51. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X
PSN Vita52. Um Jammer Lammy
PSN PS353. Space Channel 5: Part 2
PSN PS354. 3D Fantasy Zone: Opa-Opa Bros.
3DS eShop55. Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu To Hikari No Tsurugi
Famicom3D Fantasy Zone: Opa-Opa Bros.I love me some Sega 3D Classics on 3DS, and until recently, of all the games released in Europe from the series, I had finished all bar one. That one game was 3D Fantasy Zone: Opa-Opa Bros.
3D Fantasy Zone is a port of the Arcade version of the original game. As a 2D sidescrolling shmup, the 3D affect is fairly tame compared to the effect in the likes of Streets of Rage or the super scaler arcade games, but it's still nice, and the enemy spawning capsules especially have a nice rotund look to them.
In Fantasy Zone, you fly freely left and right around a level, Defender-style, shooting down all the enemy spawning pods in a level before taking on the boss once all are destroyed. Enemies drop coins which can be used at in-game shops to buy weapons, speed boosts and bombs. Weapons are time limited, and bombs have limited usage, but speed power ups last until you die.
In terms of new features, this game has a few - first off, the game has a level select by default, meaning you can start wherever you want once you reach it - the levels can only be jumped to once you've reached them in gameplay. Secondly, the game banks your coins - coins can then be withdrawn from the bank and taken into future runs - allowing you to take on later levels with lots of cash to buy the best weapons with.
There are also some unlockables - one which increases money dropped, and one which makes weapons last longer/infinitely, which unlock when you have certain amounts in the bank. These amounts are pretty high though, and I never actually got any of them. You also unlock new game mode - Upa-Upa mode, upon beating the game. In Upa-Upa mode you have all the weapons by default, but turning them on consumes money per second - this allows lots of flexibility, but costs a fortune in coins - you'll definitely need a lot of banked cash to beat the game on this mode.
3D Fantasy Zone is a good game, and I liked it a lot. I have to be honest though - I still prefer the Master System port of the game to any of the Arcade accurate versions. The SMS version has better screen scrolling, a fairer difficulty level, a fun bonus in the form of the infinite weapons trick and somehow manages to feel even brighter and bouncier then the Arcade one. Whichever version you play though, Fantasy Zone is a fun little romp, but one which will have you tearing your hair out in rage. It's certainly not an easy game to finish. Like all the 3D Classics, this is worth the money, it's a pretty definitive version of the Arcade original.
I'm sad that I've beaten all the games available here so far, but the physical collection is out next month in Europe, so 3D Power Drift and 3D Puyo Puyo Tsuu (urrrghhh...) will be up for a playthrough soon. I'm really hoping we get to see the Sega 3D Classics from the 3rd compilation in Japan here too - Thunder Force III, Turbo Outrun, Columns and Alien Syndrome should all be worth a bash!
Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu To Hikari No TsurugiSo, this years summer marathon started off well for me. I'd finished 3 of my 10 games in 2 weeks or so in May, and it was looking good for my prospects throughout the summer. With that, in early June I started up game number 4 - the original Fire Emblem. Fast forward 4 and a half months, and I've finally gotten to the end. My summer marathon didn't end up going so hot this year.
So, first things first, don't let the time it took me fool you - this game is great and whilst it's certainly a mammoth game for NES, it's not ridiculously long either (about 35-40 hours or so). The main issue I had with it was actually that I'd beaten Shadow Dragon, the remake of this game, last year, and it all felt a little too familiar. It perhaps says something of it's core mechanics that the 2008 remake and the 1990 original manage to feel so similar - they were very well established from the start, and besides a few intricacies and improvements they added over the years, the basics of the series are very set in stone from the outset.
I'm going to assume people know how fire emblem works (move your army around a grid, attack enemies, level up your guys, but if they die they're dead for good). Instead, I'm going to list a bunch of interesting considerations that make this game feel a bit different, especially if, like me, you've previously only played the greatly refined and user-friendly english language releases.
First of all - lots of staple features of later entries are missing. There's no weapon triangle here - although 'super-effective' weapons exist (like dragon killers for taking out wyverns and manaketes, bows to kill flying units etc), they rock-paper-scissors mechanics of Sword beats Axe beats Lance beats Sword isn't here. In fact, that generally means swords are the best weapons overall. Silver Swords hit equally as hard as silver lances, there are not silver axes. Swords are more accurate and lighter too, which is critical in this game, as I'll discuss soon enough. Basically, swords are king here!
Secondly, there's no support conversations to pair up units and give them bonuses to stats. This means party composition is a lot simpler, but story development is pretty limited - you get short conversations between Marth and other main characters at the start and end of chapters, but that's your lot really. Lots of other mechanics are missing too. Slightly tangentially, you can't rescue units either, so expect your winged and horeback units to dominate the large maps as they can get to enemies so much faster. Most of your units can't visit villages either - just Marth, your main character. This means he spends a lot of time running around to villages whilst the rest of your army fights.
The game is also pretty unfriendly about showing you the odds of you winning an encounter too. Unlike later games where you are shown the damage you'll do, your hit rate, critical rate and whether you'll double attack when trgeting an enemy, here you have to know the formulas and do the maths yourself. The game also doesn't draw out a coloured grid showing how far you can move, so you just select units and give it a test yourself. Weapon stats are also hidden - you'll need a manual or a guide to know the weapons weight nd power - absolutely crucial info for planning your strategy.
Some stats work differently too. All your team and the enemies team have 0 resistance by default, meaning magic is a realiable damage source for both sides. However, the magic stat doesn't exist either, meaning magic does set damage equal to it's power - a 7 power spell does 7 damage, always. Clerics have to level up by being attacked and surviving, which is dumb, as using staves grants no exp. Units double attack if they're just a single point faster than the enemy, which means heavy weapons are crucial to avoid, as speed - weapon weight is how the battle speed stat is calculated.
Units are odd here too. Half of them don't promote, including thieves, horsemen, knights, fighters and even your lord. The other half do, and thus end up way more powerful. Some unit types are odd - Hunters are like Archers but better, but they can't promote and Archers can, so Archers are better in the end. Ballistae are like tank units with a bow - unlike in later games, they can't shoot 10 spaces away - just 2 like any other bow user. They're so slow that they're worthless.
Fire Emblem 1 suffers from the most unfair mechanics of the series - instantly moving reinforcements. They show up, move and attack instantly, meaning an unlucky spawn can totally ruin your day - like if an archer appears near a peg knight, you might as well just reset.
For all these oddities, unrefined elements and complaints though, Fire Emblem 1 is a pretty great Famicom strategy game. The core Fire Emblem gameplay is there, just slightly less polished, and it's a real joy to play through. A little more music variety would be nice, and the graphics aren't the greatest, especially for 1990 on the Famicom, but they do the job and they don't detract from the experience. Fire Emblem is a game I'd highly recommend.
Oh and yes, I played this on a Retron5 with a translation patch. If you don't speak Japanese, you can probably play through the original with some trial and error, but I'd personally recommend patching it and enjoying it in English - there's already enough unclear mechanics to figure out, without complicating things with another language.