A pretty solid standard shmup starring a vaguely egg-shaped little man who buys things with money retrieved from other, equally odd little men.
I like how dying isn't as much of a setback as it is in other early shmups; once you come back, a shop balloon usually shows up to let you power yourself back up as needed, provided if you have enough funds. The Laser and 7-Way shots absolutely tear through things, but make bigger dents in your gold; the Wide shot is sort of just there but is the least costly, so I only get it if I really have to.
Said funds you will need for the second half of the game which picks up the pace by a surprising amount, throwing more dense amounts of enemies at you to keep you on your toes. Since lots of these guys like to give chase or close in on you, it's also around this point where you're expected to take advantage of the wrap-around as much as possible, something I like a lot.
I think the one thing that's stopping me from wanting to go through multiple loops are the weird extending tubes which serve as the final boss. It's sort of a puzzle; you're pretty much guaranteed to die against the last one unless you brought a Heavy Bomb or two with you. The problem is, since your special bombs replace regular ones in this game, it's not likely you'll make it there with one before dying anyway given all the bosses you have to go through first.
That being said! I think Fantasy Zone is really nice. Most of this series is nice, really. It might be a Scrimblo Bimblo series to you, but I have no regrets trying it.
I like how dying isn't as much of a setback as it is in other early shmups; once you come back, a shop balloon usually shows up to let you power yourself back up as needed, provided if you have enough funds. The Laser and 7-Way shots absolutely tear through things, but make bigger dents in your gold; the Wide shot is sort of just there but is the least costly, so I only get it if I really have to.
Said funds you will need for the second half of the game which picks up the pace by a surprising amount, throwing more dense amounts of enemies at you to keep you on your toes. Since lots of these guys like to give chase or close in on you, it's also around this point where you're expected to take advantage of the wrap-around as much as possible, something I like a lot.
I think the one thing that's stopping me from wanting to go through multiple loops are the weird extending tubes which serve as the final boss. It's sort of a puzzle; you're pretty much guaranteed to die against the last one unless you brought a Heavy Bomb or two with you. The problem is, since your special bombs replace regular ones in this game, it's not likely you'll make it there with one before dying anyway given all the bosses you have to go through first.
That being said! I think Fantasy Zone is really nice. Most of this series is nice, really. It might be a Scrimblo Bimblo series to you, but I have no regrets trying it.