Space Harrier

The Good
Space Harrier is a classic coin-op arcade game, which brought us into the surreal Fantasy Zone with lots of simple, fast paced, science fiction action. While previous adaptations of the game had been made for the home consoles, this was the first perfect adaption of the original arcade game.

The Bad
Think about this for a moment. You have just spent a fair amount of money getting the Sega 32X. You bought the special adapter for your television set and spent all the required time hooking the device up without breaking anything. After going through all of this, how excited are you going to be that for an extra $60 - 70 you now own a perfect translation of an arcade game made in 1985? Space Harrier is a classic arcade game, and had it been on a compilation of classic arcade games, I would probably be kinder, but as a stand alone title it hardly justifies the investment needed to play it.

The Bottom Line
Space Harrier for the 32X is a perfect translation of a 1985 coin-op arcade game. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is a classic Sega game, which certainly belongs on a compilation along with other 1980s Sega titles. The flip side is that the game is no longer cutting edge and it patting yourself on the back for being any to make a perfect translation, on your next generation system, of a old game is setting yourself up for disaster. If you have the Sega 32X and can find this game at a reasonable price, you will certainly enjoy the game, but the folks who shelled out big bucks to play the game back in 1994 got hosed.