Thanks and can’t argue with that. There were a couple arcade tracks I really liked but overall the MD music is awesome. Honestly a lot of the pce tracks are good compositions but they just don’t have that raw and hard hitting sound so they lose their edge. Too polite I guess.
@@TexasHollowEarth Did Amiga games have that FM synth inspired sound too? I never owned one, few did, but I’m going to be discovering some of that cool library soon myself on the mister core. I’m excited to try some out.
@@ShmupJunkie The “Paula“ was a 4-voice hard-panned sample-based chip, so it could play virtually anything. The arcade version used a Yamaha FM synthesis chip, which was completely different in the structure to the “Paula“ on the Amiga.
Fun fact: This was effectively a training game for new hires at Toaplan at the time in order to get their feet wet. As such, it originally wasn't intended to be released to the public. For whatever reason, it was pulled for an official release for arcades in 1989 regardless.
I just read about this on shmupulations like a day after the video was done, which is too bad as I would've loved to include that in the video as a really cool bit of info. It's almost like they were competing against each other and ended up making some really cool stuff that was unexpected. I love fun stories like that and now I know.
I actually checked this game out purely because of the meme, and was amazed to discover it's actually a really solid experience, and the soundtrack.. so good!
So good! It's my favorite part of the experience. And I just learned from someone else here it was composed by 4 different people. I'll need to get a physical copy for myself now of this MD port.
Whoever wrote the Sound Driver for the Gen/MD version did a brilliant job, bringing in that powerful percussion that not only the other versions lack, but you don't hear super-often on the Gen/MD to boot.
Yeah I was really really impressed. Usually some of the pc engine hucard games had that, like the percussion in blazing lazers is amazing. The MD really blew me away with it's soundtrack in this game I had to give it mad props.
I actually didn't know about the pce cd version so it is great to see them side by side, Got to be some of my fave content on youtube right now so keep killing it bro!
Thanks man I will try. The PCE version is the first I ever played and why I was a bit meh on the game overall and never played it more than once when it came out. The MD intro I always knew about, but the music surprised me how with good it was. And the gameplay was better overall. So I'm definitely more a fan of that port now.
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US! #SHMUPSARESHOOTERS ✅ Subscribe To My Channel ➡️ Support me on PATREON www.patreon.com/shmupjunkieslushfund Chapters: 00:00 - ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US 01:09 - A Brief History of Zero Wing 01:57 - Presentation - Sega Mega Drive vs PC Engine CD 03:17 - GRAPHICS Comparison - Sega Mega Drive vs PC Engine vs Arcade 11:59 - MUSIC Comparison - Sega Mega Drive vs PC Engine vs Arcade 18:09 - THE AMAZING Final Stage 19:59 - GAMEPLAY - Sega Mega Drive vs PC Engine vs Arcade 30:47 - and the WINNER is... 31:10 - But Wait! PC Engine vs CATS 32:17 - ALL YOUR END ARE BELONG TO US Follow me on Instagram: instagram.com/turbothunde... Follow me on Facebook: facebook.com/shmupjunkie Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/shmupjunkie
Very cool of you to say. Main reason I am making these is for the fun and also how much everyone is enjoying them. Certainly not for the pay out. 😂 I still have a lot of good ideas I want to do videos for, so I will keep it up long as I am able.
Aside from the arcade, I think these two ports are it far as I know. The MD port is definitely definitive of the two I enjoyed it. Although now that I played the arcade I really loved the speed of that game. For great justice!
Another excellent video! The intro and ending was great 🤣 and of course the comparison itself 👌 God that MD music is absolutely banging!. I'm pleased it's the version I own but the Arcade is definitely on my radar now.
I had the most fun on the intro of course, but the ending was some fun too. I had to do something fun with the PCE cut scenes and then show some of those hilarious 32 japanese endings. The music makes this game for me. It's good but not amazing until the later stages, but the tracks keep me going. The arcade is really tough like Hellfire but it also means those early stages are less of a drag.
