Possibly my favourite non-racing SEGA title ever.
I love Super Fantasy Zone.
I love Super Fantasy Zone.
Shoot em up muy divertido, y con un buen apartado artistico
Haven't played any Fantasy Zone until now. I suppose it's fine? I didn't really care for the gameplay loop in comparison to typical shmups. I also wish weapon upgrades would stick, especially considering you have to buy them in the shop.
The backgrounds are pretty vibrant in a surprisingly good way compared to the early Genesis library's other "vibrant" games that are actually just shitty Amiga ports. I'll definitely give this game that. Otherwise, not a lot to say.
The backgrounds are pretty vibrant in a surprisingly good way compared to the early Genesis library's other "vibrant" games that are actually just shitty Amiga ports. I'll definitely give this game that. Otherwise, not a lot to say.
A great Genesis shooter with fun gameplay and great presentation.
I really want to like Fantasy Zone more, in a way that I feel with seldom other games. One of the daddies of cute 'em ups. There's things I like about it, but it never quite comes together to form the rare, sacred treasure known as "a game I like".
I'm just not sure what the hook is. There's shades of Kirby, Defender and Parodius, but it's never anything as cute, gripping or fucking mental as any of those. It comes off feeling tame. Like a cereal mascot acting like they can hang out with the Looney Tunes.
I like that your man is a sentient spaceship called "Opa-Opa", and when you touch the ground, little legs pop out the bottom and run along. I like that the baddie is the god of dark matter, and has brain-washed races of light matter beings to form an army that he has named "Dark Menon Force". I like the big nose man. But this was 1992. We knew how to do this stuff then. We had Parodius, Puyo Puyo... christ, even Sunsoft's own Hebereke at this point. Oh, a nasty Jack O' Lantern? Why am I not fighting giant construction workers and sellotape dispensers?
A mild bit of mild toddler friendly silliness is 100% A-OK with me, but the gameplay just doesn't have a strong hook to it either. Looping worlds with one-shot baddies who warp in from nowhere. Purchaseable weapons on timers that run out within the first few seconds of a level. Flat ground and skies with ceilings. Just do something interesting, I'm begging you.
Maybe I'm approaching this from the wrong perspective. Maybe if I'd grown up with the 1986 Fantasy Zone arcade machine in my town I'd have better appreciation for this sequel. Maybe in an era when people owned one Mega Drive game, chasing high scores and experimenting with different ship builds would be a thrill. Maybe Opa-Opa is entirely to thank for the concept of Jumping Flash's Robbit. I just can't get into that mindset though. I've Bishi Bashied and Ribbit Kinged and WarioWared all my life. Hell, I've even Jet Set Willied and Hovver Bovvered. I have high fucking standards for Non-Sense Fantasy. This is opening a Fab wrapper and getting an ice cube on a stick.
I'm just not sure what the hook is. There's shades of Kirby, Defender and Parodius, but it's never anything as cute, gripping or fucking mental as any of those. It comes off feeling tame. Like a cereal mascot acting like they can hang out with the Looney Tunes.
I like that your man is a sentient spaceship called "Opa-Opa", and when you touch the ground, little legs pop out the bottom and run along. I like that the baddie is the god of dark matter, and has brain-washed races of light matter beings to form an army that he has named "Dark Menon Force". I like the big nose man. But this was 1992. We knew how to do this stuff then. We had Parodius, Puyo Puyo... christ, even Sunsoft's own Hebereke at this point. Oh, a nasty Jack O' Lantern? Why am I not fighting giant construction workers and sellotape dispensers?
A mild bit of mild toddler friendly silliness is 100% A-OK with me, but the gameplay just doesn't have a strong hook to it either. Looping worlds with one-shot baddies who warp in from nowhere. Purchaseable weapons on timers that run out within the first few seconds of a level. Flat ground and skies with ceilings. Just do something interesting, I'm begging you.
Maybe I'm approaching this from the wrong perspective. Maybe if I'd grown up with the 1986 Fantasy Zone arcade machine in my town I'd have better appreciation for this sequel. Maybe in an era when people owned one Mega Drive game, chasing high scores and experimenting with different ship builds would be a thrill. Maybe Opa-Opa is entirely to thank for the concept of Jumping Flash's Robbit. I just can't get into that mindset though. I've Bishi Bashied and Ribbit Kinged and WarioWared all my life. Hell, I've even Jet Set Willied and Hovver Bovvered. I have high fucking standards for Non-Sense Fantasy. This is opening a Fab wrapper and getting an ice cube on a stick.
