SEGA Rereleases Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa for the Wii Virtual Console

Think of a Mario-Style platformer, then take away the platforms and you'll get an idea of what this week's new Wii Virtual Console retro rerelease is all about. Originally released in 1987 for the SEGA Master System, Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa, quickly became one of the Master System's most popular titles, even spawning a coin-op arcade port and a version for SEGA's biggest competition, the Nintendo Famicom (the Japanese NES).

The world of Fantasy Zone is populated by living space ships of all kind, with the player controlling Opa-Opa, the hero from the original. Taking place 10 years after the first Fantasy Zone, the innocent planets are once again under attack by alien invaders, so it's up to Opa-Opa to single handedly shoot through multiple levels of enemies, all uniquely designed and addictive to play. Each level is split up into three zones and to clear out all the invader's bases within each area. Once all the bases in each level are destroyed you proceed to a boss battle, which consists of giant, wacky and weird space ship baddies. In the final stage you have to face each boss from the previous levels before hitting their leader, and a twist ending you never would have expected.

This latest release on Virtual Console is part of SEGA's big retro rerelease push on all Next-Gen platforms, and the first time Fantasy Zone II has been seen in North America in nearly 22 years. The original Fantasy Zone is also available on Virtual Console (Master System version) and as part of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (aka SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection).

Packshot © SEGA