Zero Wing (MD, 1991)
Graphics-6 Sound-8 Control-8 Challenge-7* Story-5
Level Design-6 Frustration-8.5 Fun-6 Originality-5
Overall Score-6
*Default/Easy
+
Hilarious intro which spawned one of the first big internet memes and looks pretty nice
The tractor beam (grab and throw smaller enemies (can shoot normally while an enemy is grabbed); a bit underutilized)
Interesting smart bomb system (carry it and throw when you want to like you do the enemies, hinders the tractor beam but you can still shoot normally)
Gun drones (no formation options though)
Some nice touches (recoil on the gun drones when they get hit, mini-boss in stage 1 exiting its cage, stage 7 aesthetics)
Difficulty options
Joke ending on easy (dancing raisins)
Decent variation later on
The soundtrack makes pretty good use of the sound chip
+/-
Bombs that you hold on to can get shot or hit by the environment
Rips off R-Type a few times
Fairly easy to rack up extra lives
-
Doesn’t become interesting until around stage 4 or so even on Hard
Plenty of dead space as well as long and easy parts
Slow pace and low intensity overall
No boss music
The green weapon is overpowered in most situations
Only three different weapons
No manual speed adjustment and the highest speed is a bit too high for most situations
Some difficulty spikes (stage 2 squeezer trap, stage 7 with the wrong weapon)
Hard to recover after death later on (you lose weapon power and speed)
So-so colour use
No weapon inventory
Somewhat weak explosions and overall sfx
The ending isn’t nearly as good as the intro
Level Design-6 Frustration-8.5 Fun-6 Originality-5
Overall Score-6
*Default/Easy
+
Hilarious intro which spawned one of the first big internet memes and looks pretty nice
The tractor beam (grab and throw smaller enemies (can shoot normally while an enemy is grabbed); a bit underutilized)
Interesting smart bomb system (carry it and throw when you want to like you do the enemies, hinders the tractor beam but you can still shoot normally)
Gun drones (no formation options though)
Some nice touches (recoil on the gun drones when they get hit, mini-boss in stage 1 exiting its cage, stage 7 aesthetics)
Difficulty options
Joke ending on easy (dancing raisins)
Decent variation later on
The soundtrack makes pretty good use of the sound chip
+/-
Bombs that you hold on to can get shot or hit by the environment
Rips off R-Type a few times
Fairly easy to rack up extra lives
-
Doesn’t become interesting until around stage 4 or so even on Hard
Plenty of dead space as well as long and easy parts
Slow pace and low intensity overall
No boss music
The green weapon is overpowered in most situations
Only three different weapons
No manual speed adjustment and the highest speed is a bit too high for most situations
Some difficulty spikes (stage 2 squeezer trap, stage 7 with the wrong weapon)
Hard to recover after death later on (you lose weapon power and speed)
So-so colour use
No weapon inventory
Somewhat weak explosions and overall sfx
The ending isn’t nearly as good as the intro