Fantasy Zone

"Long ago, far away in space, there existed a "Fantasy Zone" where a courageous hero called Opa-Opa (the Player) fought in a valiant cause to rescue the "Fantasy Zone" from its enemies." —The opening sentence at the beginning of the game.

Fantasy Zone is a horizontally-scrolling Shoot'Em Up made by Sega. You control a ship called Opa-Opa, and have to bomb a set number of targets in each stage. Once these are destroyed, a boss will appear, which will have to be defeated to move on to the next stage.

The screen scrolls automatically whenever Opa-Opa moves to the left or right (except during boss battles). Defeated enemies leave behind coins, which can be used to purchase weapon, missile and speed upgrades from the shop, which appears once per level.

Fantasy Zone was originally released in arcades and Master System (both versions were developed simultaneously), but later saw ports appearing on the MSX, Family Computer, Nintendo Entertainment System (a different port from the Famicom release), X68000 and the Turbo Grafx 16.

The game had a few sequels as well: Fantasy Zone II for the Master System, Fantasy Zone Gear (or just Fantasy Zone) for the Game Gear, and Super Fantasy Zone for the Sega Genesis. In 2008, a remake of Fantasy Zone II, known unofficially as Fantasy Zone II DX, was released in Japan, and Opa-Opa is a playable character in Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing.

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Tropes used in the series:

• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Subverted in that items become more expensive each time you buy them.
• Adaptation Expansion: The version of Fantasy Zone featured on the Sega Classics Collection (which was originally part of the Sega Ages lineup) features four new stages and a handful of new upgrades, although they have to be unlocked first.
• Bittersweet Ending: See Luke, I Am Your Father.
• Boss Rush: The final stage in all of the games.
• Continuing Is Painful: When you die, you lose all of your upgrades, even those you had in reserve. On some bosses, you have pretty much no hope of winning if you lose to them once. Time to start over!
  • Though in Fantasy Zone II DX, you're sent to a shop that sells only engines if you die to a boss so you can repurchase that extra speed you lost. You're still stuck with the Twin Shot and Single Bomb weapons and no special weapons though.
• Cute'Em Up
• Dual World Gameplay: Fantasy Zone II DX replaces the "multiple areas" gameplay that the original Fantasy Zone II had with the "Bright Side" and "Dark Side" mechanic. Dark Side stages are more difficult than their "Bright" counterparts, but rewards you with more money. Depending on where you clear the stages you can get different endings.
• Eleventh-Hour Superpower: You gain a health bar for the battle against the Final Boss at the end of Fantasy Zone II DX.
• Every Ten Thousand Points: Subverted. You do not earn extra lives for score, but you can buy them in the shop (although their price increases each time).
• Direct to Video: All of the games (except the first) were released directly to consoles.
• Fallen Hero: In one of the Multiple Endings in Fantasy Zone II DX Opa-Opa turns evil and casts the Fantasy Zone into chaos, and thus Space Harrier has to save the day.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The Final Boss of the first game is none other than Opa-Opa's long lost father. This leads Opa-Opa into questioning if his victory was worth this price he had to pay.
• Mirror Boss: The Final Boss of the second game is Opa-Opa's evil personality in physical form who attacks using the same weapons Opa-Opa can use.
• Multiple Endings: Fantasy Zone II DX has three of them depending on which stage types you clear and whether or not you use the Drop Tears weapon on the Final Boss.
• No Export for You: Super Fantasy Zone was (originally) not released in North America.
  • Still played straight with Fantasy Zone II DX, which was included in the final Sega Ages collection.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder
• Pinball Scoring: Has reasonable scoring unless you're skilled enough to beat the game. You'll receive a bonus of several million points and start back at the beginning where if you're really skilled, you can do it again and again. If you're a god of this game, you can get 99,999,990 points.
• Sapient Ship: Opa-Opa.
• Too Fast to Stop: The faster engines you can buy make your ship much more difficult to control.
• Unstable Equilibrium: You lose all your powerups when you die, and you have to kill enemies to earn money. Should be pretty easy to see how this comes into play.
• You Killed My Father: Opa-Opa's father is killed by the Dark Menon Forces in the opening to Super Fantasy Zone. Opa-Opa then vows to defeat the enemy's mastermind for this reason.