Zero Wing

Arcade version screenshot.

Zero Wing is a science fiction-themed horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up game similar to Hellfire, where players assume the role of Trent taking control of the ZIG space fighter craft through eight increasingly difficult levels, each with a boss at the end that must be fought before progressing any further, in a last-ditch effort to overthrow the alien cyborg CATS as the main objective.[2][3][4][5][6] As far as horizontal scrolling shooters go, the title initially appears to be very standard, as players control their craft over a constantly scrolling background and the scenery never stops moving until the stage boss is reached.[3][5]

A unique gameplay feature is the "Seizer Beam" system;[2][3][4][5][6] During gameplay, players can grab certain enemies and hold them as shield against enemy fire or launch them against enemies. There are three types of weapons in the game that can be switched between after destroying incoming carriers by picking up a color-changing item ranging from the "Red Cannon" shot, the "Blue Laser" and the "Green Homing" missiles.[2][3][4][5][6] Each weapon can be upgraded by picking up an item of the same color.[2] Other items can also be grabbed along the way such as speed increasers, 1UPs and a bomb module capable of obliterating any enemy caught within its blast radius that can also be triggered after taking enemy hits.[2][3][4][5][6]

Depending on the settings in the arcade version, the title uses either a checkpoint system in which a downed single player will start off at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before dying, or a respawn system where their ship immediately starts at the location they died at.[5] Getting hit by enemy fire or colliding against solid stage obstacles will result in losing a life, as well as a penalty of decreasing the ship's firepower and speed to his original state and once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the players insert more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing. The game loops back to the first stage after completing the last stage as with previous titles from Toaplan, with each one increasing the difficulty and enemies fire denser bullet patterns as well as spawning extra bullets when destroyed.

The plot summary of Zero Wing varies between each version.[3][4][5][6] Set in 2101, the game follows the signing of a peace treaty between the United Nations and CATS, an alien cyborg. However, CATS breaks the covenant and takes control of the Japanese space colonies. The protagonist Trent leads a ZIG space craft, which had managed to escape from the mothership destroyed by CATS, with the aim to defeat enemy forces, avenge the mothership and its crew and liberate the Earth.

Zero Wing was created by most of the same team that previously worked on several projects at Toaplan, with members of the development staff recounting its history through various Japanese publications. Toshiaki Ōta was at the helm as development chief and also served as programmer alongside Hiroaki Furukawa and Tatsuya Uemura.[7][8] Uemura also acted as composer along with Masahiro Yuge and Toshiaki Tomizawa.[7][8][9][10] Artists Miho Hayashi, Naoki Ogiwara and Shintarō Nakaoka created the artwork while Sanae Nitō and Yuko Tataka served as character designers.[8][11]

Uemura stated that Zero Wing originally started as a project not intended for commercial launch to train new recruits at Toaplan, handling training for new hires while using his work and engine from Hellfire before ultimately deciding with releasing the game to the market, which made it a more practical learning experience for the new developers.[7][12][13][14][15][16] However, Uemura felt that both stage design and characters were "cobbled together", leading the game's world being "kind of a mess" and he also stated the project turned into a "battle royale", as staff from both Hellfire and Truxton were mixed with the new recruits.[7][13] Sound also proved to be very divisive as Uemura, Yuge and Tomizawa wrote several songs for the game with their own individual styles, though Uemura claimed this was due to dividing the work, while Yuge stated he would go to rest and drink after being stuck when composing for the title during work hours.[7][9][10][13] Due to being a training project, Uemura stated the team had freedom to "just fool around" and several features were integrated into the title such as warps, which was taken from Slap Fight.[13] Uemura also revealed that the reason for enemies spawning suicide bullets during loops of higher difficulty was in response to hardware limitations regarding sprites.[13] Both the single-player and co-op versions were also planned from the beginning of development due to pressure to make two-player games at the time.[13] The alien Pipiru was designed by Ogiwara, though Uemura claimed such character was not planned.[13]

