Fantasy Zone

Fantasy Zone (ファンタジーゾーン) is a surreal arcade game released by SEGA in 1985. It was later ported to a wide variety of consoles, including the Sega Master System. The player controls a sentient spaceship named Opa-Opa who fights nonsensical invader enemies in the titular group of planets, full of settings atypical of the traditional scrolling shooter and pastel colors; for that reason, it is occasionally dubbed a "cute 'em up".

Plot
In the space year 1422 (6216 in the Master System version), the Fantasy Zone was cast in panic at the collapse of the interplanetary monetary system. The Space Guild brings to light the plans of the planet Menon, whose forces are stealing the other planets' currencies to fund a huge fortress in the Fantasy Zone. Opa-Opa is sent to stop the invading army and discover who is behind it. In the end, it turns out that the leader was none other than Opa-Opa's long lost father, a revelation that leaves Opa-Opa with mixed emotions.

This is directly followed in Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa, which takes place ten years later.

Gameplay
In the game, the player's ship is placed in a level with a number of bases to destroy. When all the bases are gone, the stage boss appears, who must be defeated in order to move on to the next level. There are eight stages, and in all of them, except the final one, the scroll is not fixed; the player can move either left or right and the scroll follows him, though the stage loops. The final level consists of fighting again all previous bosses in succession and then facing the final one.

Opa-Opa uses two different attacks: the standard weapon (initially bullets) and bombs; the normal shot is generally useful though weak, while bombs are powerful though they only drop downwards. He can also move down to land on the ground by sprouting feet and walking around until he flies again.

In the game, it is possible to upgrade Opa-Opa's weapons, bombs and flying engine which makes him faster, as well as get extra lives. In order to do that, the player must first get money by defeating enemies, bases or bosses, and access a shop by touching a red balloon with the "Shop" word written on it. The screen later changes to a menu where the player, for a limited time, can select any item of choice. Each time a new item is bought, they become more expensive. When the player chooses to exit or the time runs up, another screen appears, in which he or she can select what upgrades Opa-Opa can use; only one engine, weapon and bomb can be equipped at a time.

Some of the new weapons have a time limit that starts as soon as the shop is left. Some of the bombs can be used at any moment, but they are limited. On the other hand, the engines are permanent, though some of these actually makes Opa-Opa hard to control, as he moves too fast. The power-ups can also be re-assigned by re-entering the shop or touch a balloon with the word "Select" written on it. If the player loses a life, all of the upgrades are lost.

Ports
Fantasy Zone is originally an arcade game. It was later ported to the Master System. The game eventually saw ports in other consoles and home computers, such as the MSX, Famicom & Nintendo Entertainment System, Sharp X68000 and TurboGrafx-16. While all of these ports play similarly to the original version, some of them have several omissions and changes. For instance, the Master System version lacks some features such as the radar that indicates the location of the bases or a gauge that indicates how much energy left they have, and two of the bosses were replaced by original ones. Other versions have several changes as well.

There are actually two different versions for the Famicom & Nintendo Entertainment System. The Famicom version is ported by Sunsoft, while the NES one is an unlicensed version by Tengen.

Fantasy Zone was later remade for the PlayStation 2, under the Sega Ages label. Although similar in appearance to the arcade version (even incorporating the original arcade sounds), this version used polygons instead of sprites and added some levels, including bonus levels in which the game takes the view behind Opa-Opa as he tries to collect coins from any boss that was defeated at the moment. The game mode is very similar to Space Harrier, or the unreleased Space Fantasy Zone. Also, even though "2UP" can be seen in the score display, this version only has a single player mode. This version was released in North America along other remade classic Sega titles in the compilation Sega Classics Collection.

On March 11, 2008, the Master System version saw a re-release in Japan for the Virtual Console. In Europe and Australia, it was released on April 11, 2008, and in North America, on April 14, 2008. In all territories, it was released at a price of 500 Wii Points.

On September 18 of the same year, SEGA released another Sega Ages disc devoted to the series, title Fantasy Zone Complete Collection. This time, instead of a 3D remake, the disc compiled all of the games in the series, including spin-offs, and all of SEGA's own ports. It also included a remake of Fantasy Zone II created for System 16 hardware. It was the final release in the Ages series.

