By - Richard J.
"All your base are belong to us." This horrible mistanslation became infamous back in 2001 when it spread across the internet. Reaching "meme" status, the phrase -- and accompanying image -- was posted on message boards across the internet. What people didn't pay attention to was the video game behind this meme. Zero Wing is a game that many people don't know that they know about. Does Zero Wing live up to greatness of the meme it created, or is there a reason that nobody knows about it.
Before I breakdown Zero Wing and tell you what is good and bad, I think I should explain the great history behind the game. Back in 1989, Taito brought the Toaplan developed horizontal "shmup" Zero Wing to the arcades in Japan. The game barely set the arcades on fire, but was enough to warrant more releases. Shortly after its arcade release in Japan, Williams was licensed to manufacture and distribute the cabinet in the United States. In 1991, Zero Wing was finally brought into homes where it received its highest popularity.
On May 31, 1991, Zero Wing made its way to the Sega Mega Drive in Japan. Other than the slight decrease in graphical capability, Zero Wing on the Mega Drive brought a brand new opening cinematic to give the game some story. On September 18, 1992, Zero Wing was also brought to the PC Engine CD-ROM by Naxat Soft. Once again, this was only released in Japan. Later in 1992, Zero Wing finally made its English debut. Zero Wing was released for the Sega Mega in Europe, along with its terrible mistranslation of the intro cinematic. Unfortunately, many gamers were unfamiliar with Zero Wing before the 2001 meme because Zero Wing was never released for the Sega Genesis in North America. Now that we know the history of Zero Wing, let's dive into the game's story.
Zero Wing barely has a story, but there is something there. The story is set up with the intro cinematic, and is then told through the gameplay. The intro cinematic explains how in AD 2101, a great war has broken out. A space ship is destroyed by an unnamed enemy force, led by a mysterious villian named "Cats". Cats boards this ship before it is destroyed to inform the crew of how they, and those who are backing them have all been taken over. The captain of this ship unleashes a smaller ship known as the "Zig", which he escapes to. The captain then pilots the Zig in combat against the enemy force in order to save the universe. While this is far from a compelling narrative, it does give a good introduction to setup the game. While the objective of shooting enemies is basic and self explanitory, knowing why you are shooting them makes the game a bit more interesting. Now if only the localization crew hadn't messed up with the English translation...
At its core, Zero Wing is a horizontally side-scrolling "shoot 'em up", or "shmup" game. It has a goal of feeling arcade-y, and it successfully completes this goal. The player controls the Zig on a 2D plane while the screen scrolls horizontally to the right. While the screen scrolls, enemies will appear. It is the players job to shoot these enemies with the weapons they have equiped. The Zig starts out with just being able to shoot from the front, but collecting a round, coloured power up will unleash two extra guns on either side of your ship. Collecting more coloured power ups will provide you with more and better weapons. The three colours of the power ups are red, blue, and green. Red shoots out a steady beam of red dots, blue shoots out blue coloured lines, and green unleashes green dots that track enemies. Collecting two or more of the same colour in succession will cause that particular powerup to grow to a stronger form. There are a total of 8 different planets you must explore, each planet being a level in the game.
If you are a fan of shmups, you are pretty much guaranteed to enjoy the Zero Wing. Gamers who aren't fans of shmups could also quite easily enjoy the game. What Zero Wing does best is how it slowly ramps up the difficulty and never becomes frustrating. After a bit if practice, the first few levels will be a breeze to fly through. Towards the end though, the difficulty gets pretty high. What prevents Zero Wing from being frustrating is how the game deals with deaths. When your ship is hit and explodes, you are instantly warped back to just before the position where you died. If you get a game over, selecting continue will bring you right back to the spot you were at just before you died. The checkpoints in Zero Wing are excellent, and are very encouraging for players to stick with the game through its difficulty. However, if you wish to complete Zero Wing you will have to do so in one sitting as Zero Wing features no type of save system.
What struck me as being odd with the Mega Drive ports of Zero Wing was the complete lack of multiplayer. Zero Wing started off as a single player game when it was first introduced in Japanese arcades, but later featured two sets of joystiq and buttons for asecond player to get in on the action. Being able to shoot down enemies and save the universe with a friend would have been a great addition to the home versions of Zero Wing. I find it puzzling why this feature was removed, but the developers for the Mega Drive version likely have a good reason. While the lack of multiplayer doesn't necessarily take away from the Zero Wing experience, it does feel like a missed oppourtunity.
The graphics in Zero Wing are good for the Mega Drive, but are far from maxing out the console. The backgrounds have eye pleasing patterns that are quite beautiful, and the Zig ship also looks quite good. Possibly the greatest part of the graphics is how varied the enemies are. In each level of the game, you will see a cornicopia of new enemies. Only the supply ships which when shot leave the powerups are repeated throughout the game. The large amount of new and varying enemies is incredibly impressive for a Sega Mega Drive game. While it may not be the best, it is damn impressive.
As if the graphics were not impressive enough, the audio in Zero Wing is even better. Without a doubt, Zero Wing has one of my favourite rock soundtracks of the 16-bit era. The awesomeness of the audio in Zero Wing cannot be explained in words. Instead, it can only be explained by listening to it yourself. Even if you don't enjoy the gameplay, graphics, or anything else in Zero Wing, make sure you at least experience the audio.
Overall, Zero Wing is an incredibly over-shadowed game. If you can make your way through the internet meme haze, you will find yourself a great shoot 'em up game. Of course the story is lacking -- despite their attempts --, there is no replay value, and thegraphics aren't the best, but Zero Wing is still a fantastic game. Despite it not being released natively in North America, I highly recommend that you find some way to experience it.
PROS
Fantastic gameplay
Varying enemies
Beautiful backgrounds and patterns
Outstanding audio
CONS
Story is lacking despite attempts by the developer
Graphics could be better
No replay value or multiplayer
RATING
9/10