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

 

Sonic Forces Review (PC)- Oh a new Mario came out?

This is the best year of Sonic games I’ve had since colors came out for both wii and 3ds. Sonic Mania is a special game but I have little interest in always revisiting vintage Sonic. Sonic Forces is the new 3D Sonic game. As always, it is getting lambasted in reviews and polarizing the fan base.

This game is the Sonic Colors sequel I have been waiting for for years. I love Sonic. I love 3D Sonic. This game is everything I like about Colors with a character creation gimmick that works very well. It’s fascinating in a year where Mario is playing dress up, Sega figured out how to get me to change outfits on my created character between every level for fun.

STORY- Real talk, story was dark. Robotnik won. Sonic got captured. A rookie came in to help the resistance force. Robotnik has a new bad guy called infinite manipulating time and space with the wild sound effect from Sonic Mania when you teleport between zones. The resistance fights slowly taking over the world. There are a lot of cut scenes but they work. I really liked the themes of the story. Be brave, and trust your friends. It’s corny but it’s so engrained in this tale, it’s hard not to be inspired. The story works well enough, and ends how you would expect (nobody dead…).

MUSIC- This soundtrack is a call back to Sonic Adventure in the best way! It’s so good.

CONTROLS- The physics are Ok. Momentum on jumps for your avatar take some getting used to. It all works. I never felt like I died due to the controls. Classic sonic does not feel as good as Mania sonic and that’s a shame. Boost sonic, current 3d sonic still boosts and moves fast. I felt like they refined the controls where you press the bumpers to have Sonic shift left or right and it felt good. Not a ton of endless drops to punish you either. Classic Sonic feels slow. Avatar has an awesome move set with the grappling hook and they have an amazing animation where you use the hook to turn when your running fast. New Sonic feels great but he is used in 2D segments too many times for my liking. I think they learned a lot from previous games on the controls. The level design never leaves you wondering why the he’ll they had a 90degree turn when Sonic can’t make those turns boosting. The levels compliment the controls.

LEVEL DESIGN- There are lots of amazing set pieces and gorgeous backgrounds. This game does my favorite gimmick of having you run and the floor builds under you as you move. The level design has taken a lot of criticism mainly due to the length of the stages. Most stages can be cleared in a couple minutes and there are fewer alternate paths to explore. I took the time to play Sonic 1 and 2 on my phone as well as revisiting Sonic Generations on PC and Lost World on PC to compare. The best sonic levels are short. I remembered why I never play Sonic 1 anymore and it’s because of Marble Zone Act 3. It’s too fucking long and it’s needlessly hard and railroads you into a crappy boss fight. Levels like this show the faults in Sonic games immediately. Every level in Sonic Lost Worlds is too long. Play Mario Galaxy and relish in the bite sized levels for a minute then go slog through a marathon 5 minute Sonic Lost World level. Sonic Levels are a balance much like a carnival ride, a roller coaster that lasts too long is just torture and long Sonic levels in my experience leave me feeling tortured just waiting for the end. Sonic Mania hits the perfect balance and Forces leans a little too much on the short side but I think it’s for the better.

GRAPHICS- Hedgehog engine looks so good.

GAMEPLAY- The game essentially breaks down into 4 types of levels, classic sonic, avatar, 3d sonic, buddy levels (think sonic heroes). Each level is a 2-3 minute chunk, made to be repeated. There are around 30 levels in the base game, with many secret levels, shadow DLC, and daily missions and challenges. There seems to be a sense that levels are too short but honestly my biggest complaint with Mania and other games are most Sonic levels overstay their welcome. I have never liked a Sonic stage that was lunching near the 10minute limit. 3minutes gives you a chance to see the level, hit a challenge and move on. My complaint was sometimes for story purposes they tell you enter an area and a 60 second level is you running into the front door. That’s lame but rare. If you like modern Sonic, you will like this game. If you’re coming in still high off of Sonic Mania be warned that the classic Sonic stages don’t feel as good as the Sonic Generations classic stages and nowhere near as solid as Mania. 

WHERE DOES THIS RANK IN SONIC HISTORY? Better than Unleashed and 06, almost better than Colors…..The best Sonic is still Sonic the Hedgehog 2 followed closely by Sonic’s Neo Geo Pocket Color outing.

FINAL THOUGHTS – This is a solid game. The boss fights are fun and the final boss doesn’t shit the bed like in Generations. This game feels like a clear, consistent vision.

It’s amazing in 2017 a tentpole Mario and Sonic come out. Sonic Mania will probably be getting GOTY nods, Forces isn’t that refined but it’s a solid game.

Sonic Mania- As Spectacular as an Eclipse

Sonic the Hedgehog is my childhood. The blue hedgehog has RUN parallel to my life in so many ways. I am not one of those people who believe in the Sonic cycle, or that Sonic has sucked since Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Sonic has been kicking ass non-stop on handhelds for decades and Sonic Colors was a masterpiece. Sonic Generations was very good and Sonic Lost World was not a bad game. Let’s look at this game not as a great comeback for Sonic but as a moment that truly shows what the pinnacle of vintage 2D sonic can be.

Personally, this game is an enigma for me. Sonic 1,2, and 3 Knuckles already exist. Sonic CD happened. So with that said, why does this game exist? Who is it for? Ironically, it exists for super fans who never stopped loving Sonic and the game exist for people who thought 2D Sonic was the only Sonic we ever needed. I disagree and love 3D Sonic but 2D is a staple. I wonder how non-fans of Sonic feel about this game….Playing through this game it takes me back to my childhood in a really neat way. Sonic Mania is 2D Sonic perfected.

You can play as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. All have their classic skills. A lot of the levels in Mania are remixed original levels with some new levels in the game as well. They all fit really well together. They took some previous Sonic levels I hate, such as Flying Battery Zone and made them awesome.

Side note, Flying Battery Zone is the worst fucking stage. It is the level that keeps me from finishing Sonic 3 & Knuckles to this day. It’s too long, the gimmick of going in and out doors sucks. It’s confusing, and there is fire everywhere.

 

 

Sonic Mania took that level and added an amazing gimmick with some better boss fights.

The boss fights…..oh the boss fights. I would argue that Sonic has never had great boss fights. Mario seemed to understand boss fights better than Sonic. I love the aesthetic of Sonic bosses but normally they are so easy the boss fight is a waste OR they are so obtuse that you can’t figure out where to hit them. Sonic Mania doubles down on Boss Fights giving you one at the end of every stage (2 stages per level). The first boss stage fight is a smaller easier fight and the second stage fight is the BIG one that makes you think. Sonic Mania bosses are easy but they are soooo much fun if you have previous Sonic games as a reference point. I don’t want to spoil anything but one fight you get to turn the tables on Robotnik and fly his ship. You get to be the boss and it’s amazing.

These nostalgia moments in Sonic Mania are the best and worse. I love them because I have the frame of reference. I lived old Sonic. My son will see these references and won’t know what the big deal is. At one point, you play mean bean machine or see a character from a handheld game and those things resonate big with me but my son won’t get that.

All that said, this game play great. It feels perfect. The music is epic and the graphics are so good. The amount of frames in the animation is staggering and the attention to detail of this game is second to none. There is a completeness and crispness to this game that few Sonic games have had for years. This game is a great platformer even if it wasn’t a Sonic game. As a Sonic game it is truly something special. Oh and the special stages are sooo doooppppeeeee!

This game is a masterpiece. $19.99. More rare than an eclipse, a game of this quality at this price. Make it happen.