3-D WorldRunner

WorldRunner features many sprite-based elements that are typical of a forward-scrolling rail shooter game, where the player focuses on destroying or dodging onscreen enemies against a scrolling background. 3-D WorldRunner incorporates a distinct third-person view, where the camera angle is positioned behind the main character.

As Jack, players make their way through eight worlds, battling hostile alien creatures such as blob monsters and leaping over bottomless canyons. Each world is divided into different quadrants, and the player must pass through each quadrant before the time counter on the bottom of the game screen reaches zero. In each quadrant, the player can find pillar-like columns that house power-ups, objects that are beneficial or add extra abilities to the game character such as temporary invincibility or laser missiles. At the end of each world's last quadrant is a serpentine creature which must be defeated to advance. A status bar at the bottom of the screen displays the player's score, the time counter, the world number, the world quadrant, the number of bonus stars (items that increase the player's score count) collected by the player, and the number of lives remaining.

Players assume the role of Jack the WorldRunner, a wild "space cowboy" on a mission to save various planets overrun by serpentine beasts. The game takes place in Solar System #517, which is being overrun by a race of aliens known as Serpentbeasts, who are led by the evil Grax. As WorldRunner, the player must battle through eight planets to find and destroy Grax with fireballs.

In a 1999 interview with NextGeneration magazine, Sakaguchi admitted that he "liked Space Harrier", but said that his main reason for the development of the game was that Square owner Masafumi Miyamoto wanted to demonstrate Nasir Gebelli's 3D programming techniques for which he had been hired.

Commercially, the game was met with modest success, selling roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. In North America, the game sold over 200,000 units. The sales of this game title and other titles from Square at this time were not enough for Square to stay in business, and the company's fortunes only turned around with the release of the first Final Fantasy.

At the time of release, Cash Box magazine praised the game's visual effects and the variety of enemies and obstacles.

JJ: Tobidase Daisakusen Part II (ジェイ ジェイ, Jei Jei) is a Japan-only follow-up to the game released on December 7, 1987, developed by the same team who did the original, but as a regular cart instead of for the Disk System. JJ was one of the few games to utilize the Famicom 3D System, and was Square's last work before the inception of the popular Final Fantasy franchise.

JJ moves at a much faster pace with increased difficulty, plus a more "sinister" art style and use of color. The soundtrack was again composed by Nobuo Uematsu, and each track was made to match the respective track from the first game.