The Classic Arcade and Console Era (1972-1989) - Zillion
Cross Impossible Mission with Metroid and you get this wonderful anime-themed action adventure game where the Sega Light Phaser is your actual in-game weapon.
RELEASE DATE: 1987
DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: Sega
BEST VERSIONS: Sega Master System
PLAYABILITY TODAY: Fairly playable
The way people talk today, you’d assume that Nintendo’s Metroid and Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest were the only progressive exploration, non-linear open-map action-adventure games (commonly known as “Metroidvanias”) that mattered until Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night came along in the 1990s and perfected the concept. But as we’ve seen in the previous volume of this series with PC games like Exile, Impossible Mission, Strangeloop and Eye of Horus or console games like Wonder Boy in Monster World, Faxanadu or Clash at Demonhead, there were plenty of other games that utilized similar mechanics. Even so, I was surprised to learn that Sega had created its own action-adventure in this mold and that it was not only a game I’d never heard about, but also was released in North America despite being based on a relatively obscure anime series.
This game and anime, both titled Red Photon Zillion or Zillion for short, debuted in 1987 and had heavy involvement from both Sega and anime studio Tatsunoko, even utilizing the design of Sega’s Light Phaser peripheral for the initial versions of the story’s “Zillion Weapon System” wielded by heroes J.J., Champ and Apple. The anime was only 31 episodes long (plus a sequel OVA) and never really found an audience outside of Japan, perhaps because was pretty derivative of better science fiction series but also because its primary goal seems to have been to sell merchandise. As an interesting bit of trivia, it’s also the first series produced by the famed animation studio that became Production I.G., though it’s nowhere near the quality of their later work.
The story revolves around a team called the “White Nuts” fighting the evil alien Nohza Empire, whose goal is to wipe out humanity on the planet Maris, though the group is called the “White Knights” and the enemies are renamed the Norsa in the North American version of the game. The evil Supreme Commander Baron Ricks leads the Norsa forces and Empress Admis frequently shows up to give direction. Oh, and for some reason, Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone is a frequent guest character.
The game takes place in a self-contained story that (in the North American localization) involves J.J. exiting a White Knights rover and descending into a Norsa base on Planet X where he has to rescue Apple and Champ as well as retrieve several data disks. J.J. is armed with the phaser-like Zillion weapon which he can fire while standing or crouching, and he also has the ability to jump or crawl. To complete his mission, J.J. has to access computer terminals with ID cards he finds around the base and input codes that either change the dynamics of the room he’s in or which open doors and turn on elevators.
The beginning of the game includes a lengthy (and, to be honest, initially overwhelming!) briefing on the game’s ten global codes, which are triggered by inputting a series of four symbols. Fortunately, these codes just require inputting the same glyph four times, but the symbols look a bit strange at first and are hard to keep straight until you realize a key secret – with the exception of the numbers 8 and 0, they each represent a whole number on the right side along with its mirror image to the left. If you can begin thinking about the glyphs as numbers, the codes become much easier to read and remember. (It’s also a lot easier to use game guides since they tend to use numbers as shorthand.) The global codes allow you to do things like shut off electric walls, disable sentry guns or silence alarms. There are also codes that warp you around the base or which allow you to commit suicide if you get yourself into an unwinnable situation. Once you have the data diskettes, you can also input the code 8888 to destroy the master control terminal or 9999 to cancel that command. Using a global command also consumes an ID card, which means you have to use these commands sparingly since ID cards have to be located around the base and are unfortunately in limited supply. (The game would be so much more pleasant if you could get them from killing enemies.)
The trickier numbers you have to remember are found in the game’s many puzzle rooms, which are color-coded to let you know which area you’re in. In each puzzle room, you’ll find at least four containers you can destroy and then peer into, and while additional containers may have power-ups or health items, most will have a glyph. If you keep a piece of paper handy, you can write down the four numbers and then input them into a terminal to open closed doors or turn on hidden elevators. Because the numbers are randomized every time you enter the room, the only way to learn them is to access them without leaving the room. Unfortunately, the further you get into the game, the more often the numbers you need to know are locked behind electric walls, guarded by sentries or are in a section you can only access by triggering an alarm. This means many rooms require careful planning and a good understanding of how many ID cards you can afford to sacrifice to make things easier on yourself. The enemies also become more challenging as you progress, first only shooting from a standing position, but soon learning how to duck or how to shoot upwards through platforms when you’re above them.
