Fortified Zone


Fortified Zone, known in Japan as Ikari no Yōsai is a 1991 video game developed and published by Jaleco for the Game Boy. It was first released in Japan on February 26, 1991 and later released in North America in September 1991. It was later added to the Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console on July 7, 2011, but the Australia region had it added on July 28, 2011.

Story

Fortified Zone's plot follows two Mercenaries named Masato Kanzaki and Mizuki Makimura as they infiltrate a literal fortified zone, where they must take on mercenaries, soldiers, robots and monsters before destroying the central complex at the fortified zone's heart.

Gameplay

Fortified Zone allows the player to switch between two characters during game play. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses: Masato uses all the special weapons, but cannot jump. Mizuki can jump, but cannot use the special weapons. A top-down shoot-'em-up, the game had four multi-room levels, titled 'Field', 'Jungle', 'Caves' and 'Complex'. At the end of each level the player faces a 'boss' character: a cannon installation, a supertank, a dragon, a bulldozer and a large assault vehicle as the final boss. Items that can be picked up in gameplay include medical packs, flamethrowers, hand grenades, rocket launchers, 3-way machine guns and chain guns.

Sequels

The game was the first entry in the Ikari no Yōsai series, and was followed by two sequels: Ikari no Yōsai 2 for the Game Boy, and Ikari no Yōsai for the Super Famicom. The former was later re-released for the Japanese 3DS Virtual Console on January 11, 2012.