Fantasy Zone is a classic, colorful side-scrolling shooter released for the Sega Master System in 1986. Often credited as one of the pioneers of the “cute ’em up” subgenre, the game tasks you with piloting a sentient, winged spaceship named Opa-Opa. Instead of auto-scrolling, you can fly freely left or right across surreal, pastel-colored alien landscapes to destroy enemy bases and collect dropped coins to buy powerful weapon and engine upgrades.
How to Play
To beat each stage, you must destroy all the large enemy bases to spawn the boss. The default Sega Master System controls use the D-pad to move Opa-Opa in all eight directions, button 1 to fire your primary weapon, and button 2 to drop bombs. In your browser, these are mapped to the arrow keys for movement, with the Z and X keys acting as buttons 1 and 2.
Tips
- Collect as many coins as possible early on to afford the Seven-Way Shot or Twin Bombs, which make taking out bases much easier.
- Upgrades like the Jet Engine or Rocket Engine improve Opa-Opa’s movement speed, giving you a huge advantage against fast-moving bosses.
- Keep in mind that purchased weapons have limited ammo or a time limit, and buying the same item again will increase its price at the parts balloon.
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