In 1987, hardly one year after Fantasy Zone was released, Sega came out with a sequel, Fantasy Zone II in the arcades and on the Mark III/Sega Master System. In Japan, the full title was Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa, but this title is still retained on the title screen of other versions, though not on the box inserts and manuals. Regardless, the character returned for an even better adventure. The basic format was kept the same but improved on drastically, so much so that I've had friends mistake the game for a 16-Bit title. This time, Opa-Opa takes on the Blackhearts and can essentially purchase the same weapons as before, though there were some additions including a purchasable life bar and invincibility shield. However, the game also introduced a series of warps (more as you progress), requiring the player to find each one hidden behind the bases to move on to other areas in the levels before finally locating the final warp to get to the boss. This made the game even more interesting in that it was essentially non-linear with a bit of an element of strategy. With secret shops and other goodies to find, it was definitely an improvement over the original, though Opa-Opa and the basic gameplay were essentially the same.

The story, however was changed into something quite strange. In the first game, Opa-Opa's lost father was the leader of the Menons, but in this title Opa-Opa's "other self" is in charge; a dual-personality created as a result of his "emotional stress" from his first battle, especially upon realizing his own father was to blame. In addition, his father assumed leadership of the Blackhearts because of his "paternal bond" with his son. One of the problems with his image by the time this game was released was that, though in the first it was suggested he was an alien or human within a craft, the ending of Fantasy Zone II suggests that the craft itself is Opa-Opa, a form of living spaceship. Unfortunately, this is never fully explained, but the character was nonetheless popular, so popular in fact that he even played as a guest character in the television series Red Photon Zillion. Because Sega was endorsing the show in its early episodes, even the guns the characters use resemble the Light Phaser for the Master System, but this was later removed when they dropped their support and the show was cancelled after hardly a year. Fantasy Zone II, though much better than the original, was only ported to two other systems, the Famicom and the MSX2.

Screenshot from Fantasy Zone: The Maze	Ending from Galactic Protector

But the problem becomes further complicated, because shortly after the release of Fantasy Zone II, Opa-Opa appeared again in the third game in the series. Unfortunately for Mark III and Master System fans (released elsewhere a year later), the title left much to be desired. Fantasy Zone: The Maze (Opa-Opa in Japan) was totally different from the previous games and designed by a different team, thus the likelyhood for its striking differences. First, you're no longer playing a shooting title, instead, certain elements were retained from the original two games and fused with a maze-like environment in the vein of Pac-Man. The game takes place a year after the first and this time involves Opa-Opa's younger brother Upa-Upa. Based on the manual and artwork, by this time all possibility of a separate alien or human inside the characters seems gone as they have been given eyes and any mention of a pilot is absent. The graphics were well below what even the first game possessed and most of the backgrounds were simply reused from the first Fantasy Zone, overlayed with fairly bland, black mazes and enemies so small their details were sometimes muddled. It seems that by this point, as we saw with Alex Kidd, the character had become the main selling point, not the idea and Sega fans were treated to a game that received lukewarm reviews at best.

One year after this, in Japan anyway, Opa-Opa again appeared in another game with this brother called Galactic Protector. This time, after their first adventure together in The Maze, Opa-Opa and his brother have to take out asteroids from a comet in order to save three planets, including Earth. However, though an interesting title and entertaining, albeit very short, this game further confused the actual identity of the character. Opa-Opa and his brother appear with rocket boosters instead of wings, and, to further complicate the issue of whether or not they're living ships, during the ending the player is given a screenshot of Opa-Opa with his hatch open, showing an empty cockpit (see picture above). This seems to suggest he is in fact operated by a separate entity, whatever that may be, but nothing is ever provided to elucidate on this matter and fans were left to wonder what exactly he was or is or had been or who knows.

