Fortified Zone

The Good
The game handling is quite good, the top-down perspective works very well for this shooter. It is also a nice idea to have two characters, between which you can switch. They don't differ in ther abilities, though.

The Bad
Fortified Zone gets extremely unfair over the game. Since you're not allowed to save and I don't remember if there is a password function, you are sure to spend hours and hours in front of the tiny screen.

I also didn't like the setting very much. The rather strange alien/human enemies mix-up has not really a storyline behind it

The Bottom Line
Fortified Zone i a top-down shooter with rather good graphics and an innovative character switching option. On the other hand it is rather frustrating. You might want to try it out, if there are no better games left to play...

The Good
Fortified Zone is an overhead run and gun game developed and published by Jaleco. You switch between two mercenaries, Mazato Kanzaki and Mizuki Makimura, each one with different skills. The girl can jump over walls, traps and obstacles; the man can't, but he is able to pick up and use special weapons (which are more powerful). The woman cannot pick those up or even use them. So this adds an strategic element to the gameplay. It has 4 stages each one adding on complexity and difficulty. By Stage 3 you have multiple intricate floors like a maze, with doors you need keys for and even hidden secret mechanisms. Luckily you have an auto-map to plan where to go. Some of the rooms are a blast to play, very creative indeed (like the ones that invert your controls and you need to destroy a mechanical device to invert them back); and even the bosses have some unique fighting mechanics

It's a hard game for sure, the difficulty comes from certain rooms were you get swarmed by enemies and their bullets. But nothing you can't overcome if you were wise enough to save your special ammo for those. Also by the late stages enemies take way too much health (basically you end up having a two hit life bar) There are a variety of items to help you out making your weapons stronger, or giving you extra energy bars. Medicine kits act like extra lives (because you automatically use them once you lose all your energy). The graphics are a treat to the eye, the animations on the characters and enemies are fluid, the sprites are quite large and detailed and the bosses are huge! There are also some catchy smooth to the ear tunes by renown gaming composer Tsukasa Tawada.

The Bad
There's a password system and you get a code once you lose all your energy for both characters but you get to re-play the level with only 3 energy bars and no power ups for weapons (so, you might want to start all over again, cause you are as well as dead). Mizuki is really not good at fighting so you end up using her just in very specific rooms were jumping is required... this is probably the weakest aspect in the design of the game. There's also a two players Game Link mode, where you can trade items with the second player but I pity the one that gets the girl to play with.

The Bottom Line
Fortified zone is a short but fun game, with great responsive mechanics, challenging enemies and bosses, clever stages and room design, and even a serviceable story (always with the help of the manual) This is the sort of game you'd love to have in your collection.

The Good
The tag-team element of the characters brings a strategic element towards the game. So many of us would like to go into a game guns blazing, but having a second character there, who's fire power is weaker, but has the ability to jump, which is needed in the game allows for a greater experience.

The music is at its prime for a Gameboy game, although there are better soundtracks out there Fortified Zone's is by all means not disappointing, nor monotonous.

Finally, the boss battles are a treat, challenging, and epic, and always feels like you've accomplished something when they are defeated.

The Bad
Although a common occurrence in older games, it doesn't have a save feature, which can become tedious as the characters aren't invincible, arguably this could described as challenging, but it felt more frustrating than anything else.

Also, the female character is too weak to be used as a real playable character, it's as if there's a doomsday clock over the characters head when the male character dies. However this is only a minor flaw as it adds excitement more than annoyance.

The Bottom Line
A challenging, fun shoot-em-up for the nostalgic game player.