By Kurt Kalata
The hero of the Fantasy Zone series is Opa Opa, a rotund egg-shaped ship that appears
to be sentient. He has a pair of wings for flying, and sprouts feet when necessary.
Opa Opa's design shares a lot with Konami's Twinbee,
and both series help defined the subgenre affectionately known as the "cute-em-up".
Given the drastic enhancements in technology between 1982 and 1986, Fantasy Zone
looks and sounds far, far better than Defender ever did. The world of Fantasy Zone
is filled with green meadows, shining rainbows, bright waterfalls, and enemies with
big goofy grins that only seem slightly annoyed when you pelt them out of existence
with your laser guns. The game is especially known for its huge boss characters,
ranging from evil blocks of wood to legions of snowmen. They're all pretty impressive, especially for the 8-bit home versions.
The controls are initially a big tricky to get a hang of, since your ship has a sense
of inertia and continues to move even after you take your hand off the joystick.
The camera often has trouble when you change directions, often making it difficult to see what's in front of you (how about that, camera problems in a 2D game.) Once you get over that initial hurdle, then Fantasy Zone becomes an absolutely blast to play.
One of the coolest aspect of Fantasy Zone is the ability to buy weapons. Opa Opa initially starts out with a simple twin gun and Gradius-style bombs. Every bad guy drops coins, which are worth more if you swipe them up quickly. Every time you
start a level or a new life, a little red balloon that says "Shop" will float out. Hit it, and you can spend your cash on engines (speed ups), lasers, mega-bombs and other assorted goodies. However, each time you buy something, the price of the item increases for the next time. Additionally, most of the weapons have time limits, so there's only so much destruction
you can cause with the powerful laser weapons, and most of the time, you are unable to use
any of these against bosses. Unfortunately, if you die fighting a boss, you won't be
able to re-equip yourself with anything, often leaving you underpowered for the task at hand.
There's actually a whole lot of economic strategy that comes into this.
You can buy the fastest engine so you can swipe up all of the coins dropped by bosses,
but doing so will often make the boss battle more difficult, since your super fast
speed will make it hard to precisely dodge the many projectiles spewed out. It's actually a good idea to buy multiple weapons - once you run out of one, a little "Select" balloon will pop out, allowing you to switch to another weapon. It's also handy for a breather, because the later stages can get pretty rough. Furthermore, you can either blow your money on weapons all throughout the game to make everything easier, or save up your cash for the final stages, in case you need the extra money to buy extra lives. Which actually may be a good idea - there are no continues in Fantasy Zone, and a Game Over means starting from scratch. They aren't terribly long games, usually lasting anywhere from six to nine stages, but a whole playthrough from start to finish can maybe last fifteen to twenty minutes.
Although Sega is credited with Fantasy Zone, Sunsoft played a large part in the series
as well. The arcade flyers credit the company, and Super Fantasy Zone was made entirely by Sunsoft, so it's possible that it's Sunsoft's title as opposed to Sega's own (much in the same way Wonder Boy was made by Escape/Westone, and Puyo Puyo was actually made by Compile, though both are considered Sega properties.)
Fantasy Zone (Arcade)
Fantasy Zone (Arcade)
Fantasy Zone (Arcade)
Fantasy Zone (Arcade)
The Sega Master System port, like most arcade translations for the system, can't quite match the arcade graphics but captures the gameplay almost perfectly. Some of the bosses were undoubtedly too much for the machine to handle, so they changed a few of them around completely, including gigantic fish and an evil turtle. The only lamentation is
the lack of damage indicators on the enemy generators, and the absence of the radar. A Famicom version was released by Sunsoft is pretty decent, and still manages to look decent
despite the 16-color limit, as well as keeping the radar.
A few years later, Tengen released their own version for the
Nintendo Entertainment System version. This version has completely different graphics than the Famicom game and not only looks substantially worse, but has funky controls and lots of flickering. Still, it's better than the MSX home computer version, which has terrible graphics and unbearably choppy scrolling. The Turbografx-16 version comes closer to the arcade, but still lacks graphical details, and the music is still pretty bad. The first arcade perfect port was for the Sega Saturn, released under the Sega Ages label. While certain entries were bundled together for released in America and Europe (Space Harrier, Outrun and After Burner), Fantasy Zone got neglected, and was left in Japan. It includes the original soundtrack as redbook audio, in addition to a vocal song (along with a karaoke mode), and a replay mode complete with an expert playthrough.
There were also a few computer ports in Japan. It was released for Windows as part of a Sega classics anthology. The X68000 version, released in 1989 by Dempa, is practically arcade perfect, along with a few bonuses. There's a totally new level based on Space Harrier called Dragon Land, which features enemies from Sega's other arcade series. It's hidden though.
