Post by BobSega on Feb 15, 2024 0:41:41 GMT
Funny, even though I played Space Harrier on C64 in 1990-'91 and thought it was great, I didn't play it on SMS until much later and not right through till just yesterday, I think I was put off when, around Xmas 1991 when I got my first SMS, my friend told me he'd rented Space Harrier and that there are about 15 stages(18 to be exact), you only get three lives and it's slower than the C64 game. I think the frantic pace of the C64 game is part of what made it so exciting, you die a lot, but it has an interesting lives system, you get 60 seconds of free play then you get ten lives (I see now you can DIP set the arcade game to have 60 sec. free play also). It seemed insane to only get three lives in the SMS, OK the booklet tells you how to continue three times(right from where you died) so you get nine lives. Had I played it back at Xmas '91 though, I probably would have spent all my lives and continues on the first stage and reckoned I was more right about the game being insanely hard than I ever imagined, I mean it looks and sounds very good, but plays pretty badly, some of the enemy fire you barely see till it's right in your face and your own fire seems to go right through enemies such that they'll often run into you even when you're shooting right at them. After having played the arcade game you'll see that this was probably not intended, but just the way it turned out after a year spent trying to come up with a presentable home port of a very advanced arcade game.
So the arcade game obviously looks and sounds good and I think it plays pretty good, but maybe even back in '86 eighteen stages is a bit too much of a good thing, not matter how impressive the game. I think it might have been a bit heavy on explosions too (I read it was planned as a military fighting game like Afterburner a couple years later) and the bonus stages were silly I thought, riding a 'dragon' that moves in a sine-wave, destroying trees or other obstacles for bonus points...who came up with that idea?
I think it's noteworthy though, the "Welcome to the Fantasy Zone!" announcement, of course the Sega game actually titled "Fantasy Zone" appeared just a few months later and while obviously more cutesy, it was a similar idea, kind of weird, wonderful and a little scary, aliens and alien worlds and maybe this became a running thing for Sega, games like Alex Kidd (The Lost Stars at arcade and in Miracle World in SMS, both appearing in late '86) and maybe Phantasy Star was kind of like an RPG based around the same 'fantasy zone' idea.
So the arcade game obviously looks and sounds good and I think it plays pretty good, but maybe even back in '86 eighteen stages is a bit too much of a good thing, not matter how impressive the game. I think it might have been a bit heavy on explosions too (I read it was planned as a military fighting game like Afterburner a couple years later) and the bonus stages were silly I thought, riding a 'dragon' that moves in a sine-wave, destroying trees or other obstacles for bonus points...who came up with that idea?
I think it's noteworthy though, the "Welcome to the Fantasy Zone!" announcement, of course the Sega game actually titled "Fantasy Zone" appeared just a few months later and while obviously more cutesy, it was a similar idea, kind of weird, wonderful and a little scary, aliens and alien worlds and maybe this became a running thing for Sega, games like Alex Kidd (The Lost Stars at arcade and in Miracle World in SMS, both appearing in late '86) and maybe Phantasy Star was kind of like an RPG based around the same 'fantasy zone' idea.