Oh yeah very haha. I didn’t know the Japanese mega drive port had 32 unique endings. And some are so funny just as interesting as the bad translation. So I had to share some of them.
Best intro ever! I was particularly impressed with Timmy's performance! Joke aside as always with you amazing documentary, thank you so much Sir you are a blessing...
Haha, yes Timmy knows how to do the ridiculous roles quite well 😆 The intro was fun to do. I am due for another one of these comparisons soon it's been a while.
I appreciate the effort made to create the orchestral versions of Zero Wing's music, but the Genny's sound kit was used to incredible, wonderful effect in this one. It's my third-favorite Genesis shooter, largely because of the excellent music. (#1 - Thunder Force III, #2 - Sub-Terrania) Was lovely watching your comparisons of these three versions of ZW! Thanks!!
You're welcome! And yes I agree. When it came to Hellfire, I found the CD arrangements even better overall (aside from the opening track). But here, the music on MD is straight god tier and untouchable. I'm with you on that. The music alone makes it much more special than it would otherwise be. Love seeing Subterrania on your list too, that game is rad!
@@ShmupJunkie SubTerrania is the perfect storm of excellent, difficult gameplay with fantastic atmosphere and music by a composer, Jesper Kyd, who's still doing lovely work to this day.
I'm gonna have to hand it to the Mega Drive. I really like how the PC Engine CD always kicks the music up. A great example is the improvements they made to R-Type on the CD version. It kicks ass! But in this case They went harder with the percussion and bass on the Mega Drive which to my ears grooves better than even the arcade version. The PC Engine CD music sounds great, but they went a little too ethereal and light with the soundtrack on their version. --edit: I typed that before the video finished. Shmup Junkie said the same thing lol! my bad!
Haha well great minds think alike. The MD version definitely kicks butt. I wasn't personally too fond of the RType complete CD remixes as the original music is so well done, I preferred it not tampered with. But with Hellfire, which you'll see if you watch that comparison I did, I personally thought the arranged CD tracks on the PC Engine were even better than on the MD (aside from the first level, that music is iconic and I prefer the original). Of course Ts music did that soundtrack and everything they do is gold.
Well now you know which one to play! They take a lot of work but it’s a good video people can hopefully watch many years later if they’re looking for it. Of course making the intro is the fun part 😆.
Thank you my friend. Of course making the intro was the most fun part to do. It will be fun to do some others one day like that, but this game was perfect for it.
Toaplan music most awesome followed by cool content and cool shirt. Got it 😅 That final stage music really blew my mind followed by stage 2. My shirt is something the wife made for me and put up on red bubble. If you ever want one I can get you a link as a bunch of other people have gotten them too lol.
Every time I watch your movie, it suddenly turns out that I need to play a shooter. This time I try to reach boss in Darius Twin for SNES. I'm so close!
Another great video and comparisson!! A highlight is the soundtrack, simply stunning....guess what am I playing tonight?? 😁 I believe this is the first one that the MD wins in every field, right? Congrats my friend, I really enjoyed it!! 👏🏻👏🏻
You got that right dude. Every comparison was much closer and the ports were both good on each console. They all had pros and cons. This one is straight up MD all around. Play it tonight and stick it on normal mode (I think it defaults to easy), it's not too bad and you'll definitely enjoy the music. Stage 2 was my other favorite aside from the final level, but so many are good.
So I just watched a half an hour long comparison of the Zero Wing versions. All that knowledge won't bring you any further in life. But I loved it so I know this is my real hobby. My girlfriend is interested in games but wouldn't watch a video like this. I can watch it many times. Too bad I don't own the PC Engine version. I like to compare different versions by myself. I play the Mega Drive version nearly every week but I don't know why I love this game so much. Great video!
Sometimes life is just about enjoying your hobbies, so I am glad I was able to give you a half hour of enjoyment. My wife doesn't even watch the videos I make either so... haha. But she does help with do some of the funny and ridiculous stuff when I need extra hands. She got to hit me over the head with a frying pan for the revenge giveaway video and enjoyed it so much she posted it in her instagram stories lol. I love many games for the music alone, and this one is no exception now that I played the mega drive version all the way through.
