Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa
System: SMS
Release Date: December 1987
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Here’s the first sequel to make it to the Sega Master System, Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa. The question that comes to my mind first, is this a big jump in quality from Fantasy Zone, which released only fifteen months prior? The short answer is no.
Fantasy Zone II is more of the same. You are Opa-Opa and you navigate super colorful levels destroying enemy bases and baddies who fly around in patterns. As you kill bases, entire groups of enemies, or base projectiles, you can collect money they drop. You want to collect as much money as possible so you can upgrade your ship to make killing things easier.
The shop is now at a static spot in each level instead of having to wait for a shop balloon to appear. This is a very welcome change. However, the upgrades work in the same way as the original. Speed boosting powerups will last until you die. This is also true with twin bombs and big bombs. However, weapons upgrades are on a timer. I think this would have been a good place to add a pause menu so I can buy the upgrade and equip it when I want. As it is, I would wait until I destroyed all the bases, then went back to the shop to buy the proper weapon for the boss.
Instead of each level only being one wrapping scene, you’ll have to warp between 3 or 5 different scenes. This was annoying by level 3, as you have to be in the correct scene to warp to where you want to go. Once all the bases are destroyed, you will have found a red warp which takes you to the boss. Level 1’s boss goes down incredibly quickly to the laser beam. Level 2’s boss was easy with the 3 way shot and big bombs. Then I got to level 3, died and decided I’d had enough.
Graphics: 2.5
The graphics are colorful and nice, but not an upgrade from last year. The dollars blend into the background on level 3, which is not cool.
Sound: 1.5
I feel like the music is of worse quality. It was fine, but I feel it could have been better.
Gameplay: 2.5
Gameplay still works like it’s supposed to. You NEED to get a speed upgrade ASAP, though.
Difficulty: 2.5
Sometimes I think it’s impossible to avoid enemies when the screen is too crowded. You can grind for money all you want for all the extras ships you want, but I don’t have the patience.
Fun Factor: 2.5
I didn’t have as much fun with this one as I did with the original. It’s a good game, but not enough of an upgrade.
Overall Grade: 2.3
Fantasy Zone II earns a C+. This is a game I would have popped in a lot as a kid when I had nothing but time to play video games. Nowadays, I gave it an hour and I’m going to move on to the next game on the list.