Zero WingToaplan
Arcade (MAME-compatible)/Megadrive (Europe/Japan only)
1-2 players (alternating)
Yeah,
Zero Wing...this is about the arcade version, so no memes here. Unfortunately for the game, the memes are the most memorable part - the rest is a forgettable horizontal shmup that completely steals many of its ideas from other horizontal shmups and doesn't even do that right. The one thing it has going for it - the tractor beam - is useless in most situations and even a hindrance if used in some sections.
Now, you've got power-up items. Speed-up (standard), a bomb that sits on the front of your ship to be fired with the tractor beam button, and red, blue, and green weapons. When you first grab one of those color-coded weapon items, you get two bullet-absorbing, enemy-damaging, weapon-firing options above and below your ZIG fighter. But once you start comparing the three weapons, things start to look bad. The red weapon (a wide shot-type gun after being upgraded)
does not fire if you hold down the attack button. This means that to use the red weapon, you must either tap the button furiously or use autofire (the latter is recommended if you do attempt to play this game). The same applies for the green weapon (homing missiles which do fire if you hold down the button, but not as fast as if you tap or use autofire). On the other hand, the blue weapon (a straight laser) inexplicably fires more quickly if you hold down the attack button than if you tap.
Here's something else about the red weapon:
Notice the shot pattern here? Typically a wide-shot weapon doesn't leave the center completely open like that, and typically upgrades activate for the ship as well as the options. (The blue and green upgrades affect the ship as well.)
This game is also more likely to induce epileptic fits than other shmups - the screen flashes red upon destroying an enemy, and you'll be destroying a lot of enemies if you play
Zero Wing. If they don't destroy you, of course. Three things:
1. There's a reason other shmups have bullets that are aimed at the player, not at where the player is going to be or where the player is being forced to move by way of being stuck in a small tunnel and being pushed forward by the auto-scrolling.
2. There's a reason other shmups don't have bullets that move faster than the player can dodge them.
3. There's a reason other shmups don't have enemies shooting at you immediately after you respawn.
Due to some uninformed programming choices,
Zero Wing is one of the biggest cases of completely unfair difficulty I've seen in some time. Having to constantly restart from a checkpoint with no power-ups and enemies blasting you immediately is just not fun, and that's why I can't recommend this game to anyone but the most morbidly curious wanting to see what exactly "ALL YOUR BASE" came from.