Oh, that's a game that takes me down memory lane, for sure. I've played the crap out of this one in the Arcades, and I had it absolutely mastered. I didn't play the PC Engine version, and just a few times on the Mega Drive. Thanks for the video and bringing up those memories from the back of my mind =)
If you played it in arcade and still have the muscle memory, you can certainly smoke the console ports. Although the MD gets tougher on the harder setting toward the end. I was never lucky enough to see an awesome cab like this in the arcade. The PCE port was actually the first of it I ever played.
Glad you enjoyed it my friend. It's unusual there wasn't boss music it certainly could have added to it. I guess Toaplan just made that design choice. At least the music tracks are all really good!
We spare no expense when it comes to jokes at our expense haha. Honestly I have a little too much fun with these and am past due on another. I enjoyed some of these old comparo vids.
I had to have some fun with it right 😀. A lot of people were asking me to do Zero Wing after the Hellfire comparison, so now I've got Tatsujin, Hellfire and Zero Wing covered from the upcoming release. Too bad Fireshark only ever got a mega drive port.
Hey man. Another great video. Seriously, you could write books about these games. The Shmup historian. The Shmup master. Keep it up man you’re doing great stuff. I always like the funny parts you put into your videos as well. As always, can’t wait to see what you have lined up next.
What’s funny is I’m always kicking myself for missing things I wanted to mention and forgot. Like how the screen flashes red on this arcade rom I played when enemies die. Or other tidbits I missed or didn’t know. But I guess that’s what articles are for they are easily updated. Videos aren’t the best medium for making additions. I definitely enjoy making the fun bits I put in. It’s like we each get to be our own director and make a final product for people to enjoy.
Thank you so much man. And I appreciate it a ton as it’s hard to get found when small on TH-cam and get more people to know you exist. So it’s word of mouth from great subs that are a big part of my channel getting noticed. I really enjoy making the videos and hope to keep making them long as I’m able. Mainly because you and others are enjoying them as much as I am.
I keep trying sections with sound effects, but it makes it harder to hear me for some reason. That and I love some of the music so much, it forces me to make it all quieter so the sound effects aren't overwhelming or too loud. For games that let you adjust the levels in the options, I was thinking of just turning off the game music and recording sound effects only. Then I can turn that down in editing and use the separate music track in the background. But then it's not fun for me to play without music haha. So I am still figuring it out. 😅
Lol you know you love a soundtrack when it feels like half the video is a sample range of every song! Joking aside, whilst I will say that many of the individual songs are great, the overall ost has no consistency I feel and ends up feeling like each track could be from a different game. Loved your intro, amazing effort haha! This game is certainly more famous for its meme than anything else but it's great to see the Megadrive rocking away above the competition. Great video man!
Good point the tracks do vary quite a bit in style. Stage 4 was a straight up Tatsujin homage especially on the arcade version. I enjoyed them so much though I didn't care. Stage 2 was another one of my favs on the mega drive what an awesome tune. The game always felt a bit slow to me until later, but the arcade really opened my eyes a bit to how it was originally intended. That one nails you almost right from the start and doesn't feel slow by comparison.
The inconsistency might be because this was composed by four different persons. Yuge, Uemura, Tomizawa and Ohta. Originally the point of the whole game was just to be a playground for the new junior staff to experiment in making a game so therefore the game kinda lacks coherent focus. However the title was well received by toaplan staff and the seniors took over and finalized it as a complete product
@@PiesliceProductions That’s really cool info! Where did you read about that? I’m not as well versed on many MD games vs PCE. I would’ve gladly included that cool detail in the video somewhere had I known. FYI on my discord channel I’m doing a topic each week for the video I’m working on. So anyone with cool info like this can chime in and I can add it while it’s in process. If you are ever interested to pop in I can get you a link. Thanks for the info I learned something new on this today
@@PiesliceProductions Makes sense. The inconsistency is not really a negative, just something I noticed, but regardless, like I said, each track holds up extremely well on its own. I love stuff like this though.
