SEGA Franchise Week - Fantasy Zone

[Barry the Nomad]

Hi all! For those who regularly check the front page, this week is Fantasy Zone Week! For a while now, we've been discussing behind the scenes how to go about some sort of "Game of the Month" series. However, in looking at other SEGA fan sites who do a "game of the month" thing, we realized that very rarely do people actually participate. Typically the site hypes of the game, one or two people talk about it, and thats that. Pretty boring. A rare example of the concept working is over at Racketboy and their "Together Retro" feature.

So instead, we're going to occasionally drop these franchise weeks in which the site's content will be dedicated to the week's game. We'll likely do one of these every other month, but if they prove popular we'll go monthly. While we're not setting anything up officially on the forums just yet, I did want to test the waters and ask if anybody here was interested in integrating the forum community into the franchise week by having all of us share our memories on the franchise and perhaps go out of our way this week to play one of the Fantasy Zone games and share our thoughts.

Potentially moving forward, I could post in the classic forum a week in advance telling you all what the upcoming franchise week will be, and then the week of we could drop in to the dedicated topic and chat about the franchise. Maybe even have a community gaming session if the franchise has a game with online gameplay.

Thoughts?

[Saturn Memories]

You could try creating a leaderboard and asking people to submit their high scores along with a video or pic for verification. Maybe come up with some challenges too. Like if the game of the month were NiGHTS, something like completing a continuous link around Mare 1 of Spring Valley in reverse might be a good one.

[mylifewithsega]

You could try creating a leaderboard and asking people to submit their high scores along with a video or pic for verification. Maybe come up with some challenges too. Like if the game of the month were NiGHTS, something like completing a continuous link around Mare 1 of Spring Valley in reverse might be a good one.

I second that. Great idea!

[Nameless 24]

I absolutely suck at these games, but can't help to love them all the same.

I am a late comer though, playing the games on Virtual Console and own the SEGA Classics Collection (Fantasy Zone is by FAR the best game on there, OutRun a distant second).

I want to try and beat the PS2 version at least, since it offers continues after a Game Over? and Rapid Fire will come in handy too.

No idea why Fantasy Zone wasn't a track in the All Star games nor Opa Opa returning as a racer.

[Centrale]

Call me crazy, but I think a great way to reboot Fantasy Zone would be to incorporate some steampunk design elements. It would fit in well with the upgrade system. Bolt a new pair of big wings onto Opa Opa... add in a new steam engine... have background levels that are part mechanized and part overgrown with decades of weeds and other mutated vegetation.

[Centrale]

Well, so far I've got a high score in the SMS version of Fantasy Zone of 61,400. I also started playing the arcade version on MAME, which seems a bit harder to me (surprisingly, since the SMS version is already quite hard) and got about 34,000 -- currently stuck at the second boss, who has more inner targets to hit than on the SMS version. Those scores are without using any kind of rapid fire... I'm sure rapid fire offers quite an advantage. But it's good to figure out the strategies of which weapons to buy. I'm not gonna bother with photographing the screen for my high score unless I get a really good score... anyone just starting out should be able to beat these in short order.

Here's a cheat for the Master System version. Wait through the attact mode until the storyline starts to scroll. Then rock your controller up and down at least 50 times (cheat sites list it as exactly 50, but I didn't really try to count, I just did it fast for a while). Then when you start the game, you'll be able to buy extra ships for 1000 a piece the first time you go to the shop. So I suggest waiting until after you beat the first boss when you have some real money saved up, and stock up on 9 extra lives (I think that's the most you can get).

[Nameless 24]

Highest score I ever got on Fantasy Zone was around 130,000/200,000 at Stage 6 of the game (I played VERY carefully and just went for the money just to get to that stage).

Stage 6 boss is so unfair.

As for the cheat, what's Attract Mode and 50 times of both actions of Up and Down (25 each) or 50 of Up and 50 of Down?

[Centrale]

Attract mode is just the title screen and demo while it's waiting for you to press start. If you wait through three or four cycles of this, the title scrolls up and some text comes on telling the story of the game. As for how many times up and down, honestly I just did it really fast for most of the text scroll... I stopped counting after a while.

[Nameless 24]

Ah right, that's good to know! How do you know when you've done it correctly?

[Centrale]

It doesn't give any signal. But when you go into the shop, you'll see extra ships are 1000 each. With the economy the way it is in the Fantasy Zone, those are savings you can't afford to pass up.

[Nameless 24]

It doesn't give any signal. But when you go into the shop, you'll see extra ships are 1000 each. With the economy the way it is in the Fantasy Zone, those are savings you can't afford to pass up.

LOL That's clever.

[stang2712]

so is it a crime against humanity that i have been playing sega games for 3 years and havent yet found a copy of fantasy zone

[Barry the Nomad]

It's pretty difficult to find copies of Fantasy Zone. I've seen the Master System version a few times, but have never seen Super Fantasy Zone in retro shops. Fantasy Zone for PS2 on the SEGA Classics Collection is pretty good, and easy to find.

[nuckles87]

You will never find super fantasy zone in any retro shop: it was never released in America.

[Barry the Nomad]

Some retro shops have imports, I know mine does.