Space Harrier II

I haven't played the original and I do also want to acknowledge that right now this is no longer on sale on Steam which is where I got and played it through the then heavily discounted Sega Mega Genesis Classics bundle. But hey maybe at some point in the future it will be again. This is very much of its time. It was made when the way to ensure a video game took a while to complete was that you couldn't actually do it the first time you sat down with it. You could get some part into it then you'd have to start over and the next time you would probably also not get all the way through but you would gradually improve to the point where eventually you could. That is still possible to do with this now that you're using an emulator to play it but it is also opened up to people who can't do that. I myself struggle with carpal tunnel syndrome and in addition I also decided to use the rewind function when that was helpful and like that you can get through this in just over an hour. It's important to note that this doesn't eliminate all the challenges far from it since even when you use it there are a lot of occasions where you'll have to try out multiple options each of which is difficult to do in order to get past something. It is a fairly simplistic thing and I understand that some were frustrated with that as well as it not bringing in very much innovation. I would compare this primarily to Raptor: Call of the Shadows. Imagine that only you move in a pseudo 3D setup and never get access to a gun other than the initial machine gun and it is set in the distant future on other planets instead of on Earth present day. This is a great thing. Basically this consists entirely of you moving between the different parts of the screen as it hurdles through levels at a pace you have no control over and doesn't change. You have to avoid flying into objects, some of which can be shot, others have to be dodged; some enemies will also try to hit you with their vehicle and/or the projectiles they fire, some of them can block your attacks. It's not only about figuring out exactly where on the screen you can be since a number of enemies will aim for where you are regardless of where you are so you may also have to move out of the way of their fire without hitting something else. There are boss fights with pretty varied designs and tactics and in general this keeps throwing something at you that you haven't seen the exact equivalent of before within the relatively narrow scope that it operates. You need fast reflexes quick thinking patience and you have to deduce how to successfully destroy those you square off against. And even with all of this it is still tough and deeply satisfying to do well at. It is fairly colorful and bright a lot of the time and the score is futuristic and you'll be humming it all day. There is minimal plot basically at the very start you're told some context and the very end features some wrap up with wonderfully unfathomable years as a setting; it really does exist primarily to justify the game play and thus doesn't get in the way of it; it's not really what we're here for. Over the course of it you will go up against robots, aliens etc of various shapes and sizes. Some stuff literally appears to just be the local animal life whereas others feel more militaristic like the force meant to prevent you from reaching the part of the planet that features the boss. There's a lot of open spaces which enables you to focus on just the clear obstacles that you have to avoid hitting some of them are genuinely just columns and in general like construction others feel more like parts of nature I wouldn't go so far as to use the term lived in but it definitely does feel fairly well realized for the limitations and the decision to keep it as focused as it is there is nothing that can distract you because anything you see is a potential threat that you have to deal with in one way or another avoidance or destruction. If you press the a button before the game leaves the opening screen you will go to a menu where you can set the difficulty between easy normal and hard. As far as I can tell all this affects is how many points it takes to earn extra lives since regardless you can't even take one bullet and live. There's also a setting for auto fire on and off. I recommend putting it on since this means you won't have to press for every single shot though you will still have to let go of the button and press it again after firing a few. There is also the option to invert the controls so up is down left is right etc I'm not entirely sure who that's for but hey nobody's forced to use it it doesn't bother me that it's there. There is a level selector for this but all it enables you to do is go to the level you choose before you play all the rest of them. So if you choose the second to last one it doesn't take you to the final one but the first one and then it skips the one you already did when you would have otherwise gotten to that one. So it essentially exists to let you practice a specific level and get it out of the way before you do other ones that sort of thing. I highly recommend this to every fan of arcade shooting games. 8/10.