Space Harrier

Space Harrier (スペースハリアー Supēsu Hariā) is a third-person rail shooter game developed by Studio 128 and manufactured by Sega for the arcades in 1985. Designed by Yu Suzuki, the game was critically praised for its innovative 16-bit graphics and gameplay thanks to Super Scaler technology and a hydraulic motion simulator cabinet, thus spawning several sequels: Space Harrier 3-D (1988), Space Harrier II (1988) and the spin-off Planet Harriers. It was also ported for several consoles, including the Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear and Sega 32X, and as part of other games like Shenmue, Yakuza 0, Judgment and three Sega Ages games.

Gameplay
In this fast-paced third-person rail shooter game, the player controls Harrier, a blond-haired man and the last of Dragon Land's Sentinels, as he navigates a continuous series of eighteen distinct stages in the "Fantasy Zone" and destroys all kinds of obstacles and supernatural enemies, ranging from prehistoric animals and Chinese dragons to flying robots, airborne geometric objects and alien pods - by shooting them with an underarm jet-propelled laser cannon that allows him to simultaneously fly horizontally and vertically. Other obstacles such as pillars and metal geodesic dome-like enemies cannot be shot down and will deflect Harrier's shots. Upon getting hit, he will be knocked to the ground and lose a life (hitting bushes simply causes him to trip). If the player loses all Harrier's extra lives, the game will end.

At the end, in fifteen of the eighteen stages, contain a boss that must be killed in order to progress to the next level. The final stage is a boss rush consisting of all seven past enemies encountered up to that point. Two other levels, Stages 5 and 12, are bonus stages that contain no enemies and where Harrier manuevers a giant, invincible friendly cat-like dragon named Uriah, as he smashes through obstacles to collect bonus points.

Trivia

 * This game series supposedly takes place in the Fantasy Zone universe. A cancelled crossover game called Space Fantasy Zone also existed.