Out Zone

Out Zone[lower-alpha 1] is a run and gun arcade video game developed by Toaplan and published in Japan by Tecmo, North America by Romstar and Europe on August 1990.[4][5] It is notable for being one of the few titles by Toaplan that has not received any official port to home consoles.[6][7][8] Set in the future of the year 2097, where an alien race from the fictional planet Owagira are threatening to wipe out humanity after multiple failed attempts to defend Earth against their attacks, players assume the role of cyborg mercenaries recruited by the United Nations in a last-ditch effort to overthrow the invaders on the titular galaxy system.

This article is about the 1990 arcade game. For the 1991 video game, see Outzone.
Out Zone
Developer(s)Toaplan
Publisher(s)
Designer(s)Naoki Ogiwara[1]
Composer(s)Tatsuya Uemura
Platform(s)Arcade
Release
Genre(s)Run and gun
Mode(s)
CabinetUpright
CPUM68000

Out Zone received positive reception from critics since its release and has been praised for its visuals, sound design, gameplay, multiplayer, challenge and overall intensity but some lamented the lack of a console release. A spiritual successor, FixEight, was released for arcades in July 1992. As of 2019, the rights to the title is owned by Tatsujin, a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan member Masahiro Yuge and now-affiliate of Japanese arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia alongside many other Toaplan IPs.

Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot.

Out Zone is a science fiction-themed vertically scrolling run and gun game reminiscent of Commando and Ikari Warriors, where players assume the role of two cyborg mercenaries hired by the United Nations through seven increasingly difficult levels, each with a boss at the end that must be fought before progressing any further, in a last-ditch effort to overthrow an alien race from the planet Owagira from invading Earth as the main objective.[7][5][9][10][11] As far as run and gun games go, the title initially appears to be very standard, as players fights enemies on foot and move upward through the level. Players are equipped with a number of bombs at the start, which obliterates any enemy caught in its blast radius, however player characters are not rendered invincible for any period of time after using a bomb.[9]

A unique gameplay feature is the weapon system;[7][5][9][10] unlike other games in the run and gun genre, players are equipped with two main weapons at the beginning that can be upgraded by picking up to two "P" icons in a row and switch between them by picking up a "C" icon. The semi-automatic forward gun shoots forward no matter which way players move, but shoots three bullets in a slight spread each time the fire button is pressed, while the all-direction laser fires in the direction of movement, creating a sweep of bullets as the player character changes direction. The laser also shoots rapidly when tapping the fire button and each weapon is useful in certain situations, as players will often have to switch based on the enemy configuration. Other weapons appear on certain occasions as different colored "SP" icons to acquire, like a flamethrower and a rotating energy ball capable of piercing walls.[7][9][10]

Another gameplay feature is the energy bar; Similar to Wonder Boy, players must remain aware of the energy bar, which constantly runs down at a steady pace and can only be refilled by collecting "E" icons scattered throughout the stage.[7][9] However, the energy bar itself does not act as health, as players can still be killed with a single enemy shot.[7] Various other "SP" items can also be picked up along the way such as 1UPs, a speed increaser, shield and an energy extender that increases the length of the energy meter.[9]

The game hosts a number of hidden bonus secrets to be found, which is also crucial for reaching high-scores to obtain extra lives, as well as cameos of characters from other Toaplan games such as Flying Shark, Truxton and Zero Wing.[7] The title uses a checkpoint system in which a downed single player will start off at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before dying. Getting hit by enemy fire, colliding against solid stage obstacles, falling off the stage or running out of energy will result in losing a live, as well as a penalty of decreasing the characters' firepower and speed to his original state and once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the players insert more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing. Although there is an ending, the game loops back to the first stage after completing the last stage as with previous titles from Toaplan, with each one increasing the difficulty and enemies fire denser bullet patterns.

Development

Out Zone's soundtrack was composed by Tatsuya Uemura, who also created the sound effects, while Naoki Ogiwara served as designer.[1][12][13][14] Uemura recounted its development process and history in a 2017 interview, stating that it was difficult for him as he could not apply his experience from vertically scrolling shooters with flying ships, as players controlled the game on-foot and could not design its progress.[14] He stated that the project was fundamentally different due to the lack of forced scrolling, which did not required skills from vertical-scrolling shooters and players could move or stop freely.[14][13] Uemura stated that the introduction was written during creation of the demonstration sequence, as the game's world was already established.[12] The team integrated puzzle elements not found in ship-based shooters, which took time to plan out and Uemura stated that the schedule for sound production was constantly being reduced, barely implementing the music during development.[14] When composing the music for the last stage, Uemura wanted to convey the sense of a "decisive battle".[14] Uemura has since regaded the project to be "the most difficult product he worked on".[14]

Release

Out Zone was released in arcades worldwide on August 1990 by Tecmo, Romstar and Toaplan.[2][3][15] On October 21 of the same year, an album containing music from the title and Snow Bros. was co-published exclusively in Japan by Scitron and Pony Canyon, featuring an arranged song composed by Uemura.[14][16]

M2 ShotTriggers

On April 2020, M2 announced a new version of Out Zone as part of their M2 ShotTriggers publishing label.[17][18][19][20] It was first announced to be released on the Nintendo Switch.[21]

Reception and legacy
Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
CVG80%[22]
Sinclair User85%[23]
Your Sinclair84° / 100°[24]
Zero[25]

