The English language Sega Megadrive conversion of Toaplan‘s Zero Wing has gone down in history as one of the (unintentionally) funniest games of all time. The intro sequence (which was created for this version of the game and does not appear in the arcade original) features some of the most hilariously bad translations of all time, including the now iconic sentence “All your base are belong to us“, which became a meme in the early 2000s.
Tag Archives: scrolling
Zero Wing, Arcade
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.
The NewZealand Story, FM Towns
A conversion of the classic Taito arcade game, featuring the cute Kiwi (Tiki), trying to rescue his girlfriend (Phee Phee) and his other Kiwi friends, from the blue leopard seal who has kidnapped them. The FM Towns version was first released in 1989 by Ving and was ported by Taito themselves.
Raiden Densetsu, FM Towns
Released in Japan as “Raiden Densetsu” (“Legend of Raiden“), but with a title screen that calls it “Raiden Trad“, this is an authentic port of the Seibu Kaihatsu arcade game Raiden, but with a few extra options.
Viewpoint, FM Towns
Originally released as an arcade game on Neo Geo MVS hardware, Viewpoint is an isometric bullet hell shooter originally developed by Aicom, ported by Sammy and published by Ving for the FM Towns in 1993. It obviously takes inspiration from Sega‘s Zaxxon, but its aesthetic owes more to Irem‘s R-Type.
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, FM Towns
The 1994 FM Towns version of Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers is a port of the popular Capcom arcade fighting game of 1993. It is the fourth game in the Street Fighter II sub-series, with four new fighters, adding to the existing roster of twelve characters from The World Warrior.
Continue reading Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, FM Towns
Operation Wolf, FM Towns
The FM Towns conversion of Taito‘s smash hit arcade shooter, Operation Wolf, is both an authentic port of the original, and also a playable and fun game that utilises mouse controls to great effect. It was first published by Ving in 1990.
Shadow of the Beast, FM Towns
Shadow of the Beast on the FM Towns was first published in Japan only by Cross Media Soft – a brand of Victor Musical Industries (a subsidiary of JVC) – in 1991, and came on CD-ROM.
Tim Ansell, who programmed the FM Towns version of Shadow of the Beast (and Shadow of the Beast II), founded the famous British developer The Creative Assembly in 1987 and this was one of a number of contract ports that he did for Psygnosis in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Kirby’s Dream Land 3, Super Nintendo
Kirby’s Dream Land 3 was developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo in 1997. It is the successor to Kirby’s Dream Land 2 on the Game Boy, and was the first and only Dream Land adventure on the Super NES.
Kirby’s Dream Land 2 DX, Game Boy Color
This is a fan-made ROM hack, first released in May 2023 by “kkzero“, of the Super Game Boy-enhanced Kirby’s Dream Land 2 that converts the game for use on the Game Boy Color. And it certainly does this great game justice and really makes those colours pop! In fact: it is much more colourful, and looks even better, than the Super Game Boy version. So much so that it is definitely the best way to play Kirby’s Dream Land 2, IMHO.
The King of Grabs 