The Sega Mega Drive version of Zero Wing was created by the same staff from the original arcade release, with Uemura overseeing development in-house.[8][11][12][14] Both Uemura and Tataka have stated that working with the Mega Drive proved to be difficult due to several restrictions imposed by the hardware.[11][14] According to both Uemura and Yuge, the poor English translation in the Mega Drive version was handled by a then-member of Toaplan in charge of export and overseas business, whose English was "really terrible".[10][17] The Mega Drive port features arranged music by Noriyuki Iwadare.[18] The PC Engine CD-ROM² version was outsourced by an "acquaintance" from defunct developer Orca, with Uemura handling sound.[12]

Zero Wing was first released across arcades worldwide on October 1989 by Namco in Japan, as well as Williams Electronics in North America on April 1990.[1] On 1989, an album containing music from the title was co-published exclusively in Japan by Scitron and Pony Canyon.[7]

Reception
Review scores
Publication	Scores
	SMD	PCE CD-ROM²
Beep! MegaDrive	32/40[23]	N/A
Computer and Video Games	93%[24]	N/A
Famitsu	28/40[25]	21/40[26]
Games-X	92%[27]	N/A
Gekkan PC Engine	N/A	78/100[28]
Génération 4	81%[29]	N/A
Hippon Super!	60/100[30]	N/A
Hobby Consolas	86/100[31]	N/A
HonestGamers	[32]	N/A
Joypad	90%[33]	68%[34]
Joystick	86%[35]	78%[36]
Marukatsu PC Engine	N/A	25/40[37]
Mean Machines	91%[38]	N/A
Mega	70%[39]	N/A
Mega Drive Advanced Gaming	72%[40]	N/A
Mega Drive Fan	19.70/30[41]	N/A
Mega Force	80%[42]	N/A
MegaTech	82%[43]	N/A
PC Engine Fan	N/A	19.72/30[44]
Play Time	68%[45]	N/A
Player One	79%[46]	N/A
Power Play	67%[47]	N/A
Sega Force	86%[19]	N/A
Sega Power	[48] 88%[49]	N/A
Sega Pro	78%[50]	N/A
Supersonic	85%[51]	N/A
Tilt	16/20[52]	N/A
Video Games	67%[53]	N/A

In Japan, Game Machine listed Zero Wing on their 15 November 1989 issue as being the fourth most-successful table arcade unit of the year, outperforming titles such as Bases Loaded and U.N. Squadron.[54] The game received positive critical reception upon release.[55][56][57] Computer and Video Games scored it 93%, including ratings of 92% for graphics, 93% for sound, 90% for playability, and 89% for lastability. They praised "the great intro sequence", "super-smooth gameplay, beautifully defined graphics, rocking sound track, amazing explosions and incredible end-of-level bosses", concluding that it is "the game which breaths (sic) new life into shoot 'em ups on the Megadrive".[24] Mean Machines scored it 91%, including ratings of 92% for presentation and graphics, 88% for sound, 90% for playability, and 89% for lastability, concluding that it is one of "the best Megadrive blasts in ages."[38] Sega Force scored it 86%, including ratings of 84% for presentation, 89% for visuals, 83% for sound, 89% for playability, and 82% for lastability, concluding that it is "almost as good as Hellfire" but "not quite."[19]

Zero Wing was the last horizontal shoot 'em up title to be developed by Toaplan, as the company did not know how to make a horizontal shooting game interesting, despite positive reception from players.[14] In 1999, the introduction cutscene for the Sega Mega Drive version of Zero Wing was re-discovered, culminating in the wildly popular "All your base are belong to us" internet meme.[15][58][59] In more recent years, the rights to Zero Wing and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin, a company named after Truxton's Japanese title that was founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge, who are now affiliated with arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia.[60][61][62][63][64]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Zero Wing

• Zero Wing at GameFAQs
• Zero Wing at Giant Bomb
• Zero Wing at Killer List of Videogames
• Zero Wing at MobyGames
• Zero Wing at The Toaplan Museum