I wouldn't disagree with that. I actually liked the turbo tracks a good bit until the last stage where it kind of blew it... I wasn't a fan of the instrumentation. The arcade was good and had the cool tunes, but also was very thin sounding. The mega drive music was amazing I was completely hooked on some of those tracks.
Supposedly it’s because 3-4 different people worked on various stages separately. Almost like competing with each other to see what they could come up with. So it’s kind of all over the place but also really unique.
I've mentioned before that Zero Wing is the training wheels game of shmups. When I was young, the difficulty of Gradius and other shooters put me off from spending time on them instead of platformers. It was Zero Wing that finally said, "Okay, wuss, I'll take it slow and easy on you to start with. Just soak in the awesome visuals and music while you develop some muscle memory, kid." After that, the other shooters started to click with me and I was a proud addict ever afterwards.
That's a very good point. The MD difficulty is perfect I think for a console game and starts easier for anyone to play. Younger players could get into it too. If I didn't play the arcade first I probably wouldn't have even noticed. The PCE was just too much of that like you said. MD had the perfect difficulty balance here. I wasn't lucky enough to get such kind training wheels... my first shooter was either Gradius or Life Force on NES. There was a lot of ass kicking in the beginning, ie my ass getting kicked 😅
@@ShmupJunkie I was always intrigued by Gradius and Life Force, I loved the look and concept of any space shooter I'd come across, but prepubescent me would struggle through the first stages only to run out of lives and patience in the second, and then move on to something else with a more generous reward stimulus. The early stages of Zero Wing are pretty pedestrian as far as challenge goes for a more mature player, but to a knucklehead kid its early build up of weapons against slow enemies shooting slow bullets made you feel powerful and incentivized you to push on into later stages.
Chick Hearn's old famous line. It's in the fridge. Eggs are cooling, butter's getting hard and the jello's jigglin. 😂 I miss having hearing him announcing basketball games.
what a showcase of FM synthesis properly done on the Mega Drive, with the help of additional PSG channels to make it sound even richer. This along with Midnight Resistance is where the home console sound beats out the arcade original.
The extra mid range really helped the mid-bass and lower freq. giving it a richer sound and not as thin. It's gotta be on of my all time fav MD shooter OST next to TFIV and Musha.
Thanks! Not many people notice the work that goes into having it all flow well between the music and transitions. The more of these I do the better feel I get for it. But I’m still working with basic gear like using my iPhone to do live recordings.
Zero Wing was redone by a group called Bitwave Games recently. You can get it on Steam. I never played the OG version so I can't compare too well, but it seems like a very good port. Cheap too!! Between these two versions though I go with the TG16 version easily. I almost always tend to pick the TG16 version, the colors are always much brighter and the music is usually better. I've never really been a fan of any music on the genesis, it always sounded so twangy and electronic to me.
The recent bitwave releases aren’t of these ports but the original arcade game. So that’s the way to go for anyone wanting to play the arcade games. I’m usually more a fan of the PCE ports myself too in many cases, but definitely found myself preferring this MD port. It makes sense since it was done by Toaplan themselves. I really think they nailed it on the music and even improved it over the arcade, I’m a big fan of this MD port. Along with it not feeling overly toned down and slow on the PCE port. I do think it’s still a good port though just a bit too toned down for my taste. The new Bitwave Steam releases are still working out a bunch of bugs but it has great performance and a lot of potential. Plus a ton of features. I showed it briefly in my latest 2023 update video. It’s worth keeping an eye on.
Kickass video as always dude, that intro nearly had me in tears! It actually took me a second to realize you were doing a parody, that's how well you pulled off the Engrish dialog. I've only played the arcade version so far but one thing I noticed in your footage is that the screen seems to flash red every time you kill an enemy which seems pretty annoying. I played the Japanese version which doesn't have that fortunately.
