Genesis

Zero Wing

This is an extremely addictive blaster you'll return to again and again until those uncool CATS have finally bitten the dust and you've saved the galaxy once again. Zero Wing is one of those carts which sits there just begging to be played until you finally crack and give it another go. Gimme, gimme, gimme...

Hellfire was a pretty brilliant blast by all accounts, combining brilliant graphics and sound with awesome playability. Now Toaplan have returned with Zero Wing, another conversion of a horizontally scrolling coin-op blast - and it's pretty damn good! Considering the (very) tired genre, Toaplan have come up trumps with a game that has a very original graphic style, along with some pretty original weaponry too. The sound (as usual for a Toaplan game) is great, with some pretty decent effects and brilliant tunes. But it's usually the difficulty level f a game that either makes of breaks it, and just like Hellfire, Zero Wing is something of a tough mutha - even on the lowest difficulty setting. So if it's thrills, spills and a high death count you're after, look no further!

Langsam wird mir klar, wie unverschämt hoch "Thunder Force III" schon vor gut einem Jahr die Meßlatte für Mega-Drive-Ballereien legte. Bis heute mühten sich zig Horizontalscroller vergeblich, das Edelmodul zu erreichen. Auch Zero Wings bleibt trotz ungewöhnlicher (aber unspektakulärer) Grafik und originellem Level-Aufbau nur knapp über dem Ballerdurchschnitt. Introsequenzen und allerlei Extrawaffen-Schnickschnack helfen der Motivation des Spielers auch nicht. Wer das Genre mag und alle Konkurrenzmodule bereits abgehakt hat, sollte Zero Wings dennoch eine Chance geben: Schlecht ist es nicht.

Es lohnt sich aber trotzdem, das Spiel zu kaufen, wenn man es günstig sieht, denn einerseits ist das Intro einfach Kult und andererseits wurde das Spiel nur in Europa veröffentlicht und so ist Zero Wing mittlerweile ein begehrtes Sammlerstück geworden.

Der Spielablauf ist vollgepackt mit netten Extras, gut gestaffelten Raumschiff-Formationen und ein paar witzigen Oberbrummern. Wem Panikspiele wie Gynoug zu hektisch sind, der ist bei Zero Wing besser aufgehoben. Action-Profis wird's hingegen ein wenig zu müde sein.

The scenery and enemies are typical space station fare, and there are some cheesy looking bosses, including one that vaguely resembles a clown head. Three types of weapons are available, and each can be powered up to three levels. The green guided missiles are most effective, so once you've equipped them you'll want to avoid the red (wide) and blue (laser) icons altogether. The best aspect of Zero Wing is your formidable firepower. Two cannons float alongside your ship, allowing you to unleash a constant barrage of missiles. I like how your cannons squeeze together as you navigate narrow passages. Zero Wing's sound is the standard up-tempo electronic music the Genesis is famous for, and it's decent but forgettable. I doubt that a casual gamer will want to hunt down this rare bird, but hardcore collectors will want Zero Wing in their library.

It isn't worth the money, even though it really isn't that bad. You have some nice ideas and average graphics and sound, but the mediocrity and frustration brings it down from being a title worthy of your collection. Zero Wing can entertain you for a moment, but if you seek a great shooter for the Mega Drive, there are plenty of other games to get before this one.

I only speak of Zig’s vacuum cannon, a neat little device that allows you to suck up weaker enemies into the ship’s tractor beam so they may be used as either a one-hit shield or a weak projectile. It’s a cool idea, but Zig just doesn’t capitalize on the function. I think that can be said toward a lot of the areas in Zero Wing. It has some good ideas, but none of them really come together to form anything new or memorable (in a good way).

Much is made of this game, all things considered. And it's funny, because there's not a whole lot to it. Zero Wing is a side-scrolling shooter, of the deliberate, R-Type variety, not the frenetic Thunder Force variety. That in itself may seem strange coming from Toaplan, the makers of the prototypically hectic Batsugun and its ilk. But that's not the draw of this mostly mediocre shooter. The draw is the story.