If there’s one thing that STGs weren’t doing in the 1980s, it was deploying candy-colored games that had more vivacity than a ball-pit at Chuck E. Cheese. In fact, most shoot-‘em-ups at the time were dark, dreary tales of mankind stubmling upon some kind of enigmatic, alien race hellbent on destroing the universe. It’s clear to see, then, that Sega’s take on the shmup franchise caught some off guard at the time of its 1986 release. But don’t let the neon fool you — this is just as difficult as all the other titles in its genre whilst crushing its players’ hopes and dreams with cuteness. But that’s why this is such a quality experience; there’s just something endearing about a game that will eat players for breakfast, all the while assuming the absolute least suspecting appearance around.
Cubed:
The mid 1980s was a blessed era for shoot 'em ups. It was one of the earliest genres of videogame, with such historic pieces of graphical interaction as Spacewar! pioneering what would later become one of the most prominent genres in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the arcades, through Space Invaders in 1978 and Asteroids in 1979, which took the world by storm. By the time the game at hand in this review got released, the genre had seen many improvements and refinements, as other great titles continued to introduce new elements, most notably Defender's horizontal scrolling, Konami's Scramble and its forced scrolling and distinct levels, Namco's Xevious bringing the notion of vertical scrolling in the most influential way, and later Tecmo's Star Force really cementing all of the previously introduced elements in a cohesive fashion, laying down the basics on which every subsequent scrolling shoot 'em up is based. If all of these may not seem to have a direct connection to today's 3D Fantasy Zone Opa-Opa Bros., the latter owes a lot to all of its predecessors, as well as other games released close to it, like Konami's Twinbee, aka i<>Stinger in North America, which is probably the earliest example of a "cute 'em up." Having now set the stage in which the original title was released, it's time to dive into 3D Fantasy Zone Opa-Opa Bros., the latest in SEGA's line of 3D Classics on the 3DS eShop.
