Blog Post 1: Adopt a classic arcade game

The game I decided to play was Space Harrier. My only familiarity with the franchise was through Bayonetta, where one of the levels was an homage to the original Space Harrier. I played through about 8 levels before I got bored, which took me around 30 or so minutes. It’s a game that gives you an illusion of depth and space where you’re flying into the screen, shooting and dodging enemies. Space Harrier definitely had a spectacle that many other arcade games didn’t have. Some of the enemies were large stone faces or gundam-looking robots. The bosses were mostly all dragons, even a two-headed dragon where you had to damage its head. One of the most frustrating aspects of this game is how difficult it was to aim your shots, especially during boss fights. Only way to change the trajectory of your shot is to move in the direction of where you want to shoot and the momentum will carry your show. There is a little aim assist but it doesn’t help with the boss fights.

It was interesting to see how easily it was for a game to be emulated in a web browser. If I would have played this on an arcade, I probably wouldn’t have played more than a couple of levels since I would need to insert more coins if I were to die early on. I am grateful for the option to insert as many coins as I wanted to, but it removed any sort of challenge or sense of accomplishment as opposed to playing the game on an arcade cabinet where it was mandatory to insert coins to proceed (unless you’re really good.)

Overall it was interesting to see how old arcade games played back in the day and I felt I would have enjoyed my time more if I played it on the original hardware.