The newest entry in the Sonic franchise, Sonic Superstars, is now available. In addition to its many references to past Sonic games, a reference to another more obscure Sega title has recently been discovered. In Act 2 of Frozen Base Zone the game takes on the sidescrolling shooter genre, and directly references the 1986 arcade title Fantasy Zone.
Fantasy Zone was a sci-fi shooter originally released in arcades. It was later ported to a number of other systems, including the NES. Today, it’s even available to play on Switch under the Sega Ages banner.
The Sonic Superstars level in question features enemies and a boss that are clearly designed to be more modern counterparts to the old school sprites from Fantasy Zone. Below, check out some comparison screenshots courtesy of Destructoid:
