Zero Wing is a side-scrolling bullet hell shooter developed by Toaplan and distributed into arcades by Namco in Japan and Williams Electronics in North America in 1989.

When most people think of Zero Wing they think of the meme “All your base belong to us“, but that doesn’t appear in the arcade version – that is a feature of the English language Sega Megadrive version. The arcade original doesn’t have an intro sequence and I couldn’t see any bad translations at all.

Depending on the version being played, Zero Wing had either single-player, or two-player cooperative modes (the arcade game was sold as both two-player, and single-player only, versions).

Players take control of ‘ZIG’ fighter craft and are sent on a mission to overthrow the alien cyborg ‘CATS’. The ZIG spaceships can pick up coloured modules that allow them to change weapons, and picking up multiple power-ups of the same colour increases weapon effectiveness (up to three times). They can also collect protective pods that sit above and below the ship, speed-up boosters and even a nose-mounted bomb.

The structure of Zero Wing is similar to games like Nemesis and R-Type, where you make your way through a series of levels, avoiding bullets, barriers and attacking enemies in order to destroy a boss at the end of each. Some levels even have multiple boss battles.

Zero Wing has fairly good graphics and sound but doesn’t particularly stand out against the competition. It’s a very difficult game, though. There are some small gaps to squeeze through, a variety of moving barriers, and some very tough sub-boss and final boss battles.

Zero Wing was reasonably successful in arcades, although it’s a game I never encountered, or played, as a youngster travelling through arcades and looking at every game in them. Probably because it was never officially released into European arcades.

Is it still worth playing today? I’d say probably yes – especially if you’ve got a friend to play cooperatively with. Zero Wing has stood the test of time quite well and it’s certainly no slouch when it comes to bullet hell shooter challenges.

More: Zero Wing on Wikipedia