PEG's video: Zero Wing Arcade - 1-ALL Clear 1 643 700 Pts

Full run of Zero Wing (ゼロウィング), the 8th arcade shmup developed by Toaplan. 00:00 - Intro / Stage 1 - Natols 04:52 - Stage 2 - Legrous 09:35 - Stage 3 - Pleades 14:28 - Stage 4 - Aquese 16:36 - Stage 5 - Submarine Tunnel 23:53 - Stage 6 - Barricade Zone 31:38 - Stage 7 - Bellon 36:52 - Final Stage - Gerbarra 40:07 - Final Boss (and intentional death) 45:24 - Final Boss recovery + Ending 47:20 - Loop 2 Zero Wing is the second (and final!) horizontal shmup developed by Toaplan. And yes, this is the (infamous?) game that inspired the "All Your Base are belong to us" and "Somebody set up us the bomb" meme along with some others that are very underrated ("For Great Justice!"). Except sadly none of that is actually in the original arcade version that I'm playing here. For that you need the European Mega Drive version. Like virtually every human that has ever mentioned Zero Wing I must also discuss this stuff...it's important. Anyway, with all that out of the way you probably want to know if this game is worth playing. My short answer is yes, or at the very least you must listen to its soundtrack, as I am not kidding this is absolutely one of the best shmup OSTs you will ever find. Certainly its the best Toaplan has done, and they are no slouch in that department. Being a Toaplan shmup, there are checkpoints and they are very nasty, mostly because you are a sitting duck at low speed with a pea shooter. Extends are few and far between so there isn't much room to work with(unless you get the 10 up, see below). As far as the gameplay, you have 3 different weapon types that can be upgraded 3 times by collecting successive powerups of the same type. There are also speed ups and a bomb/shield (it can take 3 hits before it explodes or you can fire it off with the bomb button. If you are playing with autofire (and you should), the green weapon is the only one you should ever use. There are a few random items such as a 1 up and a 10 up. Both of these are random and you must have a fully powered up shot for them to appear. Unfortunately, if you get the 1 up, you cannot get the 10 up as this item only appears once per run and if once appears, the other will not. Finally, there is also another random powerup that increase your shot to level 4, although to be honest I think its actually worse than level 3 because the huge bullets make it hard to see anything, so I avoid it if it shows up (which is very rare). Your ship also has a "tractor beam" you can use to grab enemies either to use as a 1 hit shield or fire them back at other enemies using the "bomb" button. I almost forget this ability exists because honestly you don't even need it to play the game and I would often end up getting killed trying to grab various enemies. As Zero Wing is a horizontal game it is also one of the few Toaplan shumps that has environmental hazards such as moving pillars, tight corridors and even excavating insects that dig through the terrain (Stage 6). It's best to not pick up too many speed ups as your ship will be very difficult to control in some of these areas. For scoring, it's mainly just killing enemies and picking up the extra item drops once you are fully powered. Also, there is a huge scoring opportunity with miking the final boss for points. I demonstrate this a little bit near the end but unfortunately I had lost too many lives by that point to really boost the score like I wanted to. All said, Zero Wing is a fairly generic shmup that is elevated by nice graphics and an incredible soundtrack. I place it above Hellfire and really wish Toaplan had tried more horizontal games as they show a lot of promise here that isn't fully realized.