The Dark Fantasy that is…Fantasy Zone (Sega- Arcade/3DS)

What if I told you that Sega made a dark series focusing on a protagonist who was forced to kill his own father to save the day and then in the sequel has to kill the greatest enemy of all, his depressed and murderous self who has been unable to deal with the death of his father….. THAT IS THE PLOT OF FANTASY ZONE AND FANTASY ZONE 2: THE TEARS OF OPA OPA.

Fantasy Zone is a game that I have heard about for years. It’s referenced and easter egged in lots of Sega properties, and the story of Sega can’t be told with out mentioning this game. For whatever reason, people talk about OutRun, Space Harrier, and the racing games all the time. Fantasy Zone, which is Sega’s flagship side scrolling shooter, doesn’t get that kind of love. That’s a shame.

I was not hip to Fantasy Zone until recently. I tried playing it growing up on various systems and it never clicked immediately so I just dropped it. I actually became really curious about this game after watching a YouTube video chronicling the history of Fantasy Zone and it’s importance to Sega. The video did a great a job of highlighting the gameplay loop and it touched on the story (comparing it to Star Wars). After seeing the video, I grabbed the 2 games on the 3DS to see what this was all about. I became hooked.

Fantasy Zone is a side scrolling shooter starring a sentient spaceship named Opa Opa. You can move all over the screen (left and right), shooting a blaster and with bombs. Your goal is to bow up all of the bases in a level, and then you face a boss. Killing enemies drops currency, and you can use that currency to buy weapon upgrades. The game is stunningly beautiful, and is just so vibrant with color. The movement has a momentum system with the ship but its predictable and works well. The biggest between the first and 2nd games are that the second game has 3 endings and you can warp from the dark zone version of a level to a light version (ala Sonic CD). It’s a really interesting effect that lends itself to replay value. The games are hard. They are clearly arcade games. The 3DS versions have lots of quality of life changes, allowing you to bank money that progresses for every playthrough. You can also add more lives, enhance the map, and use an autofire. These make the game infinitely more playable without ruining the experience.

What fascinates me about this series is that the story is not in your face, but they use text at the beginning of each level to convey what is happening and what Opa Opa’s motivations and feeling are. You are trying to save the Fantasy Zone from a warring army led by your father in the first game….and by you? in the 2nd (I only have one ending in the second game, and it was the bad ending so….not sure what the others hold). The ending of the first game has you question via text was it worth killing your father to save this Fantasy Zone, and then the second game is basically Opa Opa dealing with his depression. It’s call the Tear of Opa Opa….that’s so sad. He is just languishing in depression from killing his father and becoming a heartless killer in the processes of saving the Fantasy Zone again. Killing his father made Opa Opa callous and then he becomes the thing he had to kill…it’s so good. The dark story is in complete juxtaposition with the glorious upbeat visuals. Like with every Sega arcade game, the music is fantastic. I hum the tunes all day after a play session.

If you have a 3DS and 14 dollars, I think these games are worth checking out. The stories are really fun, the gameplay is fantastic, and the music alone is worth the price. Sega is a special company that has truly exceptional history in arcades. We live in a golden era where we can replay these games without wasting quarters or leaving the house, take advantage of it. I have been searching for a game to get lost into, as this season of my life has been really challenging and this game has been a light in a relatively dark tunnel.

Thanks for reading. Peace!

80’s Overdrive (3DS)

Outrun is a culture. It’s a music culture, it’s a lifestyle, it’s an artistic movement. All of it harkens back to an exaggerated nostalgia pop. All of it references and is named after the game Outrun. Outrun it’s a fascinating game in many ways but the wildest thing about outrun is that at it’s core it’s a leisurely driving simulator. You take a Ferrari Testarossa and pick a song to see how long you can drive through the country. There is a high score and a timer but they almost seem like holdovers to make the game “arcade” eligible. The core idea of the game, speeding away with the music blaring covered in pastels….well that’s the culture. That’s Outrun.

That takes me to 80’s Overdrive. At its blandest, it’s an Outrun clone. At its heart it is actually something much more modern and relevant.

This game is a gorgeous 2D driving game, that scrolls while you drive around tracks taking you around multiple pastel locations. It’s Outrun with a Hotline Miami color palette. The game is much more feature rich than Outrun. You have a career mode and a time attack mode. Most of your time will be spent in the career mode, the time attack mode is a classic Outrun style game of getting as far as you can in an allotted time limit.

Career mode has you take on an 80s persona, buy a testarrosa or Lamborghini, and go through a series of races trying to become the highest ranked racer in the area. You navigate the map and menus with a power glove. You need money to upgrade your car and enter races. There are times early where you can’t afford to enter a race and the option to wash cars appears to give you a chance to make money.

The games story has a very Kavinsky feel to it. Your the outsider in a variety jacket and fast car. The world is against you. It’s very retro wave. This game has cops that you literally have to Outrun. That’s a common theme in this modern version of Outrun culture. The cops are always a step behind the mysterious F40 that has a gear nobody can touch. Where driving with your girlfriend and enjoying the drive was the theme in the original Outrun, 80’s Overdrive  focuses more on hard work and winning. It’s actually a really fascinating look at 80’s culture from the lens of a 2017 developer. It’s more wolf on wall street than carefree stroll. Risking it all for material wealth and gain is a much more 80’s theme than anything in Outrun during the actual 80’s.

This game is a love letter to a culture that is a love letter to the 80’s and more. The soundtrack is everything in 80’s Overdrive. There are a lot of tracks and like the original Outrun game you pick a track when you get in the car. The music is from popular neon wave outrun artists and it’s a great introduction to that scene.

Check out 80’s Overdrive. It’s trapped on the 3DS but I hope to see the game on PC at some point. That art deserves to be on a bigger screen.

Peace

 

Satoru Iwata- How you impacted my gaming life and Thank you

I was driving to work this morning and listening to the Orange Lounge Radio Podcast ( a video game podcast you can find on the VOGNetwork) when I heard about the death of Satoru Iwata. He passed at 55 years of age. On the podcast they were listing the games he has been involved with and the series that stood out to me is Kirby. Iwata worked for a long time at HAL Labs and Kirby has been a huge part of my life growing up and now my family life.

Kirby’s Adventure for the NES was the first Kirby game I ever finished. This game has 2 huge selling points for me 1) It was BEAUTIFUL! 2) It was beatable. In a world where Mega man was impossible, Super Mario had weird patterns to run on the final stage, and Contra….Kirby’s Adventure was a revelation. Hell, it was an exhalation of relief. The big selling point of this game is Kirby’s ability to inhale and copy the abilities of enemies. That system led to so much strategy. There was a great variety in enemies and game play types. The game is a masterpiece. It has held up well. Since my first taste of Kirby I have played every game since that has come out.

For me, the impact of Iwata and Nintendo and the games they create show with my son. Adonai is 6 years old. He has a 3DS and didn’t have any games that I thought were age-appropriate for him. Not that the other games he had were too violent (Mario 3D Land) but they were just a little too complex. I gave him my copy of Kirby Triple Deluxe. His elation was unbelievable. Watching him not just play, but actually make progress and create strategies through Kirby has been mind blowing. He hasn’t just been clearing levels, he has been hunting down all the collectibles as well. I see a lot of myself in Adonai, watching him play this game. Without Iwata, this experience never would have been possible.

Thank you Satoru Iwata, may you rest in peace.