Fantasy Zone for TurboGrafx-16
Review #7034
Fantasy Zone
Defender, as a cute-em-up
Gameplay
Plays a lot like Defender I & II. The screen wraps and you can move left or right at will. The objective is to destroy a balloon-like creature on each screen. Doing so triggers a boss fight. Some enemies drop money which can spent in a shop for upgrades. These upgrades only last a few moments so what could've been a cool feature is a massive missed opportunity.
Controls are responsive, if a bit slow.
The real problem here is the wonky camera. Draw distance is as little as 20% when you start moving in a new direction and gradually builds up to 70%. It's super annoying and the game's major flaw.
Level Design
Color me unimpressed. Enemies continuously spawn above you since you tend to stay low to collect the coins which fall to the ground. All levels play the same with the only variation being the actual design of the sprites. The objective seems to stay the same - kill all the balloons to trigger a boss battle.
Theme
This might be the original cute-em-up, but Parodius far outshines it in terms of atmosphere. The enemies and backgrounds here are colorful, but they lack personality.
Art Style
Again, it's colorful and cute, but visually unimpressive.
Audio
Tink tink tink
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