Space Harrier for the Famicom is kind of an odd duck. It was the only Sega port Takara ever published on the system, and there may be a reason for that.
FC Space Harrier was developed by Whiteboard, which had a close relationship with Sega. Programmer Sotaro Suzuki was a guest on OBSLive in 2014 and revealed that it was originally supposed to be a game based on Licca-chan, Takara's fashion doll. I don't believe any other details were given on why the change was made. The Space Harrier port was done without documentation.
In fact, it appears to be based on the Mark III version, but the graphics have been greatly cutesified/simplified, probably because of technical limitations. The bigger problem is the slowdown, which seems to adversely affect your firing. Rapid fire helps, but not completely. It makes you appreciate the Mark III version more; despite that version's problems, it's still very playable. FC Space Harrier is decidedly less so.
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