Out Zone

About Out Zone

Out Zone (1990) is Toaplan's vertically scrolling arcade run and gun in which two cyborg mercenaries, hired with the UN's entire annual budget, fight off an alien invasion, an intense, well-regarded game that stayed out of homes for three decades.

Out Zone in Depth

Reminiscent of Commando and Ikari Warriors, it sends two cyborg mercenaries upward on foot through seven increasingly difficult levels, each ending in a boss. They start with bombs that destroy everything in their blast, though using one gives no invincibility. The distinctive weapon system offers two main guns, upgraded by "P" icons and swapped by collecting "C" icons: a forward gun that fires a three-shot spread straight ahead however the player moves, and an all-direction laser that fires the way the player is moving, sweeping bullets as they turn and firing rapidly when the button is tapped. Different enemy layouts call for constant switching, and "SP" icons give special weapons such as a flamethrower and a wall-piercing energy ball, along with 1UPs, speed-ups, shields and an energy extender.

As in Wonder Boy, an energy bar drains steadily and must be refilled with "E" icons, though it is not health; a single shot still kills. Lives are also lost to collisions, falls and running out of energy, sending players back to a checkpoint with their firepower and speed reset, and finishing the last stage loops back to the first at a higher difficulty. Hidden bonuses help reach the scores needed for extra lives, and characters from Flying Shark, Truxton and Zero Wing make cameos.

Making Out Zone

Uemura composed the music and created the sound effects, with Naoki Ogiwara as designer. Uemura found it hard because his experience with ship-based vertical shooters did not apply to an on-foot game without forced scrolling, where players could move or stop freely, and the team added puzzle elements that took time to plan, while the sound schedule kept being cut. Tecmo, Romstar and Toaplan released it worldwide in August 1990. Game Machine listed it as Japan's fifth most popular arcade game in its 15 August 1990 issue, and it charted in Australia, North America and the UK. Sinclair User called it "one hell of a challenge" that would "set the pulse racing", Your Sinclair compared it to Mercs, and Computer and Video Games gave it 80%. Unusually for Toaplan, it received no official home port at the time, which Retro Gamer and SHMUPS! lamented, until M2 announced a version and it appeared on the Astro City Mini V in 2022. A spiritual successor, FixEight, followed in 1992.