THE BRITISH TECH NETWORK

Retro: Space Harrier

22 Nov 16

I know that I'm lucky to have grown up during the golden age and sometimes a bit of a shite era of gaming. Fair enough now have you HD/4K consoles nowadays that completely immerse you in a cinematic experience with Hollywood level cut scenes and plots but it wasn't always like that, it was better!

As you know I have posted a few retro reviews over the last couple of years to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and this is no exception.

Today we are talking about Sega's epic Space Harrier. Back in the day they didn't care for plot or storytelling, they just wanted you to blow the crap out of stuff.

Equipped with your jetpack and big-arsed gun you meandered through a psychedelic landscape blowing the seven shades of shinola out of various threats including flying rocks with cannons and even dragons.

What got me going was the fact Space Harrier was one of the first games I ever experienced with synthesised human vocals, 'welcome to the fantasy zone... get ready'! But mostly it was the graphics that blew me away.

Fair enough to say that Sega had a dominance in the home console market back in the day but they were also killing it in the arcade. Remember this was 1985. We were used to a 3 colour palette for most of our games at home so this coin-op experience was guaranteed to blow you away.

Plus add to this that it was one of the first hydraulic cabinets around and once you took your seat the entire arcade machine reacted to your movements. Stuff your VR in 2016, this is the reality that I wanted to be part of my life.

What wasn't to like? The graphics were amazing. The gameplay, oh my god. And that cabinet. Holy s***.

I know that arcades aren't what they used to be but to me they used to be a paradise and this was a king.