To reach it, you need to break down the radar into numbers. Starting at the right side, count 1, 2, 3, etc. Now, in each level, the first pod you need to destroy corresponds to that numbered pod on the radar. For the first level, you have to destroy the #1 pod first, second level destroy the #2 pod first, etc. Instead of just dropping a regular coin, they'll drop a letter. If you collect all seven, it'll spell out HARRIER. When you beat the seventh stage, you'll be taken to Dragon Land.
There's also a hidden option screen. To reach it, you need to hit the touroku (register) key. Now, if you're using an emulator like WinX68kHighSpeed, this button isn't assigned to anything, since it doesn't exist on a standard Western keyboard. You need to go into the config and map it somewhere. In the config, it's one of the buttons in the upper portion with some kanji on it. Just map it, go to the title screen, press it, and you're there. You can also set Arrange music, which uses MIDI instruments instead of the arcade synth. If you want to skip all of this, just download these save states for Win68kHighSpeed.
Fantasy Zone was revived as part of the Sega Ages line for the Playstation 2. Released on the Sega Classics Collection in America, Fantasy Zone is an almost exact duplicate of the original game, except it replaces with sprites with cel shaded polygons. While they suffers from some unsightly jaggies, the designs perfectly match the originals, and
the overall effect is pretty cool, especially the 3D effect on the backgrounds.
There are two modes - one is just like the arcade game, while the other adds some extra animations, four new levels, and bonus stages after boss fights. These stages, which last about 30 seconds, switch to a behind-the-back view as Opa Opa tries to collect coins being spurted out from the dying boss. It's almost reminiscent of the unreleased Space Fantasy Zone. Overall, it's an excellent port, and definitely one of the best of the 3D Ages, if mostly because it's so faithful to the original. The only disappointment is that the music is exactly the same as the arcade - they missed out a great opportunity to remix some of these excellent songs.
MP3s Download here
Opa Opa (Arcade)
Fantasy Zone (Arcade)
Fantasy Zone (Arcade)
Fantasy Zone (X68000)
Fantasy Zone (X68000)
Fantasy Zone (PS2)
Screenshot Comparisons
Fantasy Zone - Arcade / Sega Master System / MSX / Nintendo Entertainment System / Turbografx-16 / Saturn / Windows / X68000 / Playstation 2 (1986)
You really have the admire the Japanese for their ability to take something foreign,
muck around with it, and transform it into something totally cracked out. Case in point: Sega's Fantasy Zone. Initially released in the arcades in the mid-80s, Fantasy Zone
steals a lot from William's classic arcade game Defender. Unlike many side scrolling shmups with autoscrolling, you have full control over where you fly. In each stage, there are
several enemy generators - your job is to fly around and destroy all of them. Once you do, you'll fight some huge boss characters, then move onto the next stage.
Arcade Flyer
PS2 Cover
NES Cover
Arcade Flyer
Turbografx-16 Cover
SMS Cover
The original Fantasy Zone for the arcade is often considered the best of the series, if mostly because it's running the strongest hardware. The home systems (at least, up until the 32-bit era) just couldn't handle the insanely bright colors or capture the sound of the super happy, Latin-inspired soundtrack. While it sets down high standards for the rest of the games, it does have some quirks - mainly, it's quite difficult, even on the lowest difficult setting. It does introduce several aspects that have become mainstays in
gaming, as you refight all of the bosses at the end of the game, and your final
enemy is gigantic, evil version of Opa Opa. Strangely, the Japanese and USA versions feature slightly different arrangements of some of the songs - the difference is most apparent in the song "Hot Snow".
Opa Opa (X68000 Arrange)
Saari (Arcade)
Keep on the Beat (Arcade)
Hot Snow (Arcade USA and JPN)
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Fantasy Zone 2 : The Tears of Opa-Opa - Arcade / Sega Master System / Famicom / MSX (1987)
Arcade Flyer |
Sega Master System Cover |
Fantasy Zone 2 (SMS) |
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Fantasy Zone 2 (the oddly tragic subtitle, "The Tears of Opa Opa", was dropped in the Western releases) is pretty much more of the same, with one major difference - each level is broken down into a few subsections that you can warp between. The advantage of this is that you can visit shops anytime you want, instead of waiting for the balloon to drop down. On the other hand, since there's no radar, you tend to wander aimlessly about until you find some enemy generators to kill. While this aspect doesn't add much to the game, the backgrounds and enemy designs are even crazier than before, radiating even
more ridiculously happy colors. It's a little weird that Fantasy Zone 2 was initially designed for the Sega Master System - while the graphics are great for the system, it's a step down from the arcades. And music is bloody terrible, which is especially a shame after the original's catchy tunes. Fantasy Zone 2 was also released in the arcades, although it's practically identical to the Sega Master/Mark III version. The only major difference is that it replaces the "Power" meter with a radar. However, even though it shows the locations of the pods, it doesn't highlight where you are. Each level is also timed, with a little "life" indicator that counts slowly down to zero. Fantasy Zone 2 also got a Famicom port, which is, naturally, quite inferior to the Master System version in every aspect, with terrible graphics, even worse music, and constant slowdown. The MSX2 version looks OK, but the system just wasn't made the scrolling shoot-em-ups, and is still pretty choppy.
