Like Altered Beast, another launch title for the Mega Drive, Space Harrier II features digitized voice recordings during gameplay, and is also an example of some of the Mega Drive's early sound, with music composed by Tokuhiko Uwabo. A graphically enhanced version included with the Sega Genesis Mini 2 was released in October 2022.

The Story Behind Space Harrier II

Like Altered Beast, another launch title for the Mega Drive, Space Harrier II features digitized voice recordings during gameplay, and is also an example of some of the Mega Drive's early sound, with music composed by Tokuhiko Uwabo (credited as "Bo"). It was later released on the Wii's Virtual Console in December 2006, and also on the Nintendo Classics service in April 2022. The sequel to 1985's Space Harrier, it was one of the original launch titles released for the Mega Drive in Japan and one of the six Sega Genesis launch titles in the United States the following year.

Harrier travels there quickly with his "cosmic gate", and finds that Fantasy Land is once again being overrun by hostile forces. Harrier once again receives a call for help, this time from the 214th sector, light-years from his cruiser. is a 1988 rail shooter video game developed and published by Sega.

How Space Harrier II Plays

Although the player can select any stage to start the game at, all twelve levels must be completed before moving on to the Final Chapter stage. The player can hit any of the controller's buttons to cause the Space Harrier character to fire his large laser cannon (four shots at a time). As the playing field moves forward, enemies come from behind and from the far distance to attack the character, by either firing a projectile or trying to crash into him.

A signal tone is played to alert the player that there is a non-stationary enemy now in the playing field. Some stages, such as Stuna Area, have a mid-level boss that can be easily defeated. There, the player must defeat all the main bosses over again, and then fight the Dark Harrier in order to complete the game.

Why Players Still Load It Up

Harrier travels there quickly with his "cosmic gate", and finds that Fantasy Land is once again being overrun by hostile forces. A graphically enhanced version included with the Sega Genesis Mini 2 was released in October 2022. is a 1988 rail shooter video game developed and published by Sega.

Like Altered Beast, another launch title for the Mega Drive, Space Harrier II features digitized voice recordings during gameplay, and is also an example of some of the Mega Drive's early sound, with music composed by Tokuhiko Uwabo (credited as "Bo"). Harrier once again receives a call for help, this time from the 214th sector, light-years from his cruiser. In 1989, ACE magazine listed Space Harrier II as one of the top three best games available for the Mega Drive at the time, along with Altered Beast and Thunder Force II.

Space Harrier II — Frequently Asked Questions