Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa
75 days until the vernal equinox
I didn’t even know there was a NES (well, Famicom) port of Fantasy Zone II.
For the NES ports of the original Fantasy Zone, Sunsoft did the Japanese version that was, of course, Japan-only, and Tengen made an unlicenced port that was full of flicker but actually looked and sounded pretty good otherwise. Or maybe I’m just saying that because that’s the version I grew up with.
It was even referenced on the Muppet Babies of all things.
Our first planet is Pastaria, no doubt coming from the word pastoral and not pasta. Although I think it would be Fantasy Zone appropriate to have a planet made entirely of different types of macaroni. I mean, there was the cheese planet in the first game.
Maybe it’s Pastaria as in past because there’s a bunch of enemies in this stage that are references to the first game.
It’s just that the block enemies just pass through each other like ripples in a stream or like ghosts and go their separate ways instead of coalescing into a big enemy.
Mostly it’s the same thing as the original game. Destroy all the enemy dispensers and then fight a boss. New in Fantasy Zone II are sectioned stages. Also the shops are always there.
Even the turtles are a reference to a boss in the Master System version.
The music in the first stage is painful to listen to.
Like in the original Fantasy Zone, get the big wing and either the twin bomb or big bomb immediately. Which one to choose, well, that’s your decision. They’re both more or less the same. The big bomb does twice the damage of the regular bomb but with the twin bomb, there’s two of them. I guess choose based on how good your aim is.
You don’t want to be too fast or else you’ll collide into shit.
Even the boss is a reference to the fact that the first boss in the original Fantasy Zone is a tree.
This is what I found for Sarcand. “Sarcand, who had but lately come to the city of Mirouane, had already made himself the most formidable of all my master’s competitors.”
It sounds vaguely like Samarqand. Sounds like it should be a planet of sand and not a planet of eggs.
Or planet of crystals. I always thought the backgrounds were kind of a downgrade from the first game, no matter what version you're playing.
The secret red bottle has been moved slightly in the famicom version.
It's a health-up. It means you can take more bullets but collision damage is still instant death. The arcade version doesn’t give you extra hits and it does add a timer, which is converted to money if you have time remaining.
Hangmerudia’s body segments change color and then they disappear. When only the head remains, it explodes and breaks apart into coins and dollar bills.
If Hiyarika means anything, it’s buried beneath all the spam and the pages about Fantasy Zone that just assume it’s a nonsense name that sounds kind of whimsical.
While the original Fantasy Zone was made for arcade machines, the sequels were made for consoles.
Once you get past Pastaria, the game has decent music.
Some of these planets have five sections.
There's a secret shop on this screen. It's down near the bottom of the screen.
You don’t regain health from picking up or purchasing red bottles so you’re going to need a blue bottle too.
As for the shield, it's temporary.
The Big Shot is an improved version of the Twin Shot that never runs out. The auto beam is also permanent.
And this is the only time in the game you can buy a continue. In the Master System version anyway. It's not in the NES version though you don't get continues in that version either. It's expensive, though.
Iceburn just moves diagonally.
Bow Bow is the fire planet.
The System 16 version changes the stage warp mechanic to a Bright Zone and a Dark Zone, where the Dark Zone has more aggressive enemies but also better money drops and dispensers in one zone are automatically destroyed in another.
The music is actually rather good here. The Master System has more vibrant colors but the music sounds better on the NES or Famicom or whatever you want to call it.
Looks like Opa Opa wandered into Life Force.
Bombdran was a man. Or maybe he was a dragon man. I mean he was just a dragon.
But he was still Bombdran!
Ships ahoy, Mattie! Come aboard the S.S. Ssssss (I only had an S stencil) and set sail for not-Pocarius.
Chaprun is the obligatory water planet.
This stage really loves sticking the enemy dispensers at the top of the screen where you will get blindsided by enemies that come down from the top of the screen.
You have to destroy all the enemies in a formation to get their money. You know, standard shmup rules. I don’t make ‘em.
Man the Musky Lounger!
Buubuuman is a freshwater fish so huge he can swallow a Swede. Good thing Opa-Opa isn’t Swedish. Wait. Let’s see. Albaamo innaaɬiilka for barred owl. Basque for desire. Dutch and German for grandfather. Guarani for all. Lithuanian for hop. Uzbek for older sister. Yami for thighs. Kâte for water. Nope, not Swedish. Opa-Opa has nothing to worry about.
I don't think Buubuuman is supposed to be inflating and deflating here. I think he's in the distance. That's why he doesn't hurt you.
Fuwareak is the cloud planet.
Well, if we can have bullets with faces and fists in Mario, it follows that we can have cannons with legs.
