Space Harrier II
From Sega Retro
- For the home computer versions from 1990, see Space Harrier II (home computers).
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Space Harrier II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console, iOS, Steam, Nintendo Switch Online | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: Sega | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Developer: Sega R&D 2 M2[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distributor: Ecofilmes (PT) Kanal 10 (SE rental) (older) Hent Gruppen (SE rental) (newer) Samsung (KR) Consumer Electronics (ZA) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sound driver: pre-SMPS Z80 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre: Shooting[2][3], Arcade[4] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of players: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Space Harrier II (スペースハリアーII) is a Sega Mega Drive rail shooter developed by Sega R&D 2 and published by Sega. An expanded sequel to the company's titular 1985 arcade game Space Harrier, it was first released in Japan on October 29, 1988 as one of the system's two launch titles (alongside Super Thunder Blade).
The game was notable for the time for its use of digitized voices, an example of the technical advancements the Mega Drive offered over its rivals. Unlike the arcade original, the Mega Drive could not handle sprite scaling, meaning the graphics were pre-rendered at various sizes. This, along with the slightly lower framerate, results in a less smooth gameplay experience, though it was considered impressive for a home console offering at the time.
Contents
Story
It is the year 6236. Harrier once again receives a call for help, this time from the 214th sector, light-years from his cruiser. Harrier travels there quickly with his "cosmic gate," and finds that Fantasyland is once again being overrun by hostile forces. He resolves to once again save the world by fighting off the entire force himself.
Gameplay
The game is a rail shooter like its predecessor, played as a superhuman hero who runs and flies towards a forever distant background on a checkerboard-styled ground. The player does not control Harrier's movement into the scene but can move him along the vertical and horizontal axes with the D-pad. He fires a large laser cannon with , , or . He can fire up to four shots at a time.
As the playing field moves forward, enemies come from behind and from the far distance to attack the character, by either firing a projectile or trying to crash into him. Enemies move onto the screen in uniform clusters. In many cases, the enemies move in a straight line along a predetermined, pseudo-three-dimensional path. Each stage ends in a fight with a boss, whose entrance is indicated by flashes of lightning bolts. The player must also dodge large objects in the path, some of which can be destroyed, such as trees, and others that cannot be, such as ionic columns and pylons. One hit from an enemy or a crash into these large objects causes the player to lose a life. Harrier is revived in place with temporary invulnerability if the player has lives remaining. Smaller objects, such as foliage, only cause Harrier to trip (though this leaves him momentarily vulnerable to attack). If the player loses all lives, the game is over. There are no continues. Extra lives are awarded every certain number of points.
Like the original Space Harrier and other games of the era, such as Hang-On or After Burner, the game increases the score based on the player's survival time. However, as the score counter does not stop during boss fights, it possible to accumulate the maximum amount of points by simply avoiding attacks and not attacking the boss.
The player can press , , or on the title screen to access the options. From here, the player can change the difficulty level (Easy, Normal, or Hard), enable rapid-fire, or invert the vertical controls. The difficulty setting determines how many lives the player starts with (five lives on Easy, three lives on Normal, and one life on Hard).
Stages
The player can choose which of the first twelve stages to start on. The game proceeds through the rest of the stages in order (looping around if necessary).
Stuna Area | |
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The boss is Three-Headed Tortoise (Trimuller). | |
Fors Yard | |
The boss is Paranoiazum (Paranoia). | |
Yees Land | |
The boss is Blizzard (Brizard). | |
Zero Polis | |
The boss is Neo-Dom. | |
Copper Hill | |
The boss is Mantichora. | |
Fallpyram | |
The boss is Wizard. | |
Craddha | |
The boss is Medusa. | |
Monark | |
The boss is Neo Tomos. | |
Felcold | |
The boss is Cragon. | |
Hope City | |
The boss is Binzbean (Bins Been). | |
Hell Peak | |
The boss is Rock Face (Love Face). | |
Hot Palace | |
The boss is Cthugha. | |
Final Stage | |
After completing all of the regular stages, the player must defeat all twelve of the previous bosses again before facing the Dark Harrier. |
Bonus Stages
A bonus stage is played after completing four and eight regular stages. These stages are played on top of a jet-propelled board and play similarly to the other stages, except there are no obstacles and Harrier is invulnerable. The player hits as many enemies as possible for a point bonus.
History
Legacy
The original version of the game was included in Mega Drive Mini in 2019. An updated version the game was created by M2 and included in the Mega Drive Mini 2 in 2022. This version purports to be for the "Sega Mark V" (a code name for the Sega Mega Drive) and has been enhanced with sprite-scaling. It retains the sprite limits of the Mega Drive and has a considerable amount of sprite flicker as a result, but there is a hidden option to remove the flicker.
