Zunzunkyou No Yabou (1994)

ZnY is basically Parodius meets Space Invaders (a premise also done by Taito themselves with Space Invaders '95: Attack of the Lunar Loonies), except you control a statue instead of a spaceship and you fight within an enclosed arena instead of vertical space. It would be more akin to an arena shooter like Robotron: 2084, except your statue can only shoot straight upward. The stages themselves all seem to be themed around different parts of the world: The kabuki boss on the far-left represents Japan, the chef represents China and mainland Asia, the crusader knight stands for Europe, and the superhero on the far-right stands for America. Yet even outside of the Japanese stages, there's a distinctly goofy flair about the game that emphasizes screwy cultural stereotypes from a Japanese game company. The game's actual developer, Minato Giken, also helped work on the Game Gear version of Dynamite Headdy, one of the most fantastically insane Genesis platformers ever, and that same sort of unhinged design can also be seen in ZnY. You fight talk show hosts, salarymen, pandas, matadors, clowns, rock stars, and other outlandish opponents detailed in exaggeratedly comical fashions. The graphic design is definitely ZnY's strong suit, with its colorful characters and quite detailed playfields making high use of Sega's System C-2 hardware, the same processor behind Puyo Puyo.

• Release Date: February 1, 1994