Space Harrier
Space Harrier is a rail shooter developed by Sega and released in 1985 as an arcade video game. The player navigates surreal landscapes while defeating enemies as a jet-propelled human character. Designed by Yu Suzuki, it was conceived as a realistic military-themed combat flight simulation game, but technical and memory restrictions resulted in Suzuki redesigning it around a fantasy setting. The arcade game is controlled by an analog flight stick while the deluxe arcade cabinet is a cockpit-style linear actuator motion simulator cabinet that pitches and rolls during play, for which it is referred as a taikan (体感) or "body sensation" arcade game in Japan.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA, read 5 September 2026.
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- Released
- 1985
- Developer
- Sega AM2
- Platforms
- 2 systems
- Critics
- Not scored
- Steam Deck
- Unknown
- Download
- Not stated
The record
| First released | 2 October 1985 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Sega AM2 |
| Publisher | Not recorded |
| Platforms | Nintendo 3DS, Arcade |
| Genres | First-Person Shooter |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata Q1707792, seeded 30 August 2026.
How long is Space Harrier? How long to beat it
Total play time for Space Harrier is about 2.4 hours to do everything, and around 0.4 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 0.4h | 55 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 0.9h | 1 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 2.4h | 1 |
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Where Space Harrier sits on the grid
The grid places every game in the catalogue on measured axes rather than on an opinion. This is where Space Harrier lands on each map it has the data for, with the share of the catalogue it beats on each axis.
- Year
- 36ahead of 2% of the catalogue
- Reach
- 22ahead of 67% of the catalogue
Percentiles are against the games that carry a reading on that axis, not the whole catalogue: counting a game with no figure as a zero would flatter everything that has one. How the grid works.
What readers say about Space Harrier
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
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Where Space Harrier appears
The ranked lists and finder pages Space Harrier qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Common questions about Space Harrier
What platforms is Space Harrier on?
Space Harrier is available on Nintendo 3DS, Arcade. It first released in 1985.
Who made Space Harrier?
Space Harrier was developed by Sega AM2.
How long does it take to beat Space Harrier?
about 0.4 hours for the main story, 0.9 hours with the main extras, 2.4 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.