10 Gaming Franchises Sega Really Need To Resurrect
9. Fantasy Zone
Long before Sonic or even Alex Kidd took up the role as Sega’s official mascot, they actually had another character who was a lot more off the wall. The Fantasy Zone franchise stars a little fellow by the name of Opa-Opa, who takes the form of a little space ship with wings and feet.
Unlike most mascots, Opa-Opa didn’t appear in any platform games. All of his games were shoot ‘em ups set in a brightly coloured fantasy world. In fact, they were dubbed “cute ‘em ups” by the press of time due to their sickly sweet nature.
The first Fantasy Zone game appeared in arcades in 1985 and was later ported to a host of home systems, including Sega’s own Master System, where it really made its name. It was followed by a series of sequels, culminating in the 1992 release of Super Fantasy Zone on the Mega Drive, before it was consigned to the Sega archives.
In 2014 Sega chose to resurrect the first two games as part of its Sega 3D Classics series on the Nintendo 3DS to great acclaim so they already know what they need to do. Look towards recent 2D shoot 'em ups such as Darius Burst and Resogun and the success they've had, throw in the cute visuals of Fantasy Zone and you have a great new product for a new generation.