It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but technical and memory restrictions resulted in Sega developer Yu Suzuki redesigning it around a jet-propelled human character in a fantasy setting.

Space Harrier has been ported to over twenty different home computer and gaming platforms, either by Sega or outside developers such as Dempa in Japan and Elite Systems in North America and Europe.

Space Harrier is a fast-paced rail shooter game played in a third-person perspective behind the protagonist,[10] set in a surreal world composed of brightly colored landscapes adorned with checkerboard-style grounds and stationary objects such as trees or stone pillars.

[19] As Space Harrier has no storyline, after the completion of all stages, only "The End" is displayed before the game returns to the title screen and attract mode, regardless of how many of the player's extra lives remain.

The game was first conceived by a Sega designer named Ida,[20] who wrote a 100-page document proposing the idea of a three-dimensional shooter that contained the word "Harrier" in the title.

[21] Sega developer Yu Suzuki therefore simplified the title character to a human, which required less memory and realism to depict onscreen.

[20] His inspirations for the game's new design were the 1984 film The Neverending Story, the 1982 anime series Space Cobra, and the work of artist Roger Dean.

[31] A Zilog Z80 CPU powering both a Yamaha YM2203 synthesis chip and Sega's PCM unit that was used for audio and digitized voice samples.

[citation needed] Space Harrier has been ported to numerous home computer systems and gaming consoles, with most early translations unable to reproduce the original's advanced visual or audio capabilities while the controls were switched from analog to digital.

[11][14] M2, in collaboration with Sega CS3, ported Space Harrier to the handheld Nintendo 3DS console in 2013, complete with stereoscopic 3D and widescreen graphics—a process that took eighteen months.

[44] During development, M2 president Naoki Horii sought opinions from staff members regarding the gameplay of the arcade original: "They'd say it was hard to tell whether objects were right in front of their character or not.

[69] In January 1986, Game Machine listed Space Harrier as being the top-grossing title on the monthly upright/cockpit arcade cabinet charts in Japan.

[67] The July 1986 issue of Japanese magazine Gamest ranked Space Harrier at number one on its list of best Sega arcade games.

The home computer conversion of Space Harrier was in the top five of the UK sales chart in December 1986,[86] and was tied as runner-up with the Commodore 64 title Uridium for Game of the Year honors at the 1986 Golden Joystick Awards.

[56] Paul Mellerick of Sega Force wrote that the Game Gear version was "amazingly close to the original ... the scrolling's the speediest and smoothest ever seen".

[94] In 2008, Retro Gamer editor Darran Jones described the game as "difficult", but "a thing of beauty [that] even today ... possesses a striking elegance that urges you to return to it for just one more go".

[95] That same year, IGN's Levi Buchanan opined: "Even today, Space Harrier is a sight to behold, a hellzapoppin' explosion of light, color, and imagination".

[23] Eric Francisco of Inverse described the game's visuals in 2015: "Imagine an acid trip through an '80s anime, a Robert Jordan novel, and early Silicon Valley binge coding sessions".

[99] Also in 2013, Hanuman Welch of Complex included Space Harrier among the ten Sega games he felt warranted a "modern reboot", citing its "kinetic pace that would be welcome on today's systems".

The Master System exclusive Space Harrier 3-D utilized Sega's SegaScope 3-D glasses, and featured the same gameplay and visuals as the port of the original game while containing new stage, enemy, and boss designs.

[17] Space Harrier II was one of six launch titles for the Japanese debut of the Mega Drive (Sega Genesis),[101] and released as such in the United States in August 1989.

[104] The graphics are composed of polygons instead of sprites while several characters are redesigned, and a selectable option allows players to switch to a "fractal mode" that replaces the traditional checkerboard floors with texture-mapped playfields and includes two new underground stages.

[105] The original Space Harrier was packaged with three of Yu Suzuki's other works—After Burner, Out Run, and Super Hang-On—for the 2003 Game Boy Advance release Sega Arcade Gallery.

20: Space Harrier II in Japan),[106] developed by M2 for the PlayStation 2, followed on October 27, 2005 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the franchise,[107] and was composed of all the official series releases "to go with the various generations of our customers", according to Yosuke Okunari.

[108] Bonus content included a record-and-replay feature and an arcade promotional-material gallery,[109] in addition to images of Hiroshi Kawaguchi's sheet music and notes for the original game's soundtrack.

Space Harrier has shared an unofficial connection with another Sega shooter franchise, Fantasy Zone, which debuted in Japanese arcades in March 1986.

[32] A 1989 port of Fantasy Zone for the Japan-exclusive Sharp X68000 contains a hidden stage called "Dragon Land" that features Space Harrier enemy characters and is accessible only by following a specific set of instructions.

[101] In addition, Shenmue character Ryo Hazuki pilots a flying Space Harrier sit-down arcade cabinet during airborne levels.

[127] According to The One magazine in 1991, Sega "arguably pioneered the deluxe ground-ride cabinet cum video game with classics such as" Space Harrier.