Format: 32X
Genre: Shooter
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega

Pacman's first stage; the initial room in Doom's E1M1; the very beginning of Super Mario Bros.; Space Harrier's title screen, blending into its absolutely iconic, rapid-scrolling checkerboarded floors and fantastically scaling trees are in the same class, and have never looked better. In fact, this 32X port's sprites are lifted straight from the arcade edition, although the game's 30 fps framerate-- half of the arcade's-- means that the game's speed is ever-so-slightly slower.

Like a Nobuo Uematsu, Koji Kondo, or Yuzo Koshiro, Hiroshi Kawaguchi has contributed some of the hobby's greatest pieces of music, and Space Harrier's main melody-- an incredible mix of fantasy, excitement, and uncertainty-- is maybe his crowning achievement. The game's sound effects are wonderfully functional, immediately identifying threats for the player without him needing to take his eyes off of the action. What's especially impressive is that, compliments of the 32X's added sound hardware, many of the arcade edition's instrument samples are reproduced precisely!

Where conventional shooters were beginning to become more mechanically elaborate by the mid-1980s, Space Harrier is a throwback to the decade's earlier games: the player can move, and shoot. Holding down the fire button performs an auto-fire function, but the player can shoot more quickly by tapping. As for stage object placement, there is a nice variety of destructible and non-destructible elements, to go along with air and ground-based enemies.

Where Space Harrier loses out in terms of gameplay sophistication, it makes up in terms of distinctiveness: its absolutely audacious behind-the-player vantage point and incredible aesthetic, which sees dozens of simultaneously rotating and scaling sprites continuously thrown at the player, gives a whole new flavor to the genre. The 32X port really brings this Yu Suzuki classic to life, looking and sounding almost exactly like the arcade original!