Fortified Zone Game by Jaleco Reviewed by Philip Wesley Size: 256 kilobits (32 KiloBytes) Save: Passcodes (4/Numbers) Released: 1991 Works with: Game Boy Units up to Game Boy Advance SP. ESRB Rated: E Rating Descriptions: Mild Violence Quick Opinion: Rent... **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: Masato Kanzaki and Mizuki Makimura are on a mission. They have been sent deep into enemy territory to destroy the Command Center of the enemy. Masato is the beefy hero and Mizuki is the sexy heroine of this stage. They must fight through four mazes and defeat five bosses to save whatever it is they are fighting for in the Fortified Zone! Fortified is derived from the Latin word "fortis" which means "strong" and the past tense of the Latin word "facere" which means to make. Fortified means "made strong." Zone is derived from the Latin word "zona," which means "belt" or "girdle." Essentially, a Fortified Zone is a "strengthened belt." Because I am horribly boring, I think I shall also find the origins of the main characters names. Masato Kanzaki: Masato can either mean "True Wisedom" (Ma/Sato) or "Righteous Person." (Masa/To) Kanzaki can mean "Flower Pondering Joy" (Kan/Za/Ki) or "Flower Steep Cape." (Kan/Zaki) His name probably means "Righteous person enjoying the sight of flowers." Mizuki Makimura: Mizuki can mean either "Beautiful Moon" (Mi/Zuki) or "Congratulations Hope." (Mizu/Ki) Makimura means either "True Wood Village" (Ma/Ki/Mura) or "Hemp Joy Waste." (Ma/Ki/Mura) Mura is modern slang for wasteful practices. Her name most likely means "Beautiful moon over a town in celebration." I hope that the names for the main characters were intended to be ironic. Now we shall dive deep into the heart of The Fortified Zone to get you another one of our "award winning" reviews! **************************************************************************** Gameplay Description: At first glance, many people think that this game is close to the Metal Gear series. In reality, this plays a bit more like a top down version of Doom. You can switch between two characters during game play or use the Game Link Cable, two Game Paks, and two Game Boys to play a co-op version where characters explore together. The difference between the main characters is this. Masato can carry different weapons, power up those weapons, and fire more bullets that can travel across the screen. Mizuki can jump over some obstacles; but she can not fire as fast or as far as Masato. She can also not carry different weapons. She moves slightly faster as well. The gameplay consists of exploring a military "base" in search of power up items and a door that will lead you to the boss of that level. Some doors require you to kill all the enemies in a room, find a key, or destroy some sort of "mini-boss." Enemies shoot at you or charge at you when you approach them. Hitting the SELECT button brings up your map and allows you to switch between the two characters. You can also collect first aid kits to heal your character of damage they currently have OR you can save those first aid kits to fully replenish your health.. In order to "save" a med kit, a character with a full life bar has to touch it. You can increase your life bar by finding "life up" kits that enemies drop. The game play is pretty simple, short, and to the point. The only real difference between enemies is how many shots they take to kill and how much damage their shots do on you. Liked: Simple and entertaining. Hated: The differences between the two main characters should really be better defined and less sexist. It boils down to: "Guy strong and shoot lots of guns!" "Woman weak. She only jump and run away." **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: The main characters are pretty big and detailed. The bosses are weird and fairly big. Bullets look like slow moving baseballs and are easy to dodge if you are paying attention. The enemies are generic and the settings are visually uninspired. Everything is easy to see and understand in the menus and on screen information. You can easily tell how many special weapon bullets and life you have left. The main characters are actually quite detailed. The main male character looks like he is trying to be "Rambo" with just his military pants. The main female character is sporting some low-cut "Daisy Duke" shorts. When she stands still it looks like the crack of her butt is sticking out over her pants. She also has a jumping animation, so it looks like they spent more time on her than on the male character. One thing that bugs me is that the pellets from the guns never look like they are coming out of the actual gun. Instead it appears that the round ping pong ball bullets are shooting straight from the characters stomach or crotch. Silly complaints aside, the game looks really good and is easy to see on any of the Game Boy variations. When you hit SELECT, you are greeted by a face profile for the character you are currently using. The face profile pictures look fine, except for the 1980's style hair that the two main characters appear to be cursed with. Each of the "extra" weapons looks slightly different when used and the enemy shots are easy to see. It still looks like your character is shooting balls out of their crotch. There is some sort of life lesson to be learned from this and I suggest we all give up on ever learning that lesson. Liked: Fairly detailed bosses and main characters. The Sound Test is full of dancing objects. Hated: Bland settings, and awkward animation when you fire a bullet. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: There is a programmable sound test in the main menu of this game called SOUND BOY. Check it out and enjoy the pretty great music in this title. The sound effects are appropriate and do not detract from the action on screen. The music -outside of two tracks- is really well done "heroic action" music. It would not be out of place in a Mega Man game. I feel that I have spent almost as much time listening to the Sound Test as I have spent playing the actual game. I think this is because "Sound 4" is amazing. Liked: The music -aside from two dreadfully monotonous tracks- is excellent. You can program your own play list in the sound test. All you really need is "Sound 4" though. Hated: Sound 01 and Sound 03 are DREADFUL. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: Switching between the main characters is easy to do and the controls are pretty easy to understand as well. The game, however, is short, simple, and the variation between the characters feels badly thrown together. B fires your weapon and A uses either your jumping skill or uses your special ammo. Like Doom, the game is simple: Find keys, find boss, kill boss, lather, rinse, repeat. That simplicity, coupled with easy, responsive controls and an interesting co-op mode make for a fairly well designed game. The co-op mode is interesting but not intuitive or worth the set up for it. Liked: Simple and fun. Hated: Stupidly simple and very lacking in replay value. Once you have beaten the game, you really have done everything there is to this game. It is fun; but it is also really short. **************************************************************************** Improve: Better define character differences and add more plot and areas to explore. This game just needs more variation and length. RIYL: Chiptune music, games where you shoot a few things. **************************************************************************** Final Words: The "rent" opinion on the top of the page fits this game pretty well. That said, if you can find it pretty cheap, I would suggest picking it up for the hour or two of play that you will get out of it. Worth checking out and buying for cheap. Not an amazing game by any stretch of the imagination; but it has some interesting quirks that make it worth the small time investment to check out. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: *** Graphics: *** Sound/Music: *** Play Control/Game Design: *** Value: *** Star Total: 45% Personal Opinion Merit: 19% Final Score: 64% Letter Grade: C ****************************************************************************