Release years

 * Arcade, 1985
 * Master System, 1986
 * MSX, 1986
 * Famicom, 1987
 * TurboGrafx-16, 1988
 * Nintendo Entertainment System, 1989
 * Sharp X68000, 1989
 * Sega Saturn (part of Sega Ages), 1997
 * Mobile phone, 2002
 * PlayStation 2 (part of Sega Classics Collection), 2003
 * Wii Virtual Console (re-release of the Master System version), 2008
 * PlayStation 2 (part of Sega Ages 2500), 2008
 * Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (part of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection[NA]/SEGA MEGA DRIVE Ultimate Collection [UK]), 2009

Other appearances in media

 * Opa-Opa appeared in the Japanese anime series called Zillion. The video-game Zillion that was based on this anime series was available on the Sega Master System console. This game also featured Opa-Opa, where it served as an item that boosted your character's abilities.
 * One of the downloadable contents for Sonic Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast using its own Internet homepage was a new Kart Racing track named Fantasy Zone, a nod to the series. Omochao was also playable for this race, driving an Opa-Opa-shaped kart (which was the first and probably last time Omochao was ever playable in any Sonic game).
 * One of the Gear in Sonic Riders is named the Opa-Opa, a reference to this game.
 * In the Dreamcast game Shenmue, several capsule toys can be collected, including the Opa-opa, shop balloon and the stage 3 boss.
 * In the arcade and Sega Master System versions of the game Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars, the goal of the second stage is to find Opa-Opa.
 * In the Sound test screen for the Sega Master System adaptation of Quartet (arcade game), Opa-opa can be seen flying horizontally across the top of the screen. You can also see Teddy Boy, Pit Pot and Alex Kidd in this screen as well.
 * Several of the enemies from Fantasy Zone II appear as attack waves for the final boss in the cult Dreamcast game Segagaga.
 * In the Muppet Babies episode, It's Only a Pretendo, Baby Gonzo, Baby Animal, and Baby Miss Piggy were playing Fantasy Zone. During their imagination in Fantasy Zone, Gonzo and Piggy both fought over the controls to the Opa-Opa, while Animal spotted an enemy approaching and destroying the Opa-Opa.
 * In Arcade Gamer Fubuki one of the challenges Fubuki had to do was get a higher score than the opponent in Fantasy Zone.
 * Intentionally making over one hundred strokes in the Sega Genesis game Arnold Palmer's Tournament Golf allows the player to play a short, one-screen-long version of Fantasy Zone as an Easter egg, albeit one which continually loops until the console is either reset or turned off. The Opa-Opa also appears as a cursor in some selection screens within the game.
 * Phantasy Star IV has a remix of "Pao-Pao" playing when a group of dancing girls come on a stage in the Hunters Guild in Aiedo.
 * In Phantasy Star Online, Opa-Opa is a rare mag.
 * In Phantasy Star Universe, Opa-Opa appears in one of the random attacks from the cast SUV "Ascension Gift".
 * In Phantasy Star Portable, Opa-Opa is a rare RCSM.
 * The game Space Harrier, also by Sega and released the previous year, supposedly takes place in "the Fantasy Zone" as well (Space Harrier begins the phrase "Welcome to the 'Fantasy Zone'! Get Ready!"). It includes the same bright pastel color scheme, although the game scrolls into the screen as opposed to horizontally.
 * There was an unreleased game in the series called Space Fantasy Zone that was to have been released on the NEC PC Engine around the year 1990 that was to have finally bridged the gap between the Fantasy Zone series and the Space Harrier series by having a gameplay similar to Space Harrier, but have the layouts of the stages to be directly based on their Fantasy Zone counterparts. The game was never released because NEC developed the game without first getting permission from Sega to use the Fantasy Zone property; when the game was finished, they contacted Sega, who promptly told them not to go any further with it. Although the game was never released, a gameplay video of a prototype of the game has been found. An ISO of the SuperCD does exist and has been leaked online in the past.
 * In the arcade game Planet Harriers, Opa-Opa appears above the head of the killed player while being queried on whether to continue or not. Opa-Opa is also a playable character after enabling a certain code at the character select screen.
 * In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity 80's Blvd course a Fantasy Zone character appears on the first jump and gives out rings.
 * Opa-Opa appears as a playable character in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.

Sequels

 * Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa (1987)
 * Opa Opa (Released internationally as Fantasy Zone: The Maze) (1987)
 * Galactic Protector (1988)
 * Fantasy Zone Gear: The Adventures of Opa-Opa Jr. (released internationally as simply "Fantasy Zone") (1991)
 * Super Fantasy Zone (1992)
 * Space Fantasy Zone (unreleased)

Reception
The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #136 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.