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 Fantasy Zone 2 (SMS)
Fantasy Zone 2 (SMS)
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Screenshot Comparisons
SMS
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NES
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MSX
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Fantasy Zone: The Maze / Opa Opa - Sega Master System / Arcade (1987)
Sega Master System Cover |
Fantasy Zone: The Maze (SMS) |
Fantasy Zone: The Maze (SMS) |
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Someone, somewhere felt that it would be an interesting idea to mix Fantasy Zone with Pac Man, and here we have the unofficial third title in the series. As it turns out, it's
not really a bad idea - although Opa Opa is initially defenseless, you gain money by
grabbing coins, which can then be used to purchase items by flying over shops. Your arsenal includes speed-ups, guns and lasers, although there are also items similar to power pellets that make Opa Opa invulnerable for a limited amount of time. You can also prevent enemies from respawning by flying over a circle in the middle of the screen. There are plenty of boards, with graphics and music taken from the first game. While it's not quite as fun as
the "real" games in the series - mostly because it's a bit too easy - it's an amusing diversion into innovative territory. The two player simultaneous mode is a welcome addition too, and it would've been nice to see multiplayer in the other games. Like Fantasy Zone 2, this was released in Japan for the Sega System-E arcade board under the title "Opa Opa". Other than some slightly enhanced graphics and music, and some altered stage layouts (the arcade version fits double the amount of coins in each level), they're otherwise the same.
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 Fantasy Zone: The Maze (SMS)
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Screenshot Comparisons
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Galactic Protector - Sega Master System (1988)
Japanese Cover |
Galactic Protector |
Galactic Protector |
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Galactic Protector is another spin-off that has little to do with Fantasy Zone, but heralds Opa Opa in the starring role. This game was only released in Japan, and requires the use of the analog paddle controller, which barely saw any distribution in America or elsewhere. Your task is spin around the planet in the middle of the screen, firing at the bits of debris that come floating out across the screen. It's a tough job, but two players can play as once. Your ships can only take one hit before being destroyed, but you need to make sure to protect the planet too. It can only take so many hits before blowing up, which instantly ends the game. The most amusing part are the facial expressions on the planets, which express emotions ranging from "jolly" to "angry" to "extremely worried". It's a bit simplistic, as some kind of additional weapons would've greatly added to the variety. It's also pretty difficult, especially in single player mode.
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 Galactic Protector
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Fantasy Zone / Fantasy Zone Gear: Opa Opa Jr. no Bouken - Game Gear (1991)
American Cover |
Fantasy Zone Gear |
Fantasy Zone Gear |
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Unlike most Game Gear ports, Fantasy Zone Gear isn't just a miniaturized version of the arcade/SMS game. Rather, it's a completely new game that actually brings quite a bit table. It was actually created by outside developed SIMS, who collaborated with Sega on many other projects during the era. There are a handful of new weapons, like the homing shot. Boss battles have changed a bit - instead of auto-facing your opponent like the other games, you can still turn right and left freely. It results in fights that are more involved, albeit somewhat cumbersome. In order to take accommodate the Game Gear's small screen, the status bar has been removed, so the graphics fill up the whole screen. Unfortunately, the view still feels very cramped, and the game itself is somewhat hindered by some flicker and slowdown. Still, it looks great - while not as full of pastel colors as its predecessors, the backgrounds are much more detailed than the Sega Master System games. The music is much better than Fantasy Zone 2's, although there's not a whole lot you can do with the portable's sound chip.
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 Fantasy Zone Gear
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Super Fantasy Zone - Mega Drive (1992)
Mega Drive Cover |
Super Fantasy Zone |
Super Fantasy Zone |
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Fantasy Zone II and Fantasy Zone Gear weren't bad by any means, but they both ran on
hardware quite inferior to the original arcade game. Super Fantasy Zone for the Genesis
is the true sequel that not only matches, but surpasses its predecessor in aesthetics, with gorgeous graphics and an insanely catchy soundtrack. For the entire duration that you play, you forget about the Genesis' limited 64 color palette and marvel at the pastel glory. The music is some of the best composed for the Genesis, which is why you'll find nearly the entire OST for download. The opening cinematic story tells the traumatic story, as Opa Opa sets off to destroy the evil Menon empire to avenge his father's death.
