Fantasy Zone review

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FRO
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Fantasy Zone review

Post by FRO »

I really liked the review, it was spot on. The only thing is that it didn't have more screenshots.

As an aside, the game Fantasy Zone (SMS version) was featured as part of the plot during an entire episode of Muppet Babies (old Saturday morning cartoon) if anyone else cares.
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Post by captain ahar »

hahaha i still remember that theme-song. although that was quite an ass show if i remember correctly.
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FRO
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Post by FRO »

No way, it was extremely creative.

Anyway, the muppet characters were actually flying in Opa-Opa shooting down baddies & bases. It was pretty cool IIRC.
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Post by BulletMagnet »

Heh, I remember being rather weirded out by Muppet Babies way back when...I wonder if I'd view it differently if I saw it nowadays, since I think I watch more cartoons now than I ever did as a kid, heh heh.

Anyways, that's a cool tidbit, that a shmup featured prominently in an episode, I wouldn't have recognized it back then...I do remember seeing clips of Donkey Kong and a few other old games in certain episodes though.
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Post by Frogacuda »

I think Fantasy Zone is sorely underrated by the shmup community, and too often the SMS version is used as the basis for criticism. The arcade game is an absolute classic of the 16 bit era, and probably among my top 5 shooters of all time. It's perfect, and in later levels/loops one of the most insanely challenging bullet fests I've played.
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Post by Darkcomet72 »

FRO wrote:No way, it was extremely creative.

Anyway, the muppet characters were actually flying in Opa-Opa shooting down baddies & bases. It was pretty cool IIRC.
Holy :shock: :shock: :shock:

And I thought I knew everything about Muppet Babies...

That's just 8)

And Fantasy Zone at that!
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Post by BrianC »

I want to see that episode of Muppet Babies! Interesting fact. The Tengen US NES Fantasy Zone and the Japanese Famicom Fantasy Zone from Sunsoft are actually different.
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Post by Specineff »

For the record, the FZ the Muppet Babies were playing was the Tengen version for Nes. The coloring was so different from the SMS that I could tell right away. What surprised me is that they used actual game footage, instead of just animating two blocks on the screen and putting Atari 2600 sounds, like many other shows did. (Rescue Rangers, I'm looking at you). It was during the second season, where the old guys from the Muppets Show balcony show up as guests in the nursery.


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Post by FRO »

Specinef - good catch, but did you notice that the game console they are playing on looks like an SMS? Score one for me!

Seriously, I never noticed that they were playing the NES version in the episode - probably because that's the only version (other than the arcade version) that I've played. I own the US Tengen version and I think it's quite good. I've had many hours of play on that old cart 8)
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Post by Skyline »

BrianC wrote:I want to see that episode of Muppet Babies!
Seconded. TORRENT PLZ :mrgreen:
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Post by BrianC »

I plan to get both the NES and Famicom versions of the game, since they are both good versions of the game. I also want to get Fantasy Zone for my TG-16.
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Post by Frogacuda »

The sunsoft one is much better, but the Arcade/Saturn ones are the only ones worth playing nowadays.
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Post by BrianC »

Frogacuda wrote:The sunsoft one is much better, but the Arcade/Saturn ones are the only ones worth playing nowadays.
Why do you find that the arcade/saturn version is the only one worth playing? What exactly is missing from the arcade/Saturn versions in other versions? I agree the Sunsoft version is the better one, but the Tengen one isn't bad either IMO. I still play the GBA Out Run and Space Harrier despite having superior versions and I still plan to get Space Harrier for the TG-16. I still play the NES Gradius too. They may not be arcade perfect, but they certainly are fun to play. So, is something missing from the ports of Fantasy Zone that makes them not fun to play or are they just not arcade perfect?
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Post by professor ganson »

Good question. I just got the TG-16 version because it was the cheapest one I could find. Incredible game! I would get the Saturn version if it were a genuine upgrade. So what, if anything, is special about the Saturn version?
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Post by Blue Lander »

Just to throw my two cents in here, there's also an X68000 version of Fantasy Zone. I'm no Fantasy Zone expert so I can't say if it's arcade perfect or not, but according to NFG it's an arcade perfect port.
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Post by Dylan1CC »

:shock: That is cool! I used to watch Muppet Babies all the time as a little kid. I wonder if I saw that and never even knew it. I want screen grabs now. :P Based on how random the show was, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the writers or animators just liked the game and decided to put it in.

The show was really quite inventive and had lots of great spoofs and references that ranged from Star Wars to classic literature. One of the best written saturday morning cartoons ever and that says a lot.

Random thought, does anyone remember the episode which basically was a "warning" against anarchy? In the episode the muppets imagine what it be like with "no rules" and in their imagination are crashing cars and running amuck in an imaginary city. :lol: When nany comes in and finds out what they've been doing, she royally chews them out, telling them how terrible it is that they've been pretending to be in a no-rules society. haha
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Post by Blue Lander »

I loved the Muppet Babies as a kid, too. I don't remember many of the details, except one episode where they had to go inside a computer for some reason. Oddly enough, I read somewhere that one of the writers for the show was a hardcore Scientologist and put all sorts of Scientology references in the show. Weird.
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Post by Dylan1CC »

Blue Lander wrote:I loved the Muppet Babies as a kid, too. I don't remember many of the details, except one episode where they had to go inside a computer for some reason. Oddly enough, I read somewhere that one of the writers for the show was a hardcore Scientologist and put all sorts of Scientology references in the show. Weird.
Whoa, crazy. Maybe there's a site that details the supposed references.
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Post by alpha5099 »

I watched Muppet Babies religiously as a child, and I have absolutely no memory of a Fantasy Zone episode. The only thing I remember distinctly was a 2001 reference, the Muppet Babies found this giant luggage trunks covered in stickers from a round the world, and they first encountered it like the monkeys at the beginning of 2001.
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Post by Specineff »

That episode was in the lower-quality final season. The one featuring a blue-eyed rabbit and the two old fellows who sat on the balcony in the Muppet Show. That season included a CATS (the musical) spoof, Superheroes (Bat-Gonzo), and the game episode.


I even recall a line where Gonzo is looking for more carts to play, and while looking for some in the closet he goes...

"Mario Brothers... Mario Bros. Children... Mario Bros.' Grandchildren... Mario Bros.' Great-grandchildren!"

Or something like that.


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Post by tehkao »

Can Fantasy Zone be considered a "true" shmup? It doesn't play like most shmups, it's more like Defender.... :P
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Post by TVG »

tehkao wrote:Can Fantasy Zone be considered a "true" shmup? It doesn't play like most shmups, it's more like Defender.... :P
who cares? it feels like a shmup, everyone calls it a shmup, so its just a shmup.
it's getting old, some games are bound to be exceptions, and some titles are too early to really fit the genre, but in the end, none gives a fuck, shmups = 2d ship plane space shooting, sometimes with mammals.
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