Zillion has some light RPG elements in that you can level up your hit points (represented by numbers at the top of the screen), power up your weapon and give you greater jumping ability. Level-up power-ups are found in canisters and have an icon showing Opa-Opa. Leveling up J.J. to his fullest potential is essential, but as you get a little further in the game and free Apple and Champ, you can also utilize them by pressing start and switching characters. Both of these characters can also be leveled to a maximum point. Apple starts off as a better jumper than J.J. and can be useful for reaching difficult ledges, but Champ is pretty useless since he has a weak jump but a powered-up weapon that you don’t really need by the time you find him since J.J. should already be nearly fully leveled by then. Fortunately, each character has his or her own health bar, so having your allies does extend your ability to explore. The game also offers a limited number of continues which heal everyone on your team fully and allow you to restart from the same room. (You can get more by using a cheat code.)
If Zillion has a weak point, it’s in the game’s action. Most of the shooting is frustrating because your range is never quite as long as your enemies’ and prioritizes shooting containers over enemy units. Proximity mines are often placed across the floor in a manner that they can only be avoided by jumping, and it’s very easy to set them off while you do so. You only ever face one type of enemy, and the game has a tendency to place them in obnoxious starting positions where they get the first shot or to have them turn and face you with blasters blazing as soon as you’re behind them. Towards the end of Zillion, the game throws a single boss battle at you with some sort of cybernetic mutant fish, but it’s a pretty dull encounter that just involves jumping to avoid its fire bolts and shooting it until it’s dead.
(Beating the game is even a bit of a letdown, as your escape is rewarded with a quick message about your success and then followed by splash screens showing portraits of each characters along with their measurements and blood types. It’s pretty weird.)
If you’re going to give this game a try, you’ll need to either track down the original cartridge or find a copy of the game ROM to play on an emulator, which is really my preferred way to play since saved states reduce a lot of the frustration. I also highly recommend a guide due to the game’s difficulty and penchant for not-so-obvious solutions to puzzles. Once you get into Zillion, it’s an engaging game that is fun despite its faults, and if you find it too frustrating, there is a glitch you can trigger early on that allows you to have infinite hit points at the expense of not being about to change characters once you save them. If you miss it, you can trigger another one in any room where there’s a guard near a console. Both glitches unintentionally provide a sort of “easy mode” for the game which makes it a lot easier to explore and map out, so it’s at least worth considering.
Believe it or not, Zillion received a sequel also released in Japan in 1987 (and 1988 in North America) called Zillion 2: Tri Formation. Unlike its predecessor, it’s a straight action platformer with some scrolling levels where you only play as J.J. as he works to rescue his friends. The biggest addition to this game is the Tri Formation transforming motorcycle that also can become a mechanical suit, but the gameplay is so much more conventional that it feels unremarkable. On the plus side, however, you do get to battle some more recognizable enemies from the show, including the powerful Supreme Commander of the Norsa forces, Baron Ricks. I’d recommend this one for fans of the anime, but it’s otherwise skippable.
There’s also a strange connection between this series and Sega’s Opa-Opa character from Fantasy Zone. In the games, Opa-Opa makes cameo appearances rather than being playable, but in the anime, he shows up regularly as an ally and eventual member of the White Nuts. Fans have long puzzled out the connection between the games, purporting that perhaps Fantasy Zone takes place in another corner of Zillion’s universe, but many have concluded Sega allowed the Tatsunoko team to include the character in a non-canonical form to boost the stature of the anime much in the same way that a cartoon show like Captain N: The Game Master included weirdo versions of video game characters like Mega Man, Simon Belmont and Mother Brain. While it's nice to see Opa-Opa outside his own game series, he’s actually quite annoying and helpless in the Zillion anime. I much prefer him as the brave winged sentient ship beating back the darkness in the Fantasy Zone games.
As Our Series Continues…
It’s time to move on to console and arcade gaming in the 1970s and 80s, and we’re going to cover it all with an exploration into hundreds more games you’ve probably never played but definitely ought to check out. Come for amazingly great early 1980s games like Warlords, Super Locomotive, Shark! Shark!, Acrobatic Dog-Fight, Mysterious Stones: Dr. John’s Adventure and Intrepid and stick around for mid-to-late 1980s greats like Peter Pack-Rat, Penguin-kun Wars, Momoko 120%, UFO Robot Dangar, Wonder Momo, Raimais, Last Alert, The Legend of Valkyrie and the arcade version of Twin Eagle: Revenge Joe’s Brother, complete with a rockin’ soundtrack with wonderfully inscrutable lyrics.
If you’ve never heard of any of those games, you’re in for a treat as we explore them one by one. And If those games are all old hat to you, don’t worry; they’re just the tip of the iceberg for what we’ll be discussing!
If you missed my series on the hundreds of 1980s PC games you probably never played, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.
Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 2. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!
Really interesting read! I've never been able to get the Zillion theme song out of my head since randomly stumbling across a YouTube video of it some years ago. Peak 80s anime cheese!