Space Harrier is set in a bizarre fantasy world very much influenced by movies such as 'The NeverEnding Story'. You control a lone warrior equipped with a flying cannon and your mission to defend the Fantasy Zone from pretty much everything in sight. Enemies come in all shapes and sizes: scaly wormlike dragons, rock heads, giant robots and bouncing octopus-like creatures, all out to get you and most willing to throw missiles or fireballs in your direction. Now and again the flying-into-the-screen action is split up with bonus stages where you ride on a dragon's back, trying to guide him into obstacles for points. Also, there are several levels where a ceiling drops down from above and you have to dodge wave after wave of increasingly fast pillars and other ground or sky based objects, which takes some skill as they can speed up to quite intense levels. Death is instant on contact with anything aside from low ground objects, but you are back into the action in seconds with no loss of progress.