Together Retro: Space Harrier

[ExedExes]

Right guys, but how many trees did you mow down with the white centipede hamster-dragon? That's the true variable of success, no?

30-50 on the original is good, but I did get 57 on a recent run.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Right guys, but how many trees did you mow down with the white centipede hamster-dragon? That's the true variable of success, no?

I'll get back to you when I figure out how to control it.

[Pootrocks]

I hereby issue a challenge to those that choose to accept it:
Since score isn't relevant, let's see who can do it in the least number of continues. In case of a tie, winner is the one with more remaining lives. You must get to the end of level 18 to count. In arcade fashion, scores should be submitted in terms of money spent. 1 quarter = 25 cents = 1 continue.

My current best is $2.75, although around level 14 the game started giving me lives instead of taking them when I died, so my extra lives was 8.

[Czernobog]

I've made it no secret that I love Space Harrier. It's just some of the purest, most simplistic fun I continuously have in a game. Very excited to see it on TR.

I have the Sega Genesis collection on PS3, the Master System port, and could play it in Shenmue, but I think I'm going to bust out the 3D Master System version and play the hell out of it, hopefully tomorrow evening. I've played the standard version to death, so it should be fun to really dig into the 3D one. Haven't played it much since Maze Hunter was always my go-to 3D Master System title.

GET READY!

[Sload Soap]

Love Space Harrier but never been great at it. Have acquired six different versions down the years, if you count Shenmue (seven if you count Shenmue 2). I'll do a quick breakdown of the versions I played last night.

Master System - A pretty decent port considering the limitations of the console. It is choppy and this often makes it hard to judge exactly where projectiles are but it has the music and the levels and even a bit of voicework. The hardest version by far. Three lives, no continues and no difficulty settings that I could tell. It's not bad. It's no Outrun SMS, but it's really not bad.

PS2 - Via the Sega Classics Collection. It's one of those weird remakes that look worse than their source material (like most of the games on the collection TBH). Adds a Panzer Dragoon style lock-on for no real reason. Of all my runs on the various versions, I got the furthest in this one clocking in just under 10,000,000 points. I noticed you can actually shoot all the way into the background in this version, unlike the others.

Saturn - Best port I played, probably the best port there is. Played it with my Saturn fight stick which worked quite well. It also meant I could turn on autofire which is probably cheating but whatevs. Didn't get as far as on the PS2 (7,200,000 odd) but it felt about ten times more satisfying.

Game Boy Advance - A very technically impressive port. Looks and sounds the part but the GBA's D-Pad wan't really meant for this sort of thing. Might give it a go on the GBA Player, see if that helps. I suspect it gives you five continues to make up for the fact enemy bullets seem to move faster. And as Exed mentioned the scoring is screwy. Got as far as stage 9 but only had a score of around 1,700,000. Not sure why this is, the Outrun conversion on the same cart seems fine.

Mega Drive - There is no direct port (odd for a game that was so widely ported in that ear) but there is the sequel, aptly titled Space Harrier 2 which is...yeah. It's good but also a bit odd. The basic gameplay remains the same but there are now fewer levels. You can now choose which level you start from which is interesting. I'll give this one a bit more love later on in the month.

[ExedExes]

Game Boy Advance - A very technically impressive port. Looks and sounds the part but the GBA's D-Pad wan't really meant for this sort of thing. Might give it a go on the GBA Player, see if that helps. I suspect it gives you five continues to make up for the fact enemy bullets seem to move faster. And as Exed mentioned the scoring is screwy. Got as far as stage 9 but only had a score of around 1,700,000. Not sure why this is, the Outrun conversion on the same cart seems fine.

I think it works a little better with the GBP, but the best experience is with a Retron 5 by far. Plug in a SNES controller and it's probably why I did so well. Out of the 4 games on there, 3 of them are decent, but I'd stay away from the After Burner conversion. Outrun was sadly a little bit easier, so was Super Hang On.

There is one code for all the games that gives you infinite time in the racing games and infinite continues for After Burner and Space Harrier.

[shwisha]

This is one of my favorite games of all time. There's just something about it. The Sega 32x version is the best.

[noiseredux]

MAME'd it for a while on my Shield last night. Yeah. I def have lost whatever interest I used to have in Space Harrier. Meh.

[alienjesus]

MAME'd it for a while on my Shield last night. Yeah. I def have lost whatever interest I used to have in Space Harrier. Meh.

I've never got the love for it tbh. I'm sure it was very pretty for the time, but I can't see how the gameplay was anything but mediocre even back then.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I like it but don't love it. It's a pleasant little Sega arcade relic. Worth a playthrough.

I will say this: it is about 100000000 times better than Fantasy Zone. Eff that game.