This appears to be roughly the point where Opa-Opa's image and popularity began to decline. The most likely reason for this phenomenon is the simple fact that the type of games he was featured in all follow the same format. To use a contrasting character we've already gone over, Sonic the Hedgehog, it seems Opa-Opa simply did not have as much workability due to the fact that he was essentially a spaceship. It would have been completely ridiculous to imagine a platforming game where you play as Opa-Opa or anything of this nature, and thus his image became too static to work with. First, in 1991, he was released on the Game Gear in Fantasy Zone Gear, which is in many ways the same game as Fantasy Zone, though apparently you're now playing as Opa-Opa Jr., Opa-Opa's son, whatever that means. Is he alive or what? Come on. The last boss, in fact, appears to be Opa-Opa, taken over again perhaps by his 'evil side' from the second game. This is never explained in the ending however so it seems programmers may have simply been reusing the idea because it worked well for a shooter. As you can see, his image was already too solidified to do anything new with it and he had become so consistent as a shooter character that he could not be developed any further. This wasn't his end, however, and though only one more game was made, he has still retained his popularity and has some reverberations in our current era.

Title Screen from Super Fantasy Zone	Compare Level to the First Game Above

Opa-Opa's last official Fantasy Zone appearance occured in Super Fantasy Zone, released for the Megadrive in Europe and Japan. It was never released in the US, unfortunately, which is one of the likely reasons the character eventually fell out of popularity in the states and this may in fact have added to his overall demise. In this game, Opa-Opa has to avenge the death of his father at the hands of the 'Dark Menons', so there's a least a bit of a tie-in to the other titles. The gameplay, however, was essentially the same as all the others with some different enemies and new weapons, but the same, goofy, cartoon-like atmosphere remained, as did Opa-Opa's basic design. He was more refined, but still the same character in what was generally still the same game.

In addition, his actual identity and substance was further confused. Based on the game's opening, Opa-Opa apparently belongs to a race of living spaceships that are able to sprout arms to manipulate objects. In addition, the ending seems to forget that the first attacks on Fantasy Zone were led by Opa-Opa's father and Opa-Opa himself, now replaced by a mysterious character called the 'Dark Master'. Regardless, the main problem was still Opa-Opa's identity; with his new set of arms, no one was sure exactly what he was supposed to be. This goes back to the design of the characters in Twinbee, who were outfitted with arms from the very beginning, but in that series the ships were eventually explained as having pilots (refer to article link above), whereas for Opa-Opa this fact was constantly obscured. Had this been futher developed, his image could have been retained and perhaps new titles would have been released featuring his pilot as a main character while still tying in to his original image. But, in a strange coincidence, both series and characters have seemed to fall out of popularity for most likely the same fact, they can't work in any other game than a shooter. This of course led to Opa-Opa's end, and even though his final game in the series seems to suggest more was to come based on the ending, it never came to pass, at least not yet. However, this wasn't a total end for him, and there's a reason why he's still popular to many fans.

Galaxy Dream Fantasy Zone Ticket Spitter	Nice Shirt Dude, Gimmie

Opa-Opa has still managed to live on and part of this reason may be due to the fact that he was such a static character, but at the same time appeared in a series of games that were consistently good, unlike the unfortunate past of our first character, Alex Kidd. Opa-Opa still appears from time to time up to the present day, but in such a way that he remains memorable. One of the main problems was that his name is subservient to the series itself. But, due to its general simplicity by today's standards and excellent gameplay, Fantasy Zone was ported to modern systems such as the Playstation 2 and even on mobile phones, finally solidifying his reputation as one of Sega's most famous characters. He may have been too static to work with, but at least he worked. He has recently even appeared in arcades as one of those blasted, impossible to win ticket machines where you propel little balls into targets to get points and eventually tickets to purchase prizes well below what you paid to win them (that's the picture above). Though he may not be as popular as Sonic the Hedgehog and has yet to appear in any additional games, he will likely remain as one of the most memorable characters to ever glorify the name of Sega, starting from his first release in the arcades and on the Mark III/Master System. As you can see by the chap in the shirt above, he's even become something of a retro character in the same way old Nintendo Power shirts are still being printed in the US, and these issues alone will be certain to retain his image for a very, very long time.