RGR Game #014: Fortified Zone

Aww, they broke the logo!

They're slow to react, I guess.

All right, folks, next up on our list is Fortified Zone for the Game Boy. I remember being so excited about this game when I saw a preview of it in Nintendo Power or some other magazine. But I guess I wasn't excited enough, because I never did get around to playing it. The game is called Ikari no Yousai (Fortress of Fury) in Japan, where I recently learned there was a sequel that never made it to the US; there was another sequel for the Super NES that was released here, titled Operation Logic Bomb. I'll probably be adding those two to my list pretty soon.

The story follows two mercenaries named Masato and Mizuki as they infiltrate a mysterious enemy stronghold, fighting soldiers, mutants and robots along the way. One interesting feature I should note is that the game allows you to switch between the two characters at any time on the pause screen, and they have their own special abilities: Masato can handle the enemies' special weapons while Mizuki has the ability to jump over spikes (an ability that I admittedly didn't find out about until after I had finished the game). This allows for a little bit of strategy amongst all the carnage and mayhem.

There's also a ridiculously detailed sound test mode called Sound Boy, but I only spent enough time with the mode to put together the one animation below.

Masato & Mizuki: Mega Mercenaries!

Dance, Sound Boy, dance!

How'd they fit that through the door?

You know, spike traps are awfully silly.

At least they're not heat-seeking.

I wonder where the boss is.

Each stage (or each floor of each stage) is laid out on a 5x5-screen grid, and the goal is generally to hunt down one or more larger enemies to obtain keys needed to get through one or more locked doors that eventually lead to the boss. Some rooms are divided by walls and can have multiple entrances from one direction, so navigation isn't quite so straightforward. Basically, each stage is a simple maze, and you make a map as you go along. There are also some tricks, like fake walls (identified by their missing shadows), pitfalls and dark rooms.

Stage one, the Field stage, introduces some of the soldier-type enemies, such as "guy with gun", "guy with three-way gun", and "guy with knife". The larger enemies include jeeps with rear-mounted guns and complex multi-barrel gun turrets that strangely only fire one shot at a time.

First Boss: Gun Battery

Inside the large black-floored boss room, three large gun turrets sit on raised platforms, ready to shoot if you wander into their line of fire. This would be a fairly scary thought if you didn't realize that they're only capable of aiming at 45-degree angles. Of course, people of the era were only able to aim at 90-degree angles, but people are smaller targets than great big gun turrets. Because of this, I was easily able to move from gun to gun, putting myself in a position that kept me out of the gun's line of fire, but keeping the gun in mine. I picked the guns off one at a time, and it was on to stage two, the Jungle stage.

This is what we call a "safe spot".

So was this.

I remember these things from Zelda!

Another Jeep? Do they build these in the rooms?

Stage two was laid out in a similar fashion to stage 1, though the textures were a bit different. There was no apparent jungle foliage, but everything was a little dirtier. The traps had expanded to include the sliding dagger blocks you see above, and as I recall, some of the enemies had improved body armor that could withstand multiple shots. Beyond that, though, not much had changed.

Second Boss: Tank

The tank's main cannon, much like the gun turrets, was only able to fire at 45-degree angles. However, the tank was much more dangerous because it could actually move. It would erratically roll back and forth, aiming and firing when possible. To make it trickier to line up shots from the side, two smaller guns were mounted on either side of the tank's rear. My strategy was to get in front of it, but not directly in front of the cannon, and open fire until it started to approach. I accidentally destroyed the right side-mount gun in the process, though I'm not complaining. Once the main cannon was gone, I just trotted up and annihilated the left gun to finish the tank off.

This seems like an unbalanced fight.

Unbalanced in my favor, that is!

Who keeps attack bats?

Does this thing have a moustache?

Stairs... so this place has two floors?

Wow, those medpacks are adding up.

So... confused...

Mutant crab people! Run!!!

Stage three, the Cave stage, was where things started getting strange. Not only was it the first stage with two floors, but it introduced all sorts of strange creatures as enemies. I ran into bats with 8-way shot capability, giant one-eyed armored insect things, and the weird man-dog-crab hybrid above. Some rooms began with inverted controls, thanks to some kind of brain-scrambling device the enemy has developed. Luckily, overcoming the controls is easy, and destroying the device reverses the effects.

Third Boss: Dragon

You heard me right. It's a dragon. It breathes fire and everything. Its pattern consists of moving left or right to a certain spot, shooting three fireballs in a wide pattern, then moving left or right again, and then charging with its head flailing back and forth. After a brief pause, it slowly walks back to the top of the screen and starts again. The fireballs aren't that fast, but they're bigger than any other weapon so far, so it pays to be careful when running from or dodging them. The dragon's weak spot is its head, and it can take a lot of damage before it finally dies. With some patience, though, it's not a difficult boss.

Whoa, I was not expecting this.

Sorry, Mr. Dragon, but business is business!

Next stop: stage four, the Fortress!