Classic Game Room - ZANAC for NES review

Classic Game Room reviews ZANAC for NES from FCI and Compile, a vertical scrolling space ship shooter released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Zanac is a SHMUP with awesome music and a unique weapons power up system that defies ordinary. Collect numbers 1-7 (and upgrade them) to waste waves of enemies that come at you in oddball formations while spewing bullets all over the screen. Zanac is not for the casual shooter fan or those looking for a relaxing game. The adaptive A.I. learns how you play and evidently hates you (or at least it hates me) because it just goes crazy and fills the screen with enemies. SHMUP spaceship shooter fans may dig the challenge and unorthodox gameplay in Zanac that makes it unique in a sea of similar games. It may be rough around the edges but does pack cool ideas, solid gameplay and great music. This CGR review of Zanac for NES has Zanac gameplay from FCI and Compiles showing Nintendo Zanac game play in HD action. Zanac can also be found on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console for download.

[viktorm]

Zanac for sure is in my top5 fav NES games and top2 in shooters (with Super Spy Hunter). It has amazing atmosphere, gameplay and ofc music. Good old days, miss them

[mtiller]

About the Artificial Intelligence part you said about in this game, yes it actually does have that. If you do super well like beat the fortresses in a small amount of time and rack up so many points, the "System" increases the difficulty. Believe me when I say this, if you get to the final Area in the game, which is Area 12, it is not a walk in the park. My tip there, watch out for the 5 powerup, then look for one of the two Eye-Eyes and shoot it to get the laser, which is a huge help. I must warn you about the two Eye-Eyes in Area 12, they'll go by extremely fast so keep a really sharp eye out for them.
But overall, this is a fast-paced rack-em-up, shoot-em-down NES shooter game that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It's a lot of fun to play in my personal opinion.

[xxcrysadxx]

Zanac is one of the best and more overlooked shooters for the NES. The "adaptive" enemy AI based on what power-ups you've picked up was pretty ingenious for it's time.

[indalecio]

Zanac's a blast! You should give The Guardian Legend a shot. It's been my favorite space shooter since 1990.

[SensatoKuro]

Went through this game recently and I must say that I am glad I did. I've read a few reviews stating Zanac as one of the NES' best shoot'em up. I now have to agree. A game with an impressing depth and tons of hidden stuff I didn't expect.

[KMJ]

One of my all time fav  Played this for hours at a time as a kid on the NES!  Just fantastic.  Zanac Neo on the PSX is a fantastic follow up keeping the same theme and adding two player mode.

[allnamesaretakenful]

The better you play, the faster the game gets. I thought I was imagining it as a kid, but then found out 20+ years later that the game will increase in difficulty the better you perform.

[GreatLakesDrifta]

I dig the music on the intro screen; it gets you pumped up for the frantic gameplay that follows. Glad I found this review I had forgotten the name of this game.

[saigokun]

Thanks for posting this review. Zanac is one of my favorite shooters. I played it many times on the MSX system (where it was released as Zanac EX:). On the MSX Zanac was released before both Aleste Games.

[duketogo]

I think Mark oversells the difficulty of ZANAC. It's not quite as approachable as GUNNAC, but still has a good feel. It isn't one of those early shooters that immediately crushes you, and is quite a bit easier than games like Guardian Legend or Star Soldier. I think it should be recommended wholeheartedly, and I really do think it holds up well along-side the next wave of great 16-bit shooters. Maybe Mark just used the wrong approach. I personally never warmed up to the shield power-up.

[TheChristianCollector]

One of my favorite nes games of all time. And everything you said describes it especially the wanting to smash the system.

[arwanny]

coming home from work and seeing that a new classic game room review is up makes me want to grab a beer from the fridge and sit down to watch the best show on youtube

[kevin]

This is one of my all-time favorite shooters for any system! The best part of this game starts in the middle of Area 3 where if you shoot this face statue, your primary gun becomes triple the width of your ship and whatever secondary weapon you have is instantly maxed out - makes you almost unstoppable! There are several easter eggs in this game that require you to do certain things in a certain way (one will warp you to another area).

[thepariah]

I just got this game from a pawn shop for $3 and holy shit it's amazing. I am having an eargasm from the music.

[Fluoride_Jones]

That Xanax/Zanac joke was quite funny! In the end, I guess they balance each other out. :D

[SnakeHiggins]

My personal favorite NES game.
There's only one thing you need to know when playing this game.
NUMBER Get good with Number 7 and you open the door to mastering this game.

[Paul-qgiw]

When I think there as around 7 years between Atari 2600 Space Invaders (my first game) and Zanac on the NES the development over that period is just mind blowing.

[philmason]

I loved this game on NES. At the time, it was easily the most impressive shmup available for the platform in the West outside Life Force. Compile didn't have the rights to the Zanac name, so when Sega asked them to do a followup they went with the name Aleste instead. The console sequel to which was, of course, Musha Aleste. So Zanac & Musha are very much related; Zanac is where the Compile shmup template really began.

[iglooproductions]

I collected for Colecovision, Intellivision, Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Sega Master System and Sega Genesis since 1999. I have thousands of games. I quit for a few years, but your vids have got me back into collecting and playing again...thanks!....I think.

[fernfernacelli]

It’s November 2020. I played this when it first came out, and have owned it ever since. Beat it numerous times. To this day, one of my top games of all time, and the standard to which I base the quality of all (...ALL) other top-down rail shooters. Cheers!