Zero Wing
| Zero Wing | |
|---|---|
 One of the two Japanese arcade flyers of Zero Wing. | |
| Developer(s) | Toaplan |
| Publisher(s) |
|
| Composer(s) | Tatsuya Uemura, Toshiaki Tomisawa, Masahiro Yuge |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Sega Mega Drive, PC Engine (CD-ROM²) |
| Release date(s) | ArcadeSega Mega DrivePC Engine CD-ROM²
|
| Genre(s) | Scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Distribution | 8-megabit cartridge CD-ROM |
Zero Wing (ゼロウィング Zero Uingu) is a 1989 side-scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Toaplan and published by Taito. The player is a lone hero who will save the universe from an evil force.
It enjoyed a degree of success in arcades and was subsequently ported to the Mega Drive by Toaplan on May 31, 1991, in Japan, and by Sega during the following year in Europe, followed by a Japan-only release by Naxat Soft on September 18, 1992, for the PC Engine's CD-ROM².
The European version of the Mega Drive port was the source for "All your base are belong to us", an Internet meme which plays off of the poorly translated English in the game's introduction.
Gameplay
As with other scrolling shooters, the aim of the game is to shoot all enemies that appear on screen and avoid getting obliterated by enemy fire, crashing into enemies or into foreground scenery. There are mid-level and end-of-level boss enemies that stay with the player until they are defeated. The game features eight levels, each a few minutes long and featuring different styles and enemies: Natols, Legrous, Pleades, Aquese, Submarine Tunnel, Barricade Zone, Bellon, Gerbarra.
The player, a "ZIG" star fighter, has several ways to attack:
- Using the main cannon: single-shot (without power-ups), scatter-shot (red power-up), lasers (blue power-up), or homing missiles (green power-up). Similar to configuring the Vic Viper in Gradius or collecting pickups in R-Type.
- Ramming smaller enemies with the orbital cannons that appear above and below the ZIG. These cannons fire whatever weapon is equipped on the main ship at the time, similar to R-Type Leo.
- Grabbing an enemy using the tractor beam and releasing it at another enemy.
- Releasing the spherical front shield once it is collected.
In the intro scenes, the ZIG's windows are green. In the game itself, the windows change color depending on what weapon the player has.
Soon after starting, the player encounters power-up ships. If destroyed, they leave behind power-ups. These run in the sequence of red weapon, blue weapon, green weapon, and speed-up, and then start with red again. There is also an occasional shield power-up, which attaches to the front of the ship. Once the first weapon power-up is collected, two small ships appear above and below the ZIG, and follow its exact movements. These extra ships are impervious and can be used as shields. As they occasionally move nearer to the ZIG when blocked by large enemies or foreground scenery, they can serve as a warning to the player that they should move carefully to avoid a collision.
Each of the three main weapons has three power levels. Each time the same weapon is collected, the power level increases. If a different weapon is collected, it starts back on level 1 power, unless level 3 power was already attained previously. If a second shield power-up is obtained while one is already held, a special power-up will replace it which increase all weapons to a special, otherwise unattainable, level 4. Level 4 weapons may also be obtained by detonating an object that would yield another bomb power up while already carrying a bomb.
Ports
After it became fairly successful in the arcades and game centers, Zero Wing was ported to the Mega Drive in 1991 by Toaplan themselves and the CD-ROM², an add-on for the PC Engine, by Naxat Soft in 1992. The Mega Drive version was also released in Europe by Sega in 1992. The home console versions of Zero Wing were never released in North America due to the release of the arcade version distributed by Williams Electronics. The Japanese release will play fine on American consoles. Like most early titles it had no region protection, nor had the European release been PAL-optimized.
In the Mega Drive version, to expand on the game's plot, Toaplan added an introductory cut scene to the game. This introductory scene was translated by Sega of Europe to English from Japanese rather poorly for the European release (a phenomenon dubbed Engrish), resulting in dialogue such as "Somebody set up us the bomb", "All your base are belong to us", and "You have no chance to survive make your time". The introduction does not appear in the arcade nor CD-ROM² versions, rather, a different intro takes place with a blue-windowed ZIG.
Reception
GameTrailers listed the Mega Drive version of Zero Wing as the seventh-worst video game in its "10 Best and Worst Video Games", though the focus was on its bad translation.[1] However, in a later ScrewAttack review, it was noted the game was "not that bad". It praised its soundtrack, stating that it contains "some of the best 16-bit rock music you'll ever hear".[2] Retro review site HonestGamers noted that "Much is made of this game, all things considered. And it's funny, because there's not a whole lot to it," before awarding a lackluster score of 4/10.[3]
"All your base are belong to us"
In 1999, Zero Wing's introduction was re-discovered, culminating in the wildly popular "All your base are belong to us" Internet meme.[4]
References
- ↑ Nov 17, 2006 (2006-11-17). "Top 10 Best and Worst Games of All Time". Gametrailers. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
- ↑ Nov 2, 2009 (2009-11-02). "Video Game Vault: Zero Wing". ScrewAttack. Retrieved 2009-11-13.
- ↑ Nov 23, 2010 (2010-11-23). "HonestGamers: Zero Wing". HonestGamers. Retrieved 2010-11-27.
- ↑ Jeffrey Benner (2008-08-28). "When Gamer Humor Attacks". Wired.com. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
External links
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: Zero Wing |
- Zero Wing at the Killer List of Videogames
- Zero Wing at arcade-history