While we wait for our coverage of yesterday's Taiko Team stream and the first video footage of Game Music Triangle's Phase 2, here's a closer look to ome of the first songs of this collaboration!
Fantasy Zone OPA-OPA! -GMT remix- (ファンタジーゾーン OPA-OPA! -GMT remix-) Hiro (SEGA)| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (92) | x6 (182) | x7 (263) | x7 (537) |
Taiko 0 M, Taiko PS Vita
142
none
fzoneAmong the first three songs of the ongoing Game Music Triangle collaboration, this is the only one where the composer of the original track from which the remix is based of is also the arranger of said remix! This is also the Sega side of the event's first phase.
Fantasy Zone OPA-OPA! is based on the BGM 'Opa Opa! & Shopping' from Sega's 1986 arcade shoot-em-up Fantasy Zone. During the space year 1422, the peace-bringer intergalactic organization Space Guild discovers a monetary crisis in the group of planets known as the Fantasy Zone, where a mysterious army from the planet Menon is stealing money from the surrounding planets, in order to build a giant fortress. In order to stop the evil scheme, the Space Guild sends for investigation the living spaceship Opa-Opa, considered by many as Sega's very first mascot character.
The game is a side-scrolling shooter, where players have to destroy all the enemies on each planet in order to reach and defeat the boss guards of each planet and move further. With the money collected by defeating enemies, it's also possible to upgrade the Opa-Opa with different weapons and engines, which are lost after losing a life. Aside with the earlier Konami game Twinbee, Fantasy Zone is often credited as the founder of the 'cute 'em up' shooter sub-genre, thanks to its cartoon-ish graphics. Several ports and main sequels to the game have been made until 1999, also reaching the 3rd millennium consoles and computers thanks to many Sega collections.
Fantasy Zone's main music composer is Hiroshi 'Hiro' Kawaguchi (川口博史), which is also the arranger of the GMT Remix Fantasy Zone. Being one of the members of the historical Sega AM2 team, Hiroshi is one of the oldest SEGA contributors which is still active today, composing music for many of Sega's most remarkable franchises such as Space Harrier, After Burner and OutRun (like MAGICAL SOUND SHOWER, which also is available in some Taiko games!)
Despite the mid-low BPM value and the 7-star rating, Fantasy Zone OPA-OPA! bears several restless cluster combinations of even-numbered notes, being reminiscent in some places of the challenge offered by old Namco Originals like Saturday Taiko Fever. The repeated pattern formations still makes the play easier for the players' memorization skills.
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That concludes our weekly corner for today, but the fun doesn't stop here! The Ridge Racer and Taito series have been updated with the other two Game Music Triangle Phase 1 songs, so go check them out!
