Picture a shooter where, instead of dark space, you fly over a pastel-colored, almost dreamlike world, and your hero is a cute winged spaceship named Opa-Opa. Fantasy Zone is exactly this cheerful revolt against the ingrained conventions of the shmup genre and ranks among the most distinctive Sega classics of all.
The game turns the rules upside down in several respects at once. Instead of forced scrolling, you can move freely left and right around a circular level, destroy enemy bases scattered across the map, and only after wiping them out does the boss appear. For destroyed enemies you collect money, which you spend in a shop on upgrades to weapons, engines and add-ons — a novel idea for its time that gave the player a sense of progression and strategy.
Visually, Fantasy Zone is an absolute feast for the eyes: radiant colors, plump enemies and an overall playful, „cute“ aesthetic made it one of the defining titles of the so-called „cute 'em up“ genre. On the color Game Gear this palette stands out especially well — the handheld was made for such a vivid and optimistic world.
Beneath the cute surface, however, hides an honest challenge. The boss fights are imaginative and demand the right choice of upgrades and deft maneuvering, so the game entertains even more demanding players who want to toy with the purchasing economy and find the optimal strategy.
Fantasy Zone remains in memory as proof that a shooter needn't be grim or austere — it can be joyful, colorful and yet deep. For Sega it was one of those brands that defined its playful character in the eighties.
Why play: A cheerful, colorful and surprisingly strategic shooter with free movement and upgrade purchases — an ideal piece for the Game Gear's color display.
Game 18 of 39 for SEGA Game Gear
The same title elsewhere (1)
The Master System offers a colourful, smooth conversion of the arcade original with a wide enough view that the player can spot incoming enemies and obstacles in time — many fans rate it among the most faithful home versions of Fantasy Zone. The Game Gear runs on a smaller, lower-resolution screen, so the forward view is shorter and dodging enemy fire is that much tougher, with colours also a touch more muted than on a television. Both machines use a similar sound chip, so the game's cheerful, melodic music stays recognisable either way. For an experience closest to the arcade original, go for the Master System; the Game Gear suits players who want to take the game on the road.
