Written on March 30, 2004.

Stop for a moment. Do you even know what SEGA Master System is? If you can only guess, don't feel bad.

Space Harrier doesn't have much recognition... in fact, I didn't know much about it until I bought Space Harrier II recently just as my local Game Stops were getting rid of their Genesis stock. Among the remakes of Space Harrier, there is even one on the Game Boy Advance in a collection of SEGA arcade games (called SEGA Arcade Gallery, which included Out-Run, Super Hang On and After Burner as well).
We sit on the edge of a PS2 makeover for the game in which Space Harrier, from the screen shots seen so far, drops the feel that you're going down the highway of illegal drug use. It's already out in Japan, and imports are selling on eBay.
Space Harrier is a hero in space who carries a huge laser (he has to lug it around by wrapping one arm around it and tucking it under his armpit) and shoots whatever enemies come in his way. He heeds random distress signals and comes to the aid of anyone who needs it. At the end of the first Space Harrier, a big ambiguous enemy was made to seem like it would be Space Harrier's focus, but no real end to the enemy or the series was made.
The gameplay itself is like Star Fox (railed shooter), except you can't lock on (which is only in Star Fox 64 anyway), and enemies take one hit before giving in. Space Harrier takes one hit to die, too, but upon death, he gets back up again and starts the level right where he left off. He is restricted to a certain amount of lives, though.
The environments and the enemies of the Space Harrier games range from creepy to cool, with strange being imbetween there. At any rate, here's the life of our lone hero, Space Harrier:

(Lists will be in chronological order of year followed by alphabetization. I believe the arcade versions, if listed, would have been the first ones released, though. Also, if a date is unknown, question marks will be put as its year.)

Space Harrier releases:
1985 - Amstrad CPC
1985 - FM-77AV
1985 - MZ-700
1985 - Arcade
1985 - Atari ST
1985 - Sharp X68000
1986 - Commodore 64
1986 - Sinclair Spectrum
1986 - SEGA Master System
1986 - TurboGrafx-16
1989 - DOS
1989 - IBM PC
1991 - Game Gear
1994 - 32X (Genesis peripheral)
1997 - SEGA Saturn (individually in Japan, but released in a collection including Afterburner II and Outrun in America)
2004 - Playstation 2 (released as an individual disc among a series of games with the SEGA Ages 2500 label)
???? - Amiga
???? - PC-60
???? - PC-88
???? - X1
(Not included in this list is Takara's port of Space Harrier to the Famicom, a Japanese NES. Takara is somewhat known for doing a lot of SNK ports for the SNES, Genesis, and a few other systems.)

Space Harrier 3-D releases:
1988 - SEGA Master System (3-D glasses optional)

Space Harrier II releases:
1988 - Arcade
1988 - Genesis
1990 - Atari ST
???? - Sinclair Spectrum

Space Harrier: Return to the Fantasy Zone releases:
1989 - Amiga

There was also a two player arcade game called Planet Harriers, which featured similar gameplay, but in true 3D. The two players would work together. It was released in 2001.

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