Getting Good: Fantasy Zone Pt. 2

Last week, we wrote about the whimsical cute ‘em up game by Sega called Fantasy Zone. This title was popular for its awesome yet challenging gameplay, coupled with its bright, colorful, and admittedly adorable visuals. If you haven’t done so already, we recommend reading part one if you want to know what this game is all about. 

Today, we’re picking up where we left off last week. Specifically, we’re going to go through the seven remaining stages, as well as how to beat the challenges in each one.

Stage 2: Planet Tabas

The red planet Tabas has scalding clouds and fiery mountains in the background, as well as lots of enemies who will start firing at you. Luckily, the projectiles are quite slow and easy to dodge. Since the bases are stationary in this level, you might want to deal with them using your bombs. However, it’s still possible to destroy them by shooting at them from the sides.

Speaking of which, the bases here are called ByeBubbles. They are stationary enemies that sit atop weird mushroom-like stalks. They have a hatch on their upper end that opens up and releases enemies that fly straight up. As long as you shoot them from the sides, they shouldn’t put up much of a fight, but take care of the other foes that might creep up on you.

The boss in this stage is Boranda, a sunflower-looking sphere with several smaller spheres surrounding him. His only form of attack, aside from spinning his spheres real fast, is by raining down seeds on you. You can avoid it by positioning Opa-Opa in a safe spot. As you shoot the spheres, they’ll switch colors to reflect their damage. Furthermore, once the inner body is hurt enough, the boss will blow up and drop lots of coins for you to pick up.

Stage 3: Planet La Dune

Stepping out from the fire and into the frying pan. Or was it the other way around? No matter. Planet La Dune is an arid stage full of dunes and treacherous enemies that won’t hesitate to take you down. It’s here where you’ll need to start being extra careful as one slip is all it takes to lose a life.

The bases on this planet are called Patatons, which fly lower than their previous counterparts and deposit enemies from their lower ends. The enemies they deploy fall to the ground and slowly walk towards Opa-Opa, occasionally jumping to attack. Since the bases are so low, there’s a serious risk of losing a life while trying to destroy them. Luckily, you can make short work of them with the laser weapon upgrade. Make sure to pick one of these bad boys up from the shop and take out as many bases as you can while the effect lasts.

The boss here is called KobaBeach and his appearance is that of yet another large circle, but this time with symmetrical wings on both the top and bottom instead of spheres. He also has nine turrets mounted on his left side, which fire very fast beams from top to bottom at regular intervals. Thanks to this pattern, it’s easy to predict his attacks. To defeat Koba, you’ll need to destroy every single turret. The best way to go about this is waiting until they fire, and taking advantage of the downtime to get a few shots in. Be patient and you’ll make it.

Alternatively, if you line up a Heavy Bomb just right, you can take out all the turrets in one go. For maximum damage, try to position Opa-Opa above the enemy’s right eye before dropping your bomb.

Stage 4: Planet Dolimicca

In stark contrast to the hot planets we left behind, Dolimicca is a cool, blue, and humid planet whose enemies are mostly aquatic in nature. Even the bases, the Doringas, are shaped like seashells and protrude from the bottom to expel their nasty minions. This time around, the laser is just as effective as it was back in La Dune, at least when it comes to destroying bases. It goes without saying that monsters here are as aggressive as ever and will open fire as soon as they get you in their sights.

The boss here is the toughest one yet and goes by the name Crabunga. As its designation implies, this boss has two long arms with pincers at each end, though his main body is spherical as the others. He attacks by swinging his arms in wide arcs, with each pincer shooting projectiles often. In order to defeat him, you must shoot the sphere in his arms until both limbs turn orange, after which the boss will burst into coins. Alternatively, just purchase three smart bombs from the shop and quickly get rid of the boss in under 5 seconds.

Stage 5: Planet Polaria

In case you were questioning why we said Fantasy Zone was whimsical, we present to you planet Polaria. But don’t let its appearances fool you, this ice planet is not mellow and calm. In fact, it’s one of the toughest stages so far, considering that the bases are camouflaged in the background. The 7-way shotgun weapon upgrade does wonders to dispatch the bases in this stage, so now would be the best time to pick it up and use it.

The bases are called Pakkarians and are covered in a thick layer of ice, which makes them incredibly resistant to damage. This is what the 7-way shotgun is for as they can quickly shatter the protective ice around the bases.

The Matrioshka-doll-looking lords of Polaria are called Poppozu and consist of a group of 15 snowmen of different sizes, arranged in a cone pattern. The idea here is to defeat the smaller snowmen first, followed by the next tier, until you reach the last and largest enemy. Each snowman flings snowballs at you, with the smallest enemies lobbing smaller and slower projectiles, and the size and speed of the balls increasing according to the size of the snowman. 

