Space Harrier II Shows Huge Improvement On Sega Mega Drive / Genesis Mini 2

A Megadrive with sprite scaling is exactly how I imagined it. Thank you M2

I'm keen to know if this rom runs on a real Mega Drive. Obviously current tech can make Space Harrier run just fine, but is this a legit improved Mega Drive port? Apologies if this is covered in the video, I haven't got sound right now.

Oh wow what a difference! I was excited to hear Producer Okunari-san reveal that the team improved the scaling in this re-release for the MD Mini 2, but just wow!
Plus IIRC, it's supposed to have Space Harrier 1 bundled in with the same smooth scaling.

EDIT:
Yes indeed, per the Spacer Harrier II's description on Sega's Japanese MD Mini 2 website, it does include a smooth-scaling version of the original Space Harrier, too! Here is a quick translation:

What if the Mega Drive had 3D scaling capabilities? This bonus game answers that historical What If question. We resurrected this 3D shooting game and Mega Drive launch title, using new tech to make it more like the arcade experience. Furthermore, we included the original Spacer Harrier, a game considered impossible to port faithfully to the original Mega Drive. You'll now be able to start the game in either Space Harrier or Space Harrier II mode!

Nice, but why not OutRun... all that gets is the Testarossa altered to less resemble the iconic original. Would have been great to see a smooth MD edition of OutRun (and I have the Japanese Saturn port).

I have not looked at it yet. Been playing Desert Strike since I got it yesterday

I just watched that comparison video, and there seems to be a lot of sprite flicker and glitching in the new version. Also not a huge fan of the updated floor from an artistic perspective; it's not quite as fast-moving and dramatic looking as the original. But, yeah, the sprite scaling is definitely a lot smoother for sure.

@RetroGames There was always going to be sprite flicker. They are showing us what a Megdarive would be like with sprite scaling. It's ace. (Not meant to be some Digital Foundry level remake!)

@GrailUK Yeah, but why does it look like there's more than in the original Genesis/Mega Drive version?

@RetroGames it's just a guess, but I suspect it's because the original game displays a lot of the objects as background tiles to reduce flicker. Heavily using that technique provided choppy results. That's why Altered Beast and Golden Axe on the Master system perform so oddly, to provide examples. The lack of flicker and choppy performance of the original Space Harrier 2 has me thinking that's the case here. I guess in making these updated versions they only wanted to add sprite scaling to the system's capabilities and no other enhancements, so we have the flicker likely due to the horizontal sprite limit.

That's a neat proof of concept if this is basically programmed as if it's a standard Mega Drive but with sprite scaling. If I'm not mistaken, that basically makes it like the Sega CD in terms of graphics capabilities as I believe it had the same sprite limits as the Genesis. Of course, if that's the only enhancement, then it wouldn't have the audio upgrades or the faster CPU of the Sega CD, but it seems plausible that this could have been done for that.

Looks amazing, definitely thinking of buying the Megadrive mini 2 now just for this

For me this was a waste. Ever wondered what the mega drive would be like with sprite scaling? Then wonder no more and grab a 32x (or mega CD!).

Why didn’t they add 32x versions of afterburner, space harrier and virtua racing to allow a contrast and compare?

Anyone know if this got patched into the PS4 megadrive collection version?