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The Space Harrier Corps was a powerful and relentless arm of Intergalactic Law Enforcement; a team of highly trained soldiers who patrolled the universe, restoring peace by using extreme force where necessary. Universal peace was eventually attained however, and the obsolete Space Harrier Corps was disbanded and soon forgotten.

Years passed, and peace reigned - until, without warning, a race of warmongering aliens appeared from another dimension and took control of a small world at the edge of the universe. Not wishing the 'disease' to spread, the Intergalactic Federation reformed the Space Harrier Corps and sent them to dispose of the alien threat. But the years of inaction made the soldiers 'soft' - they were no longer suited to the speed and horrors of battle and were quickly wiped out... leaving a sole survivor to face the alien onslaught.

You take control of the last Space Harrier, and armed only with a power laser you must traverse the planet, 'cleansing' its cities of anything remotely hostile. The action is presented in first person perspective, as viewed from behind your on-screen alter ego.

Moot is the first city - its landscape consists of trees, bushes and asteroids, and alien formations sweep in and out of the screen, firing missiles. Colliding with a moving object kills you - although no lives are lost on this level as it is played against the clock, which stops if you die. When the outskirts of the city are reached, a huge dragon appears. To reclaim Moot and progress to the next city, the dragon must be shot in the head until it is destroyed.

Eleven more occupied cities lie ahead of you... Geeza's landscape is littered with stone columns which cannot be destroyed - avoid them. Large missile-spitting rock heads appear at regular intervals, with a ring of five rock heads concluding the level. Amar is an obstacle course, containing static pillars and flying geometric shapes, both of which are indestructible. A two-headed snake-like alien has to be eradicated before you can start work on Ceiciel. Ceiciel is a herbaceous landscape packed with plants, mushrooms and rampant mutant butterflies that come on the attack. These species are minded by a giant robot that hangs back at the end of the level waiting to do battle.

Next on the inter-city tour is Ida, a region cluttered with stone termite mounds and defended by robots, all rounded off by a snaky alien. Revi resembles Moot, with rock head formations borrowed from Geeza and a ring of five mushrooms at the end. Mines, in turn, resembles Geeza but concludes with a two-headed dragon.

The landscape in Drail is identical to Amar's but a ring of four asteroids surround a missile-firing alien ship that lurks at the end of the level. Astute is a totally new scenic concept in which Harrier has to negotiate a low-flying asteroid belt complete with rock heads and alien ships, before doing battle with the robot that guards the way to Vicel.

The city of Vicel is just like Celciel, except the manic mushrooms take to the air and fly fungal formations, attacking Harrier. A dragon has to be dealt with before going to Nark, Amar revisited, with a ring of five rock faces marking the city limits.

Harrier's round trip concludes with a flying visit to Absymbel, where areas of stone termite mounds are interspersed with legions of robots. By the time you've disposed of the large, two-headed snake that lurks at the end of Absymbel, the alien horde has regrouped and it's time to fly back to Moot and start all over again.

I don't think that much of the arcade game, especially without the hydraulics. It's just a very simple 3D shoot-'em-up with mega graphics and sound.

On the Commodore it hasn't even got the fantastic graphics or sound, and some of the original features are missing, like the chequered floor and the dragon-riding bit.

Why are there only twelve levels, and why does the game keep on going once you've gone through them all? Why is the scoring system completely different to the arcade game?

It's really annoying to get a five figure score when it should be seven figures long. Still, as a game in its own right I was surprised to find that Space Harrier does have some addictive qualities - for a little while at least.

The problem is that the gameplay is very limited and repetitive - it's the sort of game you play for a couple of hours then never go back to it again.

The graphics are very speedy but sometimes it's very difficult to gauge exactly what's coming and occasionally the man hits something which isn't there!

The soundtrack is alright, but the spot effects are dire. Overall Space Harrier is nothing more than an expensive and very limited 3D shoot-'em-up.

Having never played or even seen the arcade version of Space Harrier, I cannot compare the two - but if it plays anything like this I'd be surprised if anyone got very far!

It's a very fast game, especially on later levels where the objects appear at an alarming rate and avoiding them is extremely difficult. At some stages it was mostly down to pure luck that I got through as there were so many things on screen that I hadn't a clue what I was doing! It's more like high-speed dying than flying!

The graphics are clearly defined (at close range anyway) and sound is mediocre. Overall, Space Harrier is quite playable, but not an essential purchase.

The arcade version of Space Harrier is based entirely around effect - the beautiful graphics, speech, music, and hydraulics generate a feeling of 'being there' to compensate for the fact that the game itself consists of little more than mindless blasting.

With the exception of the mindless blasting all this has been lost during the process of conversion, and Space Harrier on the C64 is flawed. Quite considerably, in that it doesn't look or feel good to play, and there's no atmosphere.

The main sprite is deformed and when he runs along the floor it looks like he's riding a unicycle! The music is fair, but the spot FX are crap - hitting something which can't be destroyed sounds like a flock of geese honking!

The 3D graphics only look impressive when you stand back and look at them. During play the objects seem to 'float' on screen and don't look like part of the landscape.

The overall feel is claustrophobic, and everything moves very fast to disguise the jerky updating. This, combined with the poor collision detection, results in much frustration.

It's most annoying to lose a life because an inanimate object hits you once it's passed behind. Sometimes objects pass straight through as if you have just died and been given temporary immunity. Worse still though is that when constantly firing, oncoming objects are obscured by laser fire - you can't stop firing, so you usually end up running into something.

It's also infuriating when an object kills you even though there's a burst of laser fire between it and you. Sadly, what Elite have ended up with is a tedious and expensive 3D shoot-'em-up.

Presentation 79%
Suitable loading screen and high-score table. Sparse instructions, title screen and in-game presentation though.

Graphics 81%
Fast, reasonably smooth, and as a whole adequately defined.

Sound 69%
Pleasant tunes and weak spot FX.

Hookability 73%
Initially addictive, but not overly compulsive.

Lastability 41%
Quite playable, but tedious.

Value For Money 38%
Expensive short-term fun.

Overall 45%
An uninspiring 3D shoot-'em-up and a somewhat 'incomplete' conversion.