Ratalaika and Shinyuden have been on a roll lately with re-releases of classic games for modern systems, and the latest to receive the treatment is Final Zone, a somewhat forgotten isometric run ‘n’ gun for the Genesis / Mega Drive. This is a title that is interesting from a historical perspective, but with a lot of flaws. That said, given the low price being asked, this may be one that some find themselves curious to try out.
Final Zone sees you take control of a walking battle mech, and take out enemies in a set area that loops. Once all the enemies are defeated, you will fight a boss and then move on to the next stage and repeat until all the stages are finished. It is simplistic but straightforward, and may remind some of the current trend of Survivors style games that are all the rage.
Final Zone does not have much, and so you can jump right in without needing to follow anything plot wise. There is a plot in the game, but it is mostly found in the instruction manual. To be fair, for the kind of game Final Zone is, this is really not an issue and is to be expected.
No, Final Zone‘s issue is that the game’s control scheme is not very good. Final Zone feels like a game that was meant to be a twin-stick shooter, but lacked the means to do so on the Genesis / Mega Drive. What we have instead is a game where your mech will auto-pivot to face enemies. This sounds good, but is actually a bit of a mess instead.
Auto-aim is extremely unreliable and inconsistent, creating a harsh level of difficulty of the unfair kind. You will end up finding yourself fighting the game more than enemies and frustration will set it. You can find ammo like heat seeking missiles to help with the issue, but this is just a bandage on a deep gash.
Additionally, the enemy spawn points are utterly bizarre and random, and just make the game’s length artificial. Sometimes some enemies will not appear for long stretches, only to suddenly pop up, and other times there will be enormous waves to keep you busy. Once you add in the poor hit detection and unfair hit boxes, this becomes a test of how long before you give up and lose patience.
Final Zone has decent enough visuals, but nothing that stands out for its time. What is worse is the brutal soundtrack that will hurt your ears and will loop unrelentingly. This is a game you will want to play with the volume off, at least if you want to preserve your sanity.
Because this is a Ratalaika re-release, there are many extras included, such as box art and instruction scans that are viewable from the main menu. There are also options to save/load at will and rewind, which can come in handy, as well as optional cheats that you can use. These QoL features help a bit, but they do not manage to solve the deeper issue that Final Zone has, as they are inherent in the design, but if you wanna play to the end, then the cheats are a must.
All in all, Final Zone is in no way a great game, and yet for all my ragging on it, there is something here. You can clearly see that if some decisions had been different, this would have been a well regarded and influential game, but the design choices just worked against it. Sill, I am happy I played it, but now I want to see what else Ratalaika and Shinyuden will bring us when it comes to retro titles. They do some great work on the releases, even if not all the games chosen are the best.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
