Mega Drive shooter Space Harrier II out now on iPhone

Following yesterday's news that Sega has released Mega Drive (a.k.a. Genesis) classic Ecco the Dolphin on iPhone, jet-pack blaster Space Harrier 2 has just shown up in its wake. Never a particularly good game, it's been left more or less in its original state on iPhone.

The gameplay involves steering a flying man as he rockets into a landscape made up of dark and light squares, which is how programmers used to depict 3D before computers were powerful enough to do it themselves.

There are two control methods – accelerometer and on-screen D-pad and button – as well as the option to invert the Y axis and to shrink the field of play so that your fingers don't get in the way of the action.

Space Harrier II and Ecco the Dolphin were originally intended to be available as in-app purchases with a freemium Genesis emulator (the former for free), but it seems that idea has fallen by the wayside, as forecast by Pocket Gamer's Rumour Miner back in March.

Expect Shining Force - and probably more loose Sega titles - to roll up in due course.