All Your Base Aren’t Belong to Steam – ‘Zero Wing’ is Back, But the Classic Meme Isn’t
Even if you’ve never played this game, you know it. The infamous Zero Wing has come to Steam—but you won’t find one iconic cutscene.
Zero Wing was the start of one of the earliest memes this side of the internet. After all, memes have been kicking around in humanity’s collective comprehension ever since there was a zeit to geist. But Zero Wing made waves with its poorly translated opening cutscene, detailing how in AD 2101, War Was Beginning.
It was the cutscene that spawned a thousand memes, remixes, and even news stories. The Laziest Men on Mars took it even further with Invasion of the Gabber Robots, which is the music underscoring your dreams even now. Since then, All Your Base went on to be everywhere. It took advantage of its superior memes to spread everywhere. From Metal Gear to Steamed Hams.
This is poetry. Watch it and weep.
This makes it surprising that the original arcade version of Toaplan’s Zero Wing has been ported and re-released to modern PCs. Bitwave Games has done some incredible work. Though, the only thing they haven’t ported over is the poorly translated opening cutscene. This makes sense because it’s the better-playing game. Especially since Bitwave Games have updated and modernized it with features like a playable easy mode to help get you past that early arcade difficulty.
But it’s weird not to include the thing that makes this game famous. After all, the only reason any of us are talking about it is that we were all insufferable about it on the internet for some reason. And now that the meme is old enough to have graduated from college with no idea where it’s going, perhaps it’s time to finally knuckle down and play Zero Wing.
Zero Wing Releases On Steam, Community Responds – “Where’s the Meme?”
Of course, we’re not the only ones to take notice. Many of the comments and reviews allude to the fact that the iconic scene is missing. Yes, it doesn’t really impact the “core gameplay” from a mechanics standpoint. But that misses the point entirely. People want that connection. That experience that you could only have if you had a SEGA Megadrive.
So much so that a developer responded, hinting that all might not be lost for all those disappointed memelords who are currently making tfw memes using the game’s cutscene about how the game is missing the cutscene:
A cut scene is not in right now, that’s correct, but keep an eye open…
So perhaps in the future, you’ll be able to take off every Zig. But for now, Zero Wing and other classic Toaplan games like Truxton, OutZone, and Twin Cobra are available for you to enjoy with many quality-of-life upgrades. Zero Wing, notably, has an “ultra customizable practice mode” so you can hone your skills.
Even without the meme, a legend is back.
