Space Harrier II

For the home computer versions from 1990, see Space Harrier II (home computers).

n/a

1988 2022
Space Harrier II
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console, iOS, Steam, Nintendo Switch Online
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega R&D 2 M2
Sound driver: pre-SMPS Z80
Genre: Shooting, Arcade
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1988-10-29 ¥5,8005,800 G-4002 US 1989-08-14 1102 EU 1990-09 1102 PT 1991 MDJ1102 UK 1990-10 £34.9934.99 1102 SE (Rental) 199x AU 199x CA 19xx KR 199x GM4003JG JP 19xx ¥? ? UK 19xx £? ? JP ▼ 2006-12-02 600pts600 US ▼ 2006-12-18 800pts800 EU ▼ 2006-12-22 800pts800 DE ▼ 2006-12-22 800pts800 AU ▼ 2006-12 800pts800 US ▼ 2010-06-01 $2.992.99 34279 EU ▼ 2010-06-01 €2.492.49 34279 DE ▼ 2010-06-01 €2.492.49 34279 UK ▼ 2010-06-01 £1.991.99 34279 AU ▼ 2010-06-01 $3.493.49 34279 US ▼ 2019-01-31 $0.990.99 34279 EU ▼ 2019-01-31 €0.990.99 34279 DE ▼ 2019-01-31 €0.990.99 34279 UK ▼ 2019-01-31 £0.790.79 34279 AU ▼ 2019-01-31 $1.351.35 34279 US ▼ 2019-01-31 $0.990.99 34279 EU ▼ 2019-01-31 €0.990.99 34279 DE ▼ 2019-01-31 €0.990.99 34279 UK ▼ 2019-01-31 £0.790.79 34279 AU ▼ 2019-01-31 $1.351.35 34279 JP ▼ 2010-07-22 ¥115115 9+ US ▼ 2010-07-22 $0.990.99 9+ US ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-09-14 FREEfree 9+ EU ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-09-14 FREEfree 9+ US ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-09-13 FREEfree EU ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-09-13 FREEfree DE ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-09-13 FREEfree AU ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-09-13 FREEfree JP ▼ 2022-04-22 SUBsub US ▼ 2022-04-21 SUBsub EU ▼ 2022-04-22 SUBsub UK ▼ 2022-04-22 SUBsub AU ▼ 2022-04-22 SUBsub

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.

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
	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.

Bonus stage 1

Bonus stage 2

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. 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
	0000040000010000010000000000004.1.1	143.4MB	202001092020-01-09
	0000040000000000020000000000004.0.2		201906032019-06-03
	0000040000000000010000000000004.0.1		201905202019-05-20
	0000040000000000000000000000004.0.0		201901312019-01-31
	0000030000010000020000000000003.1.2	138.3MB	201810312018-10-31
	0000030000010000010000000000003.1.1	132.1MB	201808062018-08-06
	0000030000000000010000000000003.0.1	177MB	201709252017-09-25
	0000030000000000000000000000003.0.0	178MB	201709132017-09-13	Sega Forever
	0000020000000000000000000000002.0.0	4.3MB	201212012012-12-01
	0000010000000000000000000000001.0.0	3.5MB	201007222010-07-22
	0000040000010000010000000000004.1.1	56MB	202001092020-01-09				(info) (55.87 MB)
	0000020000000000010000000000002.0.1	45MB	201906032019-06-03				(info) (44.51 MB)
	0000020000000000010000000000002.0.1	44MB	201905202019-05-20				(info) (44.49 MB)
	0000020000000000000000000000002.0.0	44MB	201901312019-01-31				(info) (43.69 MB)
	0000010000010000020000000000001.1.2	43MB	201810312018-10-31				(info) (43.01 MB)
	0000010000010000010000000000001.1.1	41MB	201808062018-08-06				(info) (41.27 MB)
	0000010000010000010000000000001.1.1	47MB	201709262017-09-26				(info) (47.37 MB)
	0000010000000000000000000000001.0.0	48MB	201709132017-09-13				(info) (48.1 MB)

Downloadable content

Main article: Space Harrier II/Downloadable content.

Production credits

Main article: Space Harrier II/Production credits.

Digital manuals

• 

  Steam manual

• 

  Mega Drive Mini US manual

• 

  Mega Drive Mini EU manual

• 

  Mega Drive Mini JP manual

• 

  Mega Drive Mini 2 US/EU manual

• 

  Mega Drive Mini 2 JP manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Space Harrier II/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #0: "Extra issue of Beep!" (1989-04-27)

Print advert in Computer Games (GR) #3: "Ioúnios 1990" (1990-xx-xx)

Artwork

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• 
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• 

  Sega Forever icon

Physical scans

Mega Drive version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 30 ACE (UK) PAL 93 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 60 Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 89 Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 76 The Complete Guide to Sega (UK) 76 Console XS (UK) PAL 62 Cool Gamer (RU) 30 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 68 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 65 Excalibur (CZ) 50 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 75 The Games Machine (UK) 85 Games Preview (DK) 81 Joystick (FR) 55 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) PAL 48 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 72 Mega (UK) PAL 55 Mega (UK) PAL 51 MegaTech (UK) 76 Mean Machines (UK) 77 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 76 Raze (UK) PAL 60 Sega Power (UK) PAL 50 Sega Pro (UK) 63 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 62 Sega Force (UK) PAL 55 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 62 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 46

	64
Based on 29 reviews

Space Harrier II

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, PT
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, SE rental (HENT)
Cover

Mega Drive, SE rental (Kanal10)
Cover

Mega Drive, AU (Horizontal manual)
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, AU (Vertical manual)
Cart

Mega Drive, ZA
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, KR
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, CA
Cover

Mega-Tech version

Mega-Tech,
Cart

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