Screenshots from VG Museum

Year released: 1988 (SEGA Master System)

Number of Players: 1

The Dragon King has been usurped and it's up to our old buddy Harrier to teach the bad guys who's boss.

Graphics: You see behind Space Harrier as he moves forward, just like in any other railed shooter. Everything is a tad darker (in spirit, not in actual color) than normal Space Harrier stuff, but you still get great imagination. Graphics seem to jump a bit because the game is thinking too hard to process everything as quickly as it can (what with the 3-D abilities), but it's hardly noticeable.
I can't comment on the 3-D mode because I don't have 3-D glasses. However, I can say that if you lose all your lives and your name is eligible for the high score table, using player 2's control pad, you can enter "THREE" as your name. Once you do this, you will see a menu to turn 3-D mode on or off. If you turn it off, it's a lot easier to play the game as opposed to with 3-D mode on, though it is playable in 3-D mode.

Play control: "You can move in eight directions with the control pad, and use any of the three buttons to shoot (you can only shoot forward--no deviation in aiming based on how you move, like in Starfox) (start to pause--the action never stops otherwise). Space Harrier (the guy you play as) moves perfectly in sinc with your control pad, and with the speed necessary to avoid objects coming at him, too." That's from the Space Harrier II review, and Space Harrier 3-D is the same way, save for the fact that the SEGA Master System controller only has two buttons aside from the Start button.

Sound: The instruments are on the annoying side (not ear-scratching annoying, but not exactly perfect), but all of the music is just as catchy. Instead of one stage theme, though, Space Harrier 3-D has four or so different stage tunes that play. The sound clips seem a bit scratchier than the ones from the original Space Harrier.

Challenge: "You start out moving slow, but even at first trying to get out of the way of everything on the screen is a big challenge. However, soon you get the hang of it, and the first two stages come easily. Past the first three stages, Space Harrier starts moving faster, and obstacles are harder to avoid. You have twelve stages to beat... by the time you get to the end, the enemies, the obstacles, and the great speed at which you are moving will all be a great challenge to overcome!" Taken again from the Space Harrier II review. Imagine that quote... plus some stages that are a bit harder. Not to mention that lives come once in a blue moon (that is, earning them through getting so many points will take forever). Luckily, Harrier starts out with twelve lives (when he dies three times and hits "GAME OVER," press buttons 2, 1, 2, 1, and 1, in that order, to kick him back up again and start over from the beginning of the stage; this can be done three times). When you die, if you get on the high score table, you can enter "LEVEL" as your name with controller 2 to access the difficulty settings, and easy gives you more lives, normal leaves it the same, and hard gives you less. Even with this little code, the game will take a while to surmount.
The challenge is somewhat greater in Space Harrier 3-D than in Space Harrier or Space Harrier II, because the stages aren't as afraid to use solid undestroyable items as they are in the other two games. Also, you get swamped with enemies more often. Lucky for Harrier, he can move faster side to side and up and down in this game.

Gameplay: "Awesome! It's a railed shooter--you automatically move forward at a set rate, and avoid/shoot at stuff in front of you. You can only shoot forward. However, one hit and you're done for--no health meter! That's okay, because only the bosses survive after one hit (they take a LOT of hits, but the standard enemy takes one hit and dies). This makes the game so fast-paced it gets to be addicting." Yep, Space Harrier II review again. Fits perfectly for Space Harrier 3-D. Space Harrier 3-D, as I said above, can get more fast-paced because Harrier himself is faster and enemies are not afraid to inundate you. These two factors end up balancing themselves out quite nicely while upping the excitement.

Bottom line: "After a few five-minute sessions, you can get the hang of Space Harrier II and how to dodge things. No matter what level gamer you are, you can still experience the fast-paced action. The weird graphics and great music come together to make Space Harrier II one of my favorite games." That's the last Space Harrier II review quote. Just like Space Harrier and Space Harrier II, Space Harrier 3-D is some solid (admittedly somewhat mindless... not THAT mindless... but still quite fun and fresh) railed shooting action.

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