Just in case you thought Fuwareak was a gas giant.
Accordlon gets faster and faster the longer you take. Each pancake has to be destroyed one at a time.
This is Sbardian, the Armenian planet.
The artists here seem to interpret Mockstar as a planet of mountains and not a gas giant.
It's like "guys, we only had seven worlds and a bunch of ideas."
You can get a red bottle on this level but there’s no secret shop and no hidden blue bottle to refill it. You do get shop access right before the boss rush but you can’t refill your health there either. I’m not sure if dying resets your health meter or just your upgrades but this is Fantasy Zone. Protip: don’t die. In fact, I read a guide for the first game that’s basically “if you die before level 6, just reset the game.”
It’s not that the laser isn’t effective in this game, although the dispensers seem a lot beefier and should just be destroyed with bombs and the enemies die in one hit to the standard pellet gun.
You also can't buy lasers until really late.
Halorings rotates around his post and spits out a bunch of bullets when he's facing you.
And, of course, you can only damage him when he's facing you.
The last planet is called Wolfin although, like the first game, it's just a shop, a boss rush (the laser lasts approximately to the second boss), and then the final boss.
You can’t pause here for whatever reason but whatever. It’s exactly the same as Fantasy Zone I’s boss fight.
Your final battle is against your dark self.
Okay, that was really easy. Almost suspiciously so. I was expecting another boss after that.
Nope, that's the end. All the text is in English and I don't think I found a translated rom. The Master System version was released outside of Japan but the Famicom version wasn't.
The ending text scrolls. I did my best.
Until Super Fantasy Zone, anyway. I’d say stay tuned but I already played it back when Gamingforce had a community. I’m not sure how much of one they have on their Discord because while I got a look at the members list and there’s no one there but ghosts, I didn’t get a good look at the discussion before the Brothers Gentry demanded to know who I was. I wonder if Xpander’s still around because I actually have something to say to him. And that something is “I told you so.” Gamingforce really is nothing more than a locked and empty hell.
I should probably polish that writeup up a little. I also had a thought about playing Plok but there’s no replicating the experience of playing Plok for the first time for 16 hours straight sustained by Chinese food and Barq’s Root Beer. Complete with having to restart the game in Legacy Island because you accidentally saved after resetting.
burning question: And what the hell am I expecting to find there? Something I overlooked? A vain attempt to correct the past?
I didn’t even know there was a NES (well, Famicom) port of Fantasy Zone II.
For the NES ports of the original Fantasy Zone, Sunsoft did the Japanese version that was, of course, Japan-only, and Tengen made an unlicenced port that was full of flicker but actually looked and sounded pretty good otherwise. Or maybe I’m just saying that because that’s the version I grew up with.
It was even referenced on the Muppet Babies of all things.
Our first planet is Pastaria, no doubt coming from the word pastoral and not pasta. Although I think it would be Fantasy Zone appropriate to have a planet made entirely of different types of macaroni. I mean, there was the cheese planet in the first game.
Maybe it’s Pastaria as in past because there’s a bunch of enemies in this stage that are references to the first game.
It’s just that the block enemies just pass through each other like ripples in a stream or like ghosts and go their separate ways instead of coalescing into a big enemy.
Mostly it’s the same thing as the original game. Destroy all the enemy dispensers and then fight a boss. New in Fantasy Zone II are sectioned stages. Also the shops are always there.
Even the turtles are a reference to a boss in the Master System version.
The music in the first stage is painful to listen to.
Like in the original Fantasy Zone, get the big wing and either the twin bomb or big bomb immediately. Which one to choose, well, that’s your decision. They’re both more or less the same. The big bomb does twice the damage of the regular bomb but with the twin bomb, there’s two of them. I guess choose based on how good your aim is.
You don’t want to be too fast or else you’ll collide into shit.
Even the boss is a reference to the fact that the first boss in the original Fantasy Zone is a tree.
This is what I found for Sarcand. “Sarcand, who had but lately come to the city of Mirouane, had already made himself the most formidable of all my master’s competitors.”
It sounds vaguely like Samarqand. Sounds like it should be a planet of sand and not a planet of eggs.
Or planet of crystals. I always thought the backgrounds were kind of a downgrade from the first game, no matter what version you're playing.
The secret red bottle has been moved slightly in the famicom version.
It's a health-up. It means you can take more bullets but collision damage is still instant death. The arcade version doesn’t give you extra hits and it does add a timer, which is converted to money if you have time remaining.
Hangmerudia’s body segments change color and then they disappear. When only the head remains, it explodes and breaks apart into coins and dollar bills.
