
work with, although there is a 's ecret' way to obtain
three continues. If you make it past the first bonus round
and enter the initials 'CNT' on the high scores table
after you lose all of your lives, you'll be allowed to
continue from the stage immediately following the bonus
round. Seeing as how this little 'trick' is stated quite
clearly in the instruction manual, I don't quite understand
why they couldn't have just given you the option of
continuing without having to type in certain initials on the
high scores board. A bigger problem, though, is the fact
that you'll always have to continue from the stage following
the last bonus round that you completed. None of the levels
in this game take any longer than a couple of minutes to
complete, but the action really starts to pick up in stage
six, and it's somewhat annoying to make significant progress
and then be sent back a few stages when you continue.
The graphics in Space Harrier are very bright and colorful.
The cast of enemies is particularly intriguing; from the
robotic knights to the one-eyed mammoths, most of your
opponents are large and well-drawn. While the objects in
this game are drawn in 2D, I'd take them any time over the
polygonal abominations that are present in Star Fox.
While the stage music in Space Harrier is a bit too cheery
for my tastes, the various tracks that play during boss
encounters sound a bit more intense and are generally
superb. The sound effects are also adequate, with the
exception of the voices; good luck trying to figure out what
the heck is being said when game play commences.
Space Harrier does have one major flaw, and it's something
that has plagued a great many shooters over the years: the
non-stop action just gets a bit too repetitive as the game
goes on. The looks of the landscapes as well as the enemies
tend to repeat themselves once you get past a certain point
in the game. Basically, more enemies will be thrown your
way, and more shots will be fired at you, but you'll be
taking the same actions and viewing the same visuals over
and over again. The repetitive nature of the game isn't
helped any by the fact that you'll only have one weapon at
your disposal throughout the entire game; there aren't any
power-ups or additional weapons to obtain.
Thankfully, you'll probably be able to tolerate the
repetitiveness simply because the game is so much fun to
play. Besides the fast action and impressive visuals, Space
Harrier offers up a hefty challenge, one that should keep
most gamers busy for quite a while. As long as you don't
possess a particular dislike of shooting titles, Space
Harrier will be an excellent addition to your library of
Turbo games.
Overall: 7 out of 10
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