Final Zone Longplay (Sega Genesis) [QHD]
145Game Info
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Developer: Wolf Team
Publisher: Renovation Products
Year of Release: 1990
Game Review & Impressions
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Set some time in the future, most conventional weapons of mass destruction are banned. However, this message doesn't seem to have reached the folks behind development of the N.A.P., or New Age Power-Suit, a Gundam-esque mech suit bristling with various cannons, laser guns and missiles. Assuming the role of plucky N.A.P. operator Howie Bowie, you're tasked with taking on invading forces of an aggressive invading nation, looking to take them down before they can destroy your country.
The objective in each the game's levels is to destroy a set number of enemy vehicles, as indicated by the counter located to the top-left of the screen. Destroying sufficient tanks, attack choppers and other military hardware results in a showdown with a powerful boss, which is really more of the same, only harder. In practice, this means wandering aimlessly around various looping landscapes in search of targets, then blowing them up, all whilst trying not to take too much damage in return. To aid in your search, your N.A.P. has the ability to perform a dash move by double-tapping on the d-pad, but the effect is like trying to skate across an ice rink smothered in butter and is so uncontrollable as to be next to useless most of the time.
The game manages to sabotage itself further by incorporating a needlessly complex weapons system, where players must select from a series of hardpoints on their mech suit, each of which is equipped with a different gun. Two guns can be active at any one time, each with varying degrees of firepower, utility and usefulness. As your mech takes damage, weapons located in the lowermost slots are destroyed, so there is some strategy in working out which guns you can afford to lose, based on your personal preference.
Under most circumstances, a game all about 50-foot power mechs wielding obscenely destructive weaponry should make for a pretty solid game design, yet the folks at Wolf Team somehow managed the impossible, creating something which is almost entirely devoid of fun. The repetitive nature of hunting down enemies gets old pretty quickly, and there's really not much to recommend.
The game did, somehow, manage to spawn a sequel, launching a year later on the TurboGrafx and PC Engine CD. I'll be showcasing this in a future longplay, so stay tuned to see how it compares!
Information & Trivia
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Video Notes
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Related Longplays & Videos
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Chapters
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#retrogaming #segagenesis #longplay