Versions
The Mega Drive version of the game was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console service in 2006, and for Steam and iOS devices in 2010. The iOS version was removed from sale on iTunes in 2015.[27] In 2017 the game returned to iTunes and was newly added to Android devices as part of Sega Forever, with the title Space Harrier II Classic.
Version history
- Main article: Space Harrier II/Changelog.
System | Version | Size | Date | Comment | Ref | Icon | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.1.1 | 143.4MB | 2020-01-09 | [28] | ||||
4.0.2 | 2019-06-03 | ||||||
4.0.1 | 2019-05-20 | ||||||
4.0.0 | 2019-01-31 | ||||||
3.1.2 | 138.3MB | 2018-10-31 | [29] | ||||
3.1.1 | 132.1MB | 2018-08-06 | [30] | ||||
3.0.1 | 177MB | 2017-09-25 | [31] | ||||
3.0.0 | 178MB | 2017-09-13 | Sega Forever | [32] | |||
2.0.0 | 4.3MB | 2012-12-01 | [33] | ||||
1.0.0 | 3.5MB | 2010-07-22 | [17] | ||||
4.1.1 | 56MB | 2020-01-09 | [34] | (info) (55.87 MB)
| |||
2.0.1 | 45MB | 2019-06-03 | [35] | (info) (44.51 MB)
| |||
2.0.1 | 44MB | 2019-05-20 | [36] | (info) (44.49 MB)
| |||
2.0.0 | 44MB | 2019-01-31 | [37] | (info) (43.69 MB)
| |||
1.1.2 | 43MB | 2018-10-31 | [38] | (info) (43.01 MB)
| |||
1.1.1 | 41MB | 2018-08-06 | [39] | (info) (41.27 MB)
| |||
1.1.1 | 47MB | 2017-09-26 | [40] | (info) (47.37 MB)
| |||
1.0.0 | 48MB | 2017-09-13 | [41] | (info) (48.1 MB)
|
Downloadable content
- Main article: Space Harrier II/Downloadable content.
Production credits
- Main article: Space Harrier II/Production credits.
Digital manuals
Magazine articles
- Main article: Space Harrier II/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
Artwork
Sega Forever icon
Physical scans
Mega Drive version
Sega Retro Average | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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64 | |
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Based on 29 reviews |
Mega Drive, SE rental (Kanal 10) |
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Mega Drive, SE rental (Hent) |
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Mega-Tech version
Technical information
- Main article: Space Harrier II/Technical information.
External links
- Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Mega Drive
- Nintendo catalogue pages: US, UK, AU
- Space Harrier II on iTunes: JP, US, UK
- Space Harrier II on Steam
- Space Harrier II on Google Play
References
- ↑ https://www.mtwo.co.jp/development/retrogame-2/#tab-1
- ↑ File:SHarrierII md jp cover.jpg
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/megadrive/software.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-20 09:51)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Google Play (com.sega.SpaceHarrierII) (Wayback Machine: 2017-09-17 22:14)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Raze, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-11-29), page 63
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/vc/software/01.html (Wayback Machine: 2017-11-23 05:03)
- ↑ http://vc.sega.jp:80/vc_harrier/ (Wayback Machine: 2007-02-09 19:29)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/fP4fG_R_k_IGoThn0w0s5crUaNAvzYuh (Wayback Machine: 2010-11-22 23:51)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 http://www.nintendolife.com/games/megadrive/space_harrier_ii (Wayback Machine: 2017-07-04 12:12)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Virtual-Console-Wii-/Space-Harrier-II--279195.html (archive.today)
- ↑ http://www.nintendo.com.au/index.php?action=catalogue&prodcat_id=41&prod_id=19774&pageID=4 (Wayback Machine: 2012-04-03 03:23)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.de/Spiele/Virtual-Console-Wii-/Space-Harrier-II--279195.html (archive.today)
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 https://steamdb.info/app/34279/ (Wayback Machine: 2019-11-17 20:12)
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 http://steamdb.info/app/34279/ (Wayback Machine: 2013-05-22 20:20)
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 https://steamdb.info/app/34279/history/?changeid=5749235
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 16.8 16.9 http://steamdb.info/app/34279/ (Wayback Machine: 2019-11-17 20:12)
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-harrier-ii/id382277388?mt=8 (Wayback Machine: 2012-11-12 00:05)
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 http://blogs.sega.com/2010/07/22/space-harrier-ii-and-ecco-the-dolphin-now-on-the-iphone/ (Wayback Machine: 2015-09-06 10:37)
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 http://www.4gamer.net/games/049/G004989/20100727028/