If Hiyarika means anything, it’s buried beneath all the spam and the pages about Fantasy Zone that just assume it’s a nonsense name that sounds kind of whimsical.
While the original Fantasy Zone was made for arcade machines, the sequels were made for consoles.
Once you get past Pastaria, the game has decent music.
Some of these planets have five sections.
There's a secret shop on this screen. It's down near the bottom of the screen.
You don’t regain health from picking up or purchasing red bottles so you’re going to need a blue bottle too.
As for the shield, it's temporary.
The Big Shot is an improved version of the Twin Shot that never runs out. The auto beam is also permanent.
And this is the only time in the game you can buy a continue. In the Master System version anyway. It's not in the NES version though you don't get continues in that version either. It's expensive, though.
Iceburn just moves diagonally.
Bow Bow is the fire planet.
The System 16 version changes the stage warp mechanic to a Bright Zone and a Dark Zone, where the Dark Zone has more aggressive enemies but also better money drops and dispensers in one zone are automatically destroyed in another.
The music is actually rather good here. The Master System has more vibrant colors but the music sounds better on the NES or Famicom or whatever you want to call it.
Looks like Opa Opa wandered into Life Force.
Bombdran was a man. Or maybe he was a dragon man. I mean he was just a dragon.
But he was still Bombdran!
Ships ahoy, Mattie! Come aboard the S.S. Ssssss (I only had an S stencil) and set sail for not-Pocarius.
Chaprun is the obligatory water planet.
This stage really loves sticking the enemy dispensers at the top of the screen where you will get blindsided by enemies that come down from the top of the screen.
You have to destroy all the enemies in a formation to get their money. You know, standard shmup rules. I don’t make ‘em.
Man the Musky Lounger!
Buubuuman is a freshwater fish so huge he can swallow a Swede. Good thing Opa-Opa isn’t Swedish. Wait. Let’s see. Albaamo innaaɬiilka for barred owl. Basque for desire. Dutch and German for grandfather. Guarani for all. Lithuanian for hop. Uzbek for older sister. Yami for thighs. Kâte for water. Nope, not Swedish. Opa-Opa has nothing to worry about.
I don't think Buubuuman is supposed to be inflating and deflating here. I think he's in the distance. That's why he doesn't hurt you.
Fuwareak is the cloud planet.
Well, if we can have bullets with faces and fists in Mario, it follows that we can have cannons with legs.
Just in case you thought Fuwareak was a gas giant.
Accordlon gets faster and faster the longer you take. Each pancake has to be destroyed one at a time.
This is Sbardian, the Armenian planet.
The artists here seem to interpret Mockstar as a planet of mountains and not a gas giant.
It's like "guys, we only had seven worlds and a bunch of ideas."
You can get a red bottle on this level but there’s no secret shop and no hidden blue bottle to refill it. You do get shop access right before the boss rush but you can’t refill your health there either. I’m not sure if dying resets your health meter or just your upgrades but this is Fantasy Zone. Protip: don’t die. In fact, I read a guide for the first game that’s basically “if you die before level 6, just reset the game.”
It’s not that the laser isn’t effective in this game, although the dispensers seem a lot beefier and should just be destroyed with bombs and the enemies die in one hit to the standard pellet gun.
You also can't buy lasers until really late.
Halorings rotates around his post and spits out a bunch of bullets when he's facing you.
And, of course, you can only damage him when he's facing you.
The last planet is called Wolfin although, like the first game, it's just a shop, a boss rush (the laser lasts approximately to the second boss), and then the final boss.
You can’t pause here for whatever reason but whatever. It’s exactly the same as Fantasy Zone I’s boss fight.
Your final battle is against your dark self.
Okay, that was really easy. Almost suspiciously so. I was expecting another boss after that.
Nope, that's the end. All the text is in English and I don't think I found a translated rom. The Master System version was released outside of Japan but the Famicom version wasn't.
The ending text scrolls. I did my best.
Until Super Fantasy Zone, anyway. I’d say stay tuned but I already played it back when Gamingforce had a community. I’m not sure how much of one they have on their Discord because while I got a look at the members list and there’s no one there but ghosts, I didn’t get a good look at the discussion before the Brothers Gentry demanded to know who I was. I wonder if Xpander’s still around because I actually have something to say to him. And that something is “I told you so.” Gamingforce really is nothing more than a locked and empty hell.
I should probably polish that writeup up a little. I also had a thought about playing Plok but there’s no replicating the experience of playing Plok for the first time for 16 hours straight sustained by Chinese food and Barq’s Root Beer. Complete with having to restart the game in Legacy Island because you accidentally saved after resetting.
burning question: And what the hell am I expecting to find there? Something I overlooked? A vain attempt to correct the past?