Fantasy Zone/Round 5 Polaria

It should be quite obvious, as soon as you arrive, that Polaria is a cold ice planet. By the time you reach this level, you are half way through the game. The bases here are frozen over and very hard so it will take a lot of perseverance to destroy them. If you're confident that you have the money, you could pick up a 7-Way Shot gun. If you used Smart Bombs to defeat the last boss, don't forget to switch back to Twin Bombs when you leave the shop. If you fire the 7-Way Shot up close at the bases, they will go down pretty quickly. It's not a bad weapon to use against far away enemies either. If you are especially good, you might make it all the way to the boss with a little of the 7-Way Shot left, which will come in handy against the first wave of snowmen that appear.

Base
The bases in Polaria are called Pakkarians. They are frozen over with heave crystals of ice, and are incredibly resistant to shattering. It takes a lot of hits, or an incredibly strong weapon like the 7-Way Shot to destroy them. When the lower hatch opens, Kurons fly out.

Boss
Since Polaria is such a cold planet, it may seem only natural that the boss of this world is a family of snowmen. They are known as the Poppozu, and should not be underestimated. There are 15 of them in all, the first 8 of which are extremely small. The next 4 are slightly bigger, while the two behind them are much bigger. The biggest one of all is of course last. You can not attack any of the back rows until the row immediately in front of them is cleared. While the smallest snowmen can be destroyed in two shots, the inner snowmen must be hit with 8 shots. The largest and last snowman can withstand 16 shots. The Poppozu attack with snowballs. The smaller the Poppozu, the smaller and slower the snowballs are. As you clear each row, the snowballs get larger and faster. As a result, expert players like to use a different strategy to defeating the Poppozu. If you wait long enough, the entire family will stop shooting at you and rush Opa-Opa instead. At this point, every one of them becomes vulnerable to attack, and they become much easier to destroy. To set yourself up for this strategy, knock out the first row of 8 tiny snowmen. Then take out at least two of the second row. With only 5 Poppozu remaining, fly around the outside of the screen, dodging their snowballs until they stop shooting and start rushing. Then get in front of them and take them all out.