I think I'm starting to realize I just don't love Fantasy Zone like some do. Don't get me wrong this is a good game but I guess I kind of just don't get much from it. IDK it just feels kind of samey after a while and some of the bosses feel kind of cheap on the first run. I get the appeal of this series but I just prefer other schmups.
Well, it was nice to play another Sega Game that wasn't just another Sonic or Persona or Bayonetta game.
Bem mais fácil do que os anteriores. O que é bom! Não só dá para apreciar os lindos visuais e a trilha sonora com menos estresse, as mecânicas clássicas da série de free scrolling e a loja de upgrades funcionam bem melhor desse jeito.
Claro, tudo é relativo. Ainda é um shoot 'em up de núcleo duro que depois de um tempo me fez pedir arrego e meter cheats para zerar. Ô gênero ingrato.
Claro, tudo é relativo. Ainda é um shoot 'em up de núcleo duro que depois de um tempo me fez pedir arrego e meter cheats para zerar. Ô gênero ingrato.
Hard as hell freely side scrolling shmup with 8 objectives you have to take down for each level. Still very satisfying.
Super Fantasy Zone got me curious because I recognised Opa Opa from Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and I never knew where he was from. Now that I have played his game for a little bit, it was okay. Not the best shooter, but it was fine. Liked the concept of grabbing coins from defeated enemies and upgrading in shops, but the gameplay loop was just ehhh.
Might possibly be the best game in the series. Continues all the traditions that made the previous games great and the over dramatic intro scene with the spinning camera around Opa-Opa made me have a big smile on my face. I love Opa-Opa, I love Fantasy Zone, I have been a Sega fan for as long as I remember but I completely slept on this series. I am now more motivated than ever to try and consume every piece of Fantasy Zone media I can find.
It's Fantasy Zone on the Mega Drive! Maybe "Mega Fantasy Zone" would've been a better title.
Anyway, this game does everything the arcade game did and a little more on top of that.
Cool things added include the Super Lights and Rubber Boots, the former of which improving your field of vision in the dark Risscave and the latter protecting you from the electric force field covering Le-Picker. You technically don't have to buy these, but if you doubt your chances of survival as often as I do then they're a must!
This is also the first Fantasy Zone where your special bombs have their own input, using the A button. Now there's more of a reason to actually want to use them, since you don't risk accidentally wasting them nearly as often.
The only really lame thing here I have to address is, again, the final bosses. It's not hard, but if you die against them you won't be able to go to the shop again or anything. They had a shop menu when starting Menone, so I'm not sure why they didn't have one here besides maybe wanting to mess with you.
So, yeah. Super Fantasy Zone. It's pretty super, alright.
Anyway, this game does everything the arcade game did and a little more on top of that.
Cool things added include the Super Lights and Rubber Boots, the former of which improving your field of vision in the dark Risscave and the latter protecting you from the electric force field covering Le-Picker. You technically don't have to buy these, but if you doubt your chances of survival as often as I do then they're a must!
This is also the first Fantasy Zone where your special bombs have their own input, using the A button. Now there's more of a reason to actually want to use them, since you don't risk accidentally wasting them nearly as often.
The only really lame thing here I have to address is, again, the final bosses. It's not hard, but if you die against them you won't be able to go to the shop again or anything. They had a shop menu when starting Menone, so I'm not sure why they didn't have one here besides maybe wanting to mess with you.
So, yeah. Super Fantasy Zone. It's pretty super, alright.
not as impressive and clean as i’d been lead to believe. upgrade system is mostly boring aside from a few strange weapon combos, i wouldn’t say any of the bosses are “bad” but the strangeness of how they are ordered cannot be overstated. visuals are great, soundtrack is banging, and there are very good moments of high-stress shmup goodness.
I've played three of these now and I have to say they should really let you keep your weapon upgrades until you die, not have them go away after a countdown of maybe fifteen seconds. Not even a Gradius would fuck with you that bad like that
fantasy zone formula, aged well.
Barring a few bad bosses and weird time limits on special weapons, this is one of the best shmups from the 16-bit era. The shop system lets you tailor your runs to your own playstyle in an addicting way that encourages a lot of replayability, and the difficulty is just right. It also gets a bonus point over every other fantasy zone if just because it doesn't have that awful fucking spider boss that you can't kill unless you have the best bombs or you're a TAS