Space Harrier II (Sega Genesis, 1989)

Space Harrier II was one of the first Genesis games I bought. I really didn't know too much about the games on the Genesis at the time, so I basically picked up whatever looked cool. When I saw SH II at Toys 'R Us, I thought the 3D gameplay looked interesting, so I put down the 30 bucks for it. I wasn't disappointed and SH II helped set the standard I would go by when buying future Genesis games.

Graphically, SH II is an above average Genesis title. The worlds are colorful and bright and the enemies are hugh and well detailed. The sound effects are decent with some digitized voice samples like "Get Ready" (this became a catch phrase for me) and your dying yell when you get hit. The music is pretty mellow and set to a sci fi/fantasy tone.

Those who remember the original Space Harrier will recall it was one difficult game. Death was instantanious and could happen in rapid succession. To make things worse was the limited number of lives you started with and not many extention possibilities. SH II is definately much more forgiving. It is still fast paced, but it is easier to spot potential trouble and manuver than the first game which had more blind spots. Also, you can tally up a healthy stock of spare lives. Overall, I felt SH II had a better balance of difficulty than the original.

Being what I call a first generation Genesis title, SH II does a good job at what the Genesis is capable of. Being a better balanced game than the original, I felt SH II was much more fun to play than the original. It is a shame that most people don't remember this game as much as the first Space Harrier. I would definately recommend SH II to anyone who loves classic Genesis titles or classic games in general.

Here's a game that Sega holds so dearly that it's been remade, ported, and referenced to throughout their life as a gaming company.

Brought from the arcades to the home consoles, with the first game on the 8-bit Sega Master System this proved to be one of the killer apps in Sega's campaign to prove the Genesis could do what the Nintendo could not.

It's fast, colorful, can get really crowded, and most of all, it's difficult.

That may be a big design flaw, how difficult this game is. This is a scrolling shooter, but not vertical or horizontal, your scrolling inward toward the screen, very often at rocket speeds (blast processing at work), firing at equally quick moving enemies that bob and weeve all over the screen, constantly avoiding your shots. But thankfully you can see where you're shooting since your characters body doesn't obscure his gun as most games in this subsection of shooters accidentally do. You can only squeeze off a few shots at a time, even with turbo-fire, and when there's loads of enemies and obstacles on the screen, it can become exceedingly hectic, and you'll find yourself colliding with obstacles and enemy fire more often than you'd like.

Although, that is a legitimate difficulty addition. This is definitely a must-own for any Genesis collectors, and Sega fans, as it is one of their best works.

I love this game. Game play is top notch its third person rail shooter straight outta Japan. Sound track is amazing as well. I recommend to anyone who enjoys Japanese stuff or any person with any sense.

Best installment in the franchise, in my opinion (Although the 32x add-on version tends to be 99.9% arcade perfect, this 16-bit version handles like a dream). If you love shooters (in general) then you'll love this rail shooter. The graphics are 16-bit, so be warned, but as a retro gamer, picking up one of these titles means hours of replayable, rail-shooter, gameplay fun.

This is a underrated Classic. The game play is more balanced and easy to get into. The graphics are decent and music is simply great!