Last chance for a NAP in Final Zone
Big stompy robots are a staple of Japanese popular media, and they’ve been handled to varying degrees of success in video games. Final Zone sees Wolfteam trying its hand at strapping the player into a big stompy robot and inviting them to rain death and destruction down on their enemies’ heads. And, as you have probably already surmised, this Mega Drive rarity can now be picked up as part of the excellent Renovation Collection 1 cartridge for the Evercade retro gaming platform.
Final Zone is another of Wolfteam’s games that de-emphasises the narrative-heavy aspect the company occasionally experimented with, and instead focuses firmly on gameplay. The game came out the same year as Granada, and indeed there’s a fair degree of commonality between the two; if I had to pick one that was “better” I’d probably plump for Granada, but that doesn’t mean Final Zone isn’t worth taking a look at, because it has a bunch of its own distinctive features.
In Final Zone, you take on the role of Howie Bowie (yes, really) and are tasked with piloting your New-Age Power Suit (or NAP) and occupying the strategic stronghold Point A-46K “Bloody Axis”. In order to accomplish this, there are a variety of specific enemies you need to obliterate off the face of the planet — with your ultimate aim being to destroy the enemy forces’ weapon of mass destruction. Just maybe keep quiet about how much destruction you single-handedly cause with your NAP in the process, hmm?
Much like its stablemate Granada, the core of Final Zone’s gameplay involves seeking out a set number of enemies in each stage and destroying them. Unlike Granada, however, Final Zone’s target enemies appear to spawn almost at random; there’s no radar to track them down, and the level maps appear to wrap around on themselves indefinitely. This is probably Final Zone’s biggest weakness; the fact the enemies seem to appear unpredictably can, at times, leave the game feeling a little directionless — but it does also mean that each playthrough is a little different from the last.
Final Zone’s unique selling point is that your NAP is able to acquire and equip a wide variety of different weapons, and up to two of them can be activated at a time, one each in either a “main” or “sub” slot. In the main slot, the weapon can fire indefinitely but is less powerful; in the sub slot, meanwhile, it has limited ammunition but is much more powerful. The exact way the weapon works also varies slightly according to which slot you have it in, with the limited subweapons often having additional benefits such as being able to cover a wider area.
The twist is that as your NAP gets damaged, you lose access to many of the available weapons, so you’ll likely want to make use of your favourites before taking too many hits from the foes around the map — which include seemingly infinite respawning trash enemies as well as the target foes you’re supposed to be destroying.
One interesting aspect of Final Zone is that it actually acknowledges the “big stompy” part of “big stompy robots” by allowing you to defeat a lot of enemies by simply walking into them, implying that you’re just sort of stepping on them. This puts you at risk of being hit by point-blank shots from said enemies, of course, but when surrounded by a lot of smaller, weaker foes it can often be more practical to simply step on them (mommy) than try to shoot them individually — particularly as the shooting mechanics emphasise the fact that a big stompy robot is actually quite a cumbersome thing to control.
In contrast to how Granada had separate buttons to fire your main weapon and lock the direction you were shooting, in Final Zone you simply continue to face the same direction you were when you started firing for as long as you hold either the main or subweapon button. This makes strafing a simple matter — which is quite useful when, say, flanking enemies who only fire right in front of them — but also makes responding quickly to threats that move around a lot quite challenging at times. You’ll want to practice the timing of releasing the fire button, changing direction and starting your barrage anew, particularly when facing awkward enemies like helicopters.
Final Zone also mixes things up quite nicely with its boss fights, which occur between the main enemy-hunting levels. The first of these sees you chasing a series of train cars along some tracks, destroying turrets on the back of each; subsequent ones see you battling enemies piloting NAPS like your own or fending off particularly intense swarms of enemies. These sequences break things up well and provide some variety from the main stages which, as noted, can sometimes get a little directionless if you’re unlucky with enemy spawns.
Final Zone perhaps isn’t one of Wolfteam’s best, then, but it’s still a good time. The high-speed action has a good feel to it, and the challenge added by getting to grips with the NAP’s handling makes for an interesting twist on the formula. The boss fights add variety and the wide range of weapons available keeps combat feeling interesting and distinct from Granada — and the energetic soundtrack is sure to please those who like their Mega Drive games to really sound like Mega Drive games. Long live the YM2612.
Evercade’s Renovation Collection 1 cartridge is available to order now. Screenshots from the Evercade version running on Evercade VS.
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