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| Developer: Sega Publisher: Sega Year: 1986 |
Fantasy Zone was released in Arcades way back in 1986. Sega and it's creator Yoji Ishi had seen what Konami had done with Gradius and it was Ishi-san who decided that he wanted to do something different, and different they did - Fantasy Zone's world's were vibrant, with sky blues and pinks used to set the tone, in complete contrast to it's peers at the time.
However, don't let Fantasy Zone's cutesy aesthetics fool you, this is a murderous, balls to the wall shooter, with some unforgiving enemies and bosses.
But, first, let's set the scene...
The evil MENON forces are up to no good and doing their level best to takeover the Fantasy Zone, your job as Opa-Opa is to take them down through 7 worlds (there is an 8th world, but more on that later), each with enemy bases that all must be destroyed before facing a sizeable boss at end of each stage.
Our sentient spacecraft has access to a shop that pops up in the form of a balloon at certain points during each stage. This is pretty unique for a shmup as power ups and extras are usually acquired as collectibles (think R-Type or Gradius) and in games where shops do feature, (U.N Squadron/Area88) they can only be accessed between stages. The shop provides Opa-Opa with a wide range of weapons, from a variety of engines that govern how fast he travels, to different shot types and bombs. But how do you afford all this bright and shiny new gear? Well, as you blast your way through the waves of enemies on each stage, upon death, these fiendish menaces are kind enough to drop cash money, with coins dropped by bases offering a much higher value than those dropped by popcorn enemies. Unfortunately, for all but the twin, smart, fire and heavy bombs (speed power ups are permanent until death), there is a 20 second time limit before you're back to your trusty but underpowered, twin shot.
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The Shop can be accessed by simply coming into contact with the red balloon that appears during each stage under certain conditions... |
As previously touched upon, despite it's friendly appearance, Fantasy Zone is not an easy ride. Once all 7 stages are completed, you're faced with a boss rush, featuring all previously despatched bosses, before coming face to face with the final head honcho, Opapa (Opa-Opa's father) who has been taken over by 6 Nenons, that need to be defeated. These enemies vary in speed, with the first being the slowest, while the 6th is the fastest.
Fantasy Zone was developed using Sega's state of the art (at the time), System 16 hardware and it's quality shows. The animated sprites and colouring still look great today - there's no other game that employes the use of pinks, red and blue pastels as gloriously as they are presented here.
Like many of Sega's earlier arcade releases, Fantasy Zone's gameplay has stood the test of time. When mastered, 1-loop sessions can last approximately 9 mins and 2-loops can be completed under 20. The 3rd loop becomes very tricky, even for super players with rank affecting enemy bullet speed and type. Trying to beat your Hi score is always a blast and attempting a no death clear is challenging, but highly rewarding.
Fantasy Zone has been ported to a number of consoles over the years, but it's the Switch version with it's online leaderboards, added extras and portability that I regularly return to. For the Arcade experience, I usually hook my PS2 to my BVM and fire up the Sega Ages 2500 port, but if I had the time, money and space, I'd love to have the original board in a Blast or Astro City Cabinet.
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This is what I'm working with when attempting to recreate the Arcade set up. Details on this in a future post. |
For more on Fantasy Zone check out this excellent interview with the games creator, Yoji Ishii translated at the Shmupulations website.
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