Red Zone

Red Zone is a 1994 shoot ’em up, developed by Zyrinx and published by Time Warner Interactive for the Sega Genesis. The player switches between piloting a helicopter and walking around on foot, both from a top-down view.

The game is notable for its use of several technologies that were not prevalent at the time on the Genesis/Mega Drive, such as fullscreen rotation, 3D vectors, real-time zoom, and full-motion video.^[2]

The developer released a beta version of the game into the public domain.^[3]^[4]

Plot – Red Zone

A military takes over a small fictional country called Zystrian. Mass deportation and torture are occurring in the country during the annexation.

Zystrian invades a small neighboring country in response to the annexation. Meanwhile, a dictator threatens the world with nuclear missiles shot at one country at a time.^[3]

Reception – Red Zone

Electronic Gaming Monthly rated the game 6.8 out of 10, praising its combat and aerial sequences as “innovative” while noting its difficulty and learning curve. They also mentioned the amount of weapons and missions available to the player.^[5]

GamePro praised the helicopter handling and graphical intro, but concluded that the poor controls when maneuvering characters on the ground effectively killed any potential enjoyment.^[6]

Next Generation rated the game 3 out of 5 stars, stating that “While Red Zone’s plot and gameplay are known as ‘rip-offs’ from Urban Strike, the enormous challenges fundamentally make this title a viable alternative to the ongoing success of the Strike series.”^[7]

The Sega Genesis, known as the Mega Drive^[c] outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega.

It was Sega’s third console and the successor to the Master System.

Sega released it in 1988 in Japan as the Mega Drive, and in 1989 in North America as the Genesis.

In 1990, it was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe, Ozisoft in Australasia, and Tectoy in Brazil.

In South Korea, it was distributed by Samsung Electronics as the Super Gam*Boy and later the Super Aladdin Boy.^[d]

Designed by an R&D team supervised by Hideki Sato and Masami Ishikawa, the Genesis was adapted from Sega’s System 16 arcade board, centered on a Motorola 68000 processor as the CPU, a Zilog Z80 as a sound controller, and a video system supporting hardware sprites, tiles, and scrolling.

It plays a library of more than 900 games on ROM-based cartridges.

Several add-ons were released, including a Power Base Converter to play Master System games.

It was released in several different versions, some created by third parties.

Sega created two network services to support the Genesis: Sega Meganet and Sega Channel.

In Japan, the Mega Drive fared poorly against its two main competitors, Nintendo’s Super Famicom and NEC‘s PC Engine, but it achieved considerable success in North America, Brazil, and Europe.

Contributing to its success was its library of arcade game ports, the popularity of Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series, several popular sports franchises, and aggressive youth marketing that positioned it as the cool console for adolescents.

The 1991 North American release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System triggered a fierce battle for market share in the United States and Europe known as the “console war“.^[8][9]

This drew attention to the video game industry, and the Genesis and several of its games attracted legal scrutiny on matters involving reverse engineering and video game violence.

Controversy surrounding violent games such as Night Trap and Mortal Kombat led Sega to create the Videogame Rating Council, a predecessor to the Entertainment Software Rating Board.