 For the most part, the game is exactly the same as the original Fantasy Zone, just with new enemies and levels. There are a fair bit more weapons to buy this time around, including the incredibly useful four-way homing missiles. Also, special weapons (i.e. the classic 256 ton weight) now have their own button, so you can save them for the right moment. Much like Fantasy Zone Gear, you no longer auto-face bosses, which is still slightly awkward. Since this was a home console release, the difficulty is tuned so it's not overly difficult, and the rapid fire option is most definitely welcome. Even the scrolling has been fixed so it's easier to see what's in front of your ship. One of the coolest parts of the game is the tie-in with one of its Sega arcade brethren - similar to the hidden level in the X68000 game, the final stage has a checkerboard pattern on the floors and ceilings, which are both homages to Space Harrier. Unfortunately, the biggest travesty of Super Fantasy Zone is that it was never released in America. Yes, it came out in Japan and Europe, but some genius suit decided that the game simply wasn't good enough for the USA. Regardless, the game is relatively cheap and pretty easy to find in both territories, and the game defaults to English anyway if you're playing on an American Genesis. MP3s Download here
Picnic
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 Super Fantasy Zone
Super Fantasy Zone
Super Fantasy Zone
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Space Fantasy Zone - PC Engine Super CD (Unreleased)
Advertisement |
Space Fantasy Zone |
Space Fantasy Zone |
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Space Harrier and Fantasy Zone were always kinda related - both had cracked out characters designs, both took place in the same world (the "Fantasy Zone", obviously), even the high score
themes are similar. So someone took the natural step and combined them into one mega game, Space Fantasy Zone. All of the levels and bad guys are favorites taken from both games, and some of the Space Harrier baddies have been given cutesy makeovers. The gameplay is exactly like Space Harrier, although you have a shield meter and only one life. Shooting them will give you gold, while taking out whole waves of yields extra money. In between stages, you can buy tons of different power-ups at a store oddly named "Weaponalds", including several kinds of speed-ups, power shots, extra weapons, shields, bombs, options, and all kinds of stuff. The variety of weaponry is far larger than any of the Fantasy Zone games. You can also spend your time poking the chest of the store clerk, if you feel so inclined.
 The graphics capture the pastels of the original game, although since the PC Engine CD can't handle scaling, the movement isn't as smooth as it could be - it's about on par with Space Harrier II for the Genesis, The main theme is a combination of the famous songs from both games, although all of the music is disappointingly banal. It's fun, although somewhat short games (only 9 short stages, compared to the 18+ of the Space Harriers.) But the biggest tragedy? This game never saw an official release - it was mentioned on release lists, it was advertised (with designs by famous artist Satoshi Urushihara), but it was ultimately canned. No one knows why for sure - some people claimed legal disputes over the properties, although this is unlikely. The title screen even mentions the copyright by Sega, although the game was made by NEC Avenue. Thankfully, beta copies have been leaked to the Internet, and with a bit of scavenging, you should be able to find an ISO to run on emulators. MP3s
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 Space Fantasy Zone
Space Fantasy Zone
Space Fantasy Zone
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Mini-Game
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Fantasy Zone was also a hidden game in Arnold Palmer's Tournament Golf. According to GameFAQs: "Hit the ball 100 times on the first hole without landing on the green. On the Game Over screen press Up, Up, Down, Down ,Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A". That's weird,
that looks like the Konami code. Regardless, you'll get to play a level of Fantasy Zone.
The screen is cramped and getting killed will end the game, but it's a nifty little
diversion if you're bored of golf.
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For a long time, Opa Opa was an official mascot for Sega. He showed up in the anime Zillion
(along with his brother Upa Upa), and ended up in the Sega Master System game as
a power-up item. He also makes an appearance in Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars as one of the treasured items you pursue. Most recently, he's
shown up as mag in Phantasy Star Online, and the Fantasy Zone theme song, "Opa Opa", was featured in Sega's maraca shaking rhythm game, Samba de Amigo. So it's good that Sega hasn't completely forgotten him. And thanks to both MAME and the release of the Sega Classics Collection on the PS2, Opa Opa's original adventure is easily accessible for a new generation of gamers. Sega is also planning to release a Fantasy Zone Deluxe pack as part of the Sega Ages line in the near future. Thanks to Brian Clark for the heads up about the Famicom Fantasy Zone, and JJDFunk for the info about Arnold Palmer's Tournament Golf. Links
SHMUPS - Fantasy Zone A nice look at the whole series.
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