There’s really no way to go about this fight. Take aim and destroy the smaller ones first, and work towards the head honcho. Like with KobaBeach, fortune favors the patient when dealing with the Poppozu family.

Stage 6: Planet Mockstar

The game progressively gets more colorful as we make our way through the stages. Oddly enough, as the visuals get more vivid, the enemies also get more aggressive! Most foes will shoot you on sight on this planet, which means that you’ll have to be quicker and deal with them before they can get you. Furthermore, there’s an exorbitant (see what we did there?) number of foes spread throughout this stage, to the point where it resembles a traditional space shooter game.

The bases on this planet are called Barungas and float on their own personal clouds. They produce one of the most annoying enemies in the game, called Poyons. These pesky foes fly straight towards Opa-Opa as soon as they spawn, and won’t relent until destroyed. Luckily, it’s easy to avoid them by moving in any direction. However, try not to get swarmed by them as this is a great way to lose a life.

The boss here is called Winkron and is an absolute hassle to fight. Winkron is a small eyeball entity that floats towards the center and summons six lines of clouds that extend in different directions, into the shape of a six-point star. These clouds persist throughout the entire fight and move in a clockwise manner, with the speed picking up as the boss is damaged. 

All it takes to defeat Winkron is firing enough shots into the main eye when it’s open, which can take a bit of time since you can only really take shots when you’re lined up horizontally with it. Did we mention that this game requires lots of patience?

Stage 7: Planet Pocarius

We’re nearly at the end! Pocarius is a tropical stage with many different enemy types that will test you to the utmost of your abilities. To be safe, you should prepare a 7-way shotgun and a Heavy Bomb. You’ll use the former to quickly destroy the bases, and the latter to dispatch a specific couple of bases that are located on top of each other. Once you destroy these two structures with the bomb, you can activate the shotgun with the select balloon that will appear, and use it to take out as many bases as you can.

The boss here is the toughest you’ve fought so far, and there are no strategies to cheese him. Ida 2 is a large square face that breaks up into several pieces and reconstructs at Opa-Opa’s current location, trying to crush him. The only way to hurt him is by shooting him when he’s fully reconstructed, which only lasts for a few seconds before breaking up and attacking again. What’s more, every time he attacks, he reconstructs faster and leaves a smaller window for attack, regardless of his condition. This means that, if you’re not fast enough, you’ll inevitably get crushed by the boss.

For best results, move in direction when he breaks up, and only stop moving when he’s fully reconstructed, after which you’ll be able to land a few hits in. Once again, patience is the key.

Stage 8: Planet Salfar

We’re finally on the enemy’s home planet! This stage is unique due to the fact that there are no enemy minions. Instead, you’ll be presented with a shop balloon and a final chance to stock up on supplies. You’ll need all the gear you can afford as you’ll need to go through a gauntlet run before the final boss. We recommend sticking with Twin Shots and Twin Bombs for the upcoming challenges.

After you’re done with your preparations, you’ll need to fight each stage boss back to back. This time, however, they’re much harder, attacking much more frequently and behaving more aggressively. However, the strategies are the same for each, so feel free to take a look at the explanation for each one that we’ve written above.

After you defeat Ida 2 for the second time, you’ll come up against Opapa. That’s right, the final boss is Opa-Opa’s father! Our hero’s long-lost father attacks with the six aliens that inhabit his body. The aliens come one by one, and leave behind a blue trail that’s fatal to the touch. Each alien moves in a specific pattern reminiscent of the Snake games from those old Nokia phones. Explaining the patterns is much more difficult than simply showing it, so we’re just going to post the images with the six patterns.

The idea is to intercept the aliens at every turn and shoot them down one by one, avoiding touching both them and their trails. Keep in mind, however, that the sixth alien doesn’t have a pattern, and instead seeks Opa-Opa at all time. If you want to win with style, you can make him trap and kill himself with his own trail. After defeating all six aliens, Opapa will surrender, and you will have beaten the game. Now give yourself a pat on the back and take a deep breath. Done? Now challenge the game again and go for the high score!

Thanks for reading! Here at PrimeTime Amusements, we like to keep ahead of the curve in arcade game rental and sales and pride ourselves in providing the best service in the country. If you’re looking for a game in particular, or have a few questions about the industry, feel free to give us a call at 1.800.550.0090 or to swing by at 5300 Powerline Rd. Suite 210, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 33309.