Out Zone received positive reception from critics since its release and has become a well regarded title from Toaplan in recent years. In Japan, Game Machine listed it on their August 15, 1990 issue as being the fifth most-successful table arcade unit of the year, outperforming titles such as Dark Seal, Final Fight and Parodius! From Myth to Laughter.[26] Leisure Line magazine reported the game to be the fifth most-popular Japanese coin-op game of the year, outdoing both Columns and Air Duel in their September 1990 issue.[27] In the November 1990 issue of Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine, the game was ranked on the number fifteenth spot in popularity.[28] On May 1991, UK magazine Zero ranked it on their number nine spot in populatiry.[29]

Sinclair User praised the fast-paced gameplay and frenetic action, stating that "Outzone is one hell of a challenge, particularly past the initial stages, but is sure to set the pulse racing if you've got the reactions to match it!".[23] Likewise, David Wilson of Your Sinclair praised the frenetic gameplay, although he drew comparison with Mercs.[24] Retro Gamer's Mike Bevan gave positive remarks to the presentation but lamented the lack of a console release.[10][30] Computer and Video Games's Julian Rignall scored the game with a overall 80% rating.[22] Nick Zverloff of Hardcore Gaming 101 gave it an overall mixed retrospective.[7] Similarly, Malcolm Laurie from SHMUPS! lamented the lack of a console port but praised the visuals, sound design, gameplay and multiplayer.[31]

Out Zone was included as one of the titles in the 2010 book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die.[32] A spiritual sequel, FixEight, was released in July 1992 for arcades.[7] In more recent years, the rights to the game, its spiritual follow-up and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin, a company named after Truxton's Japanese title that was founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge, who are now affiliated with arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia.[33][34][35][36][37]

Notes
  1. Japanese: アウトゾーン Hepburn: Auto Zōn
gollark: > Generics> At the moment only one type parameter named T is supported.
gollark: > V combines Option and Result into one type, so you don't need to decide which one to use.What an amazing design.
gollark: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EIm26iZUcAAQBf3?format=jpg&name=small
gollark: ௮.
gollark: Fine, anomalous unicode.

References
  1. Iona; VHS; K-HEX (June 2009). "東亜プラン FOREVER (3/5)". Floor 25 (in Japanese). Vol. 9. (Translation by Gamengai. Archived 2019-11-22 at the Wayback Machine).
  2. Yanma (September 1990). "Super Soft Hot Information - Video Game! (アーケード・ゲーム): アウトゾーン". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 99. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. p. 244.
  3. Akagi, Masumi (13 October 2006). テクモ（テーカン）Tecmo; 東亜プラン (Toa Plan); Romstar; O. アーケードTVゲームリスト 国内•海外編 (1971-2005) (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Amusement News Agency. pp. 49, 50, 130, 160. ISBN 978-4990251215.
  4. "極楽VGブラザーズ: 東亜プラン - Out Zone". Beep! MegaDrive (in Japanese). No. 7. SoftBank Creative. April 1990. p. 99.
  5. "Out Zone (ARC)". Postback (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2018-01-19. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  6. Lambie, Ryan (February 2010). "The Unconverted: Out Zone". Retro Gamer. No. 73. Imagine Publishing. p. 57.
  7. Zverloff, Nick (5 February 2011). "Toaplan Shooters (Page 4) - Out Zone". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 26 February 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  8. "Interface - Developer Profile / Toaplan: Bullet time - A decade of Toaplan". Wireframe. No. 13. Raspberry Pi Foundation. May 9, 2019. pp. 52–53.
  9. "OUT ZONE" (in Japanese). Shooting Star. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  10. Bevan, Mike. "Rogue's Gallery: O is for... - Outzone (Toaplan- Arcade)". Destroy All Monsters!. Archived from the original on 2019-01-19. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  11. "Welcome to the Outzone Worship page!". The Out Zone Worship Page. August 31, 2004. Archived from the original on January 13, 2007. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  12. "東亜プラン シューティングクロニクル". SweepRecord (in Japanese). SuperSweep. 14 November 2011. Archived from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2020-02-27. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2018-07-11 at the Wayback Machine).
  13. Kiyoshi, Tane; hally (VORC); Yūsaku, Yamamoto (3 February 2012). "東亜プラン特集 - 元・東亜プラン　開発者インタビュー: 上村建也". Shooting Gameside (in Japanese). Vol. 4. Micro Magazine. pp. 33–40. ISBN 978-4896373844. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-09-06 at the Wayback Machine).
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  15. Out Zone arcade flyer (Toaplan, EU)
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  18. McFerran, Damien (April 18, 2020). "M2 Is Making A Stupidly Expensive Shooter More Affordable On Home Consoles - Along with some other amazing Toaplan titles". Nintendo Life. Nlife Media. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
  19. Wong, Alistair (April 19, 2020). "Toaplan's Flying Shark, Twin Cobra, Truxton II, and Out Zone Coming to Modern Platforms". Siliconera. Curse LLC. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  20. Moyse, Chris (April 20, 2020). "Out Zone, Twin Cobra, and other classic Toaplan shmups coming soon from M2 - Save your quarters". Destructoid. Enthusiast Gaming. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  21. "Switchにくる! 東亜プランの4タイトル". Nintendo Dream (in Japanese). No. 315. Tokuma Shoten. July–August 2020.CS1 maint: date format (link)
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  29. Wilson, David (May 1991). "Dosh Eaters: Slotties Chart". Zero. No. 19. Dennis Publishing. p. 40.
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  35. "Tatsujin". exA-Arcadia. 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  36. Bravo, Roberto (January 25, 2019). "Tatsujin, los dueños de Toaplan, anuncian que están trabajando para exA-Arcadia" (in Spanish). Gamercafe. Archived from the original on October 21, 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
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