The science fiction game "Zillion" is among the veterans on Sega's master system and should be a name familiar even with casual gamers of the 8-bit world. With an agent scenario anime style it reminds some of the popular Japanese character animated series as "Captain future" or "Saber Raider". This is not a coincidence, because the game was released along with an eponymous cartoon from Tatsunoko involving three mysterious zillion pistols, which ensure law and order in the Galaxy in the hands of three brave warrior. Although quite successful in Japan the series has never managed to crack Europe, although the game to achieve good successes with us.

As Special Agent JJ and one of the three zillion carriers need to infiltrate a hostile Norsa base on the planet X find five disks recorded with secret documents and finally hunt all complex in the air. By the way one may look for Apple and Champ after his lost comrades, captured in their operations. There is also plenty to do.

At the beginning of the mission you get handed out ten four-digit codes, to penetrate the technical enemy facilities. With the zillion pistol firmly in your hand your leave the mother ship and enter its clandestine labyrinthine base via an elevator located deep inside the planet. Once inside, you must get first an ID card, to obtain access to the ubiquitous terminals. It is in one of the numerous containers are seen in every room. The game is to explore these containers. This reveals four key codes in almost all rooms which must be remembered well as you will need to enter them using your ID card in the machine. The order doesn't matter. In this way to open locked doors and enabled lifts and exposes additional areas based. The whole undertaking is complicated by roaming soldiers, automatic rifles, laser barriers and alarm-triggering, invisible without infrared goggles devices. The often annoying and inconvenient installed facilities can be temporarily switched off using the code received in the beginning. The sabotage we should consider but good, because unlike the authorized key codes found in the ID card this will be deducted from the computer. You find yourself by too frequent fail without a single ID card, it is usually hopelessly lost.

The first time I seriously played this game, I found that "Zillion" automatically reminded me of myself playing the "impossible mission" think of Epyx. Both games have in common the search of an underground building complex followed by computing and the possibility of manipulation. Sega has set itself actually, many own accents to this Western classic in effect but, but to call it a duplicate is out of the question. JJ is under no time pressure, he can die only by losing his entire life energy. These can be charged at any time again, if necessary, in the mother ship which makes very much sense in the beginning. In the course of the game you will find some useful power up ´s which can improve not only JJ ´s life energy and toughness, but jump higher or increase the firepower of zillion gun. These parameters were taken into account in the design of the individual stages and significantly influence the game play by, for example, some containers can be opened only with stronger firepower. After it has released his comrades, may be changed at any time between them, even slight additional tactical considerations incorporated leaving due to their different status values. The game offers more action just by the fact that you can shoot.

The difficulty of the game is high, what is superficially in the branched created Labyrinth like complex expresses. You will really need many attempts to make a complete picture of the plant. A pencil and paper can come in quite useful here. The key codes are not necessary to write down because they are generated randomly every time. So one must, as a necessity, upon every restart, check all the containers again each time. "Zillion" is not very demanding but slightly ahead of its time. It is often branded as Sega's answer to "Metroid" something I, however, don't quite understand. Direct comparison of the two games is actually only in the large freedom of movement and otherwise little details that would fit on many other games as well.

After more than 20 years has "Zillion" become technically quite obsolete, but its magic lies in its game play which is still excellent. The graphics are very colorful, the little wooden-looking animations are still considerable. Characters can not only run and jump, but also hop and crawl which is clearly above the former standard. As it was at its time the game, does not so much as scroll, but each scene appears picture by picture, which thankfully does little to slow the pace of the game. The musical offering is only a single melody but this never stuck me as negative despite subjecting myself to a number of hours of gaming sessions. But remember this is one of the oldest SMS games and you cannot expect too much. The fun is main thing and it is abundant here. While "Metroid", today only offers a tired yawn to keep replaying it, it is the playability that keeps me returning and motivates me to play "Zillion" over and over again. But having these two games are what made Sega brilliant. And I speak here as a big fan of Nintendo's bounty hunter! Because it still not so extremely frustrating as "impossible mission" is. After all we are talking about the most demanding and arguably the best game for the master system bar none.