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Fly through dark caves and over scorched rock as you head beneath the surface of a doomed world!
If you've played Space Harrier, you know exactly what you're getting in to. If not, the game is easy enough to pick up: you fly around, shoot the monsters, and dodge the pillars of things that smash into you. There are three stages, the entire game is a short trip around 5 or so minutes.
This year at GDC I was fortunate enough to hear a talk given by Yu Suzuki, legendary developer of arcade history and the world's most perfect cat-raising simulator, Shenmue. Space Harrier was an arcade game in 1985, and is one of my earliest arcade memories. The game's action grabbed me when I was younger, and as I looked back on it in recent years, the strange setting and vivid colors grabbed me as well. It's a weird world full of strange names, odd creatures, and the loosest hints of cohesion. Arcade games aren't really gripping story tellers, yet one can't help but imagine the goings on in the buildings, towers, temples and cities on the game's horizons.
Space Harrier would fuel my youthful coding sessions at an Apple IIgs: completely unable to replicate 5% of the arcade game, but the simple, childish works I did create were exciting to me. I make games for a living and my early arcade experiences are a big part of that.
The game has no music, and I admit only loosely fits the theme. Other than that, I hope you enjoy your adventure and I'd love to hear what you think of the game.
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 69% |
| #134 | Fun | 3.63 |
| #284 | Humor | 2.91 |
| #336 | Graphics | 3.51 |
| #348 | Overall | 3.40 |
| #356 | Mood | 3.21 |
| #572 | Audio | 2.75 |
| #741 | Innovation | 2.81 |
| #1009 | Theme | 2.58 |
Comments
Love the retro feel. Haven't played the game it is based off but I get the idea.
Oh man - that was such a blast! I was about 9 when I played Space Harrier and that really took me back - thanks!
Yours feels a bit more open in terms of direction, too - nice work!
Oh man, this reminds me of the old games I used to play. Thumbs up for nostalgia!
Tried playing with my XBox controller, sensitivity was crazy high, was hard for me to control. I like the look and feel, though, if the controls were tightened up a bit it'd be a blast to play.
as others have said the retro feel is sweeeeet. reminds me of the speeder levels in super star wars! Good entry!
I laughted so far when I saw the head with asteroids in stage 2 lol XD, really fun, I wanted more stages, and some music at the background :/ Pretty nice!
Love Space Harrier! Very impressive entry. Found myself wishing for a faster rate of fire and less sensitive controls. Also, I could still fire after death, which allowed me to kill bosses pretty easily.
Nice game, reminded me of an old flash game where you dodge triangles.
Nice work! You did a good job invoking space harrier. Sadly, I was never any good at that...
Loved it! Great job for 48 hours. Was very glad you didn't have lives (?) so I could finish it and see it all. I probably died about 7-8 times. Only real crit is that it felt overly sensitive to me in terms of control. Could definitely see continuing with this on the side, polishing it up, adding art and maybe tilt controls for iOS. I'd buy it :) Nice job.
This is so damn nostalgic. I'd love to know how you accomplished that camera angle/feel!
Awesome! Love the classic vibe. Can't believe you got multiple stages and bosses in in the timeframe! Was playing with arrowkeys and space, need to come back with a keypad. Great job though!
Brilliant! It's weird and nonsensical and I died tons of times, but I had a big grin on my face the entire time. :D
I haven't played Space Harrier, but this reminds me of StarFox. Sorta. xD
Very nice. I love the Space Harrier style.
Thanks for allowing infinite continues... I was too lazy to plug in a gamepad so I died a lot.
Impressive amount of content for 48 hours (!), especially the unique boss fights.
Hi madjackmcmad! Don't worry about the ratings :/, I liked your game a lot and i'm back here to let you know it, some of the best games are not rated well, i dont know why (maybe envy). So don't worry, you did very well! Hope you make another game for ludum dare 30! ^^ Let me know if you are gonna do the ld30 and i'll put your game in my ld30 rating list ^^.
Thank you for make this, seriusly. Maybe your fault is the absence of music. Other than that it was pretty fun! ^^
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I considered making a pseudo z-axis game for my entry.