- ↑ http://sega.jp/kt/apple/sphr2/ (Wayback Machine: 2011-05-11 03:20)
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 @SEGAForever on Twitter (Wayback Machine: 2018-09-30 00:35)
- ↑ https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/article/024066ce-d840-4af5-a4c0-8e70d94a2667 (archive.today)
- ↑ @NintendoAmerica on Twitter (archive.today)
- ↑ @NintendoEurope on Twitter (archive.today)
- ↑ @NintendoUK on Twitter (archive.today)
- ↑ @NintendoAUNZ on Twitter (archive.today)
- ↑ http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/18/8622645/sega-pulls-games-from-itunes-app-store-google-play (Wayback Machine: 2017-11-08 17:39)
- ↑ https://apps.apple.com/us/app/space-harrier-ii/id382277388 (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-05 22:24)
- ↑ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-harrier-ii/id382277388?mt=8 (Wayback Machine: 2018-11-19 21:43)
- ↑ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-harrier-ii/id382277388?mt=8 (Wayback Machine: 2018-09-30 00:37)
- ↑ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-harrier-ii/id382277388?mt=8 (Wayback Machine: 2017-10-29 02:47)
- ↑ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-harrier-ii-classic/id382277388?mt=8 (Wayback Machine: 2017-09-17 22:16)
- ↑ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-harrier-ii/id382277388?mt=8 (Wayback Machine: 2014-08-03 00:09)
- ↑ Google Play (com.sega.SpaceHarrierII) (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-24 23:35)
- ↑ Google Play (com.sega.SpaceHarrierII) (Wayback Machine: 2019-10-07 03:13)
- ↑ APKPure (com.sega.SpaceHarrierII) (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-24 23:38)
- ↑ Google Play (com.sega.SpaceHarrierII) (Wayback Machine: 2019-04-21 19:06)
- ↑ Google Play (com.sega.SpaceHarrierII) (Wayback Machine: 2018-11-19 21:41)
- ↑ Google Play (com.sega.SpaceHarrierII) (Wayback Machine: 2018-08-22 21:04)
- ↑ Google Play (com.sega.SpaceHarrierII) (Wayback Machine: 2017-10-04 06:10)
- ↑ APKPure (com.sega.SpaceHarrierII) (Wayback Machine: 2018-08-22 21:02)
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 218
- ↑ ACE, "November 1989" (UK; 1989-10-xx), page 144
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "February 1990" (JP; 1990-01-08), page 71
- ↑ Complete Guide to Consoles, "" (UK; 1989-10-16), page 72
- ↑ Complete Guide to Consoles, "Volume IV" (UK; 1990-11-xx), page 35
- ↑ The Complete Guide to Sega, "" (UK; 1991-05-xx), page 49
- ↑ Console XS, "June/July 1992" (UK; 1992-04-23), page 134
- ↑ Cool Gamer, "9" (RU; 2002-10-13), page 201
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "September/October 1989" (US; 1989-0x-xx), page 14
- ↑ Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide, "" (UK; 1993-11-18), page 93
- ↑ Excalibur, "" (CZ; 1993-09-10), page 32
- ↑ Famitsu, "1988-11-11" (JP; 1988-1x-xx), page 13
- ↑ The Games Machine, "June 1989" (UK; 1989-05-18), page 20
- ↑ Games Preview, "8/9 1989" (DK; 1989-xx-xx), page 71
- ↑ Joystick, "Octobre 1990" (FR; 1990-xx-xx), page 114
- ↑ Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "January 1993" (UK; 199x-xx-xx), page 94
- ↑ Mega Drive Fan, "November 1989" (JP; 1989-10-07), page 49
- ↑ Mega, "October 1992" (UK; 1992-09-17), page 60
- ↑ Mega, "June 1993" (UK; 1993-05-20), page 21
- ↑ MegaTech, "Xmas 1991" (UK; 1991-12-06), page 80
- ↑ Mean Machines, "November 1990" (UK; 1990-10-29), page 26
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "October 1992" (UK; 1992-09-xx), page 140
- ↑ Sega Power, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-05), page 54
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1992" (UK; 1992-03-19), page 29
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 67
- ↑ Sega Force, "August 1992" (UK; 1992-07-09), page 26
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 172
Space Harrier II | |
---|---|
Main page | Comparisons | Downloadable content | Changelog | Credits | Hidden content | Magazine articles | Reception | Region coding | Technical information | Bootlegs |
Space Harrier series |
---|
Space Harrier (JP home computers | Elite versions | Sega Ages Vol. 2 | mobile | 3D) (1986) | Space Harrier 3D (1988) | Space Harrier II (Electronic) (1988) | Planet Harriers (2001) | Typing Space Harrier (2002) | Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 4: Space Harrier (2003) |
Albums |
Yu Suzuki Produce Hang On/Space Harrier (1997) | Planet Harriers The Original Soundtrack (2001) | Space Harrier II: Space Harrier Complete Collection Original Soundtrack (2005) |
Other Media |
Space Harrier (video) (1987) | Space Harrier: White Dragon no Yuusha (1988) |
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