Thanks man! I had a ton of fun making the intro. It's the arcade version that has the red flashing and I honestly thought all arcade ROMS did that. So are you saying the Japanese one doesn't? I used the international rom. The mega drive and pc engine clearly don't, it was just an arcade thing. But if I'd known the Japanese rom didn't do that I would've used that instead for the footage. I got used to it after playing for a while but it was a bit odd at first. Now I am curious to download the Japan rom and see for myself. I was actually going to mention that flashing in the video on the arcade and totally forgot.
Yeah I only found out about the red flashing afterwards but admittedly I don't remember anything that explicitly said it was only in the international version, although it only seemed to come up in western reviews back in the day. There's both a 1P and 2P variant of the Japanese version though and I've only played the 1P so it may still be in the 2P version. For all I know they could actually be very different. Same! Same! Same! (aka the Japanese version of Fire Shark) is infamous for just that: the 1P version is ridiculously difficult compared to 2P, it's basically like starting on the second loop.
@@kobito1176 You may be right on the 1P vs 2P idea. I played the 2P rom so maybe the one with check points doesn’t have it. It will give it a try and find out. Figure you are right since your version didn’t have it.
Awesome video, loved every minute of it once again! I think the thing i appreciate most about your vids is that you take the time to get good gameplay footage throughout the whole game. I know that has to be time consuming but it's what put your content on another level. I know it may be elitist but it really makes it hard to take a review seriously when they reviewer is just sitting in the middle of stage 1 dying over and over again.
I've had one or two people mention that I shouldn't play through the whole games as it gives too much away. But some of the best footage I capture and that's most fun to watch or on the late stages. So I've been torn about it and just kept doing what I'm doing for now. It's not elitist to say that a review is not really a review, but more a surface level impression if they haven't at least seen a good portion of what the game has to offer and explored it's modes. More a "hey this is what I think of the game" kind of thing which is fine. But I know what you mean as I don't have much time to watch videos, so I don't spend it on anything that doesn't provide something either funny or cool or useful, or all of the above. Really that's what I've been doing is making stuff that I would want to watch myself and glad that others have really enjoyed them too.
Mushroom head tips????? 🤣🤣🤣 I love these videos. I gotta give this game a try. I've probably only played the rom for a whopping 30 seconds. Now that I've seen all of the awesome bosses I need to change that!
It’s been a minute since a battle video. Any thoughts on a Thunder Force V Saturn vs. PS1 video? Or perhaps a Saturn vs. PS1 shared shooters video that TFV would be included in?
Yea I’ve actually thought about doing another one pretty soon. And it was going to be Thunder Force V, Kyukokyu Tiger, Forgotten worlds or Raiden. It’s definitely in the cards!
I very much enjoyed this. Thank you. Quality audio and footage. Funny memes. I can't think of a better channel for Shmups (maybe even Retro?hm) than yours. Was that Nexzr namedrop a hint at what is to come next? If yes, then oh boy am I already hyped for that one.
I said it before I just try to make vids for myself and what I enjoy watching. And it works out others enjoy them too and I love to hear it. The name drop wasn’t coincidence I love that game and you just may be seeing something on it really soon. It also worked with the timeline as Nexzr released that same year I think just months later. I’ve been wanting to feature it for a while. There are almost zero reviews and videos about it anywhere so it deserves a really good one.
These two ports present an interesting situation. Neither on its own is arcade perfect, but if you looks at them as a pair of games, they then become almost arcade perfect when combined.
I've always enjoyed Zero Wing but my only experience has been on the Megadrive. I don't even remember playing the arcade version come to think of it. Obviously I will rectify that after watching your video. Another great one btw, you should keep the hair mate, suits you. 🤪
I had never played the arcade version either before. Expect a Hellfire like experience haha. The bullets fly so hard and fast. I am definitely keeping the hair who knows when this meme will need to resurface again for one reason or another haha
gonna have to give it to the Mega Drive for this one. I think this is one of the carts that recently got officially reissued from Castlemania Games too
Yeah that Toaplan collection it's going to be part of it. It was supposed to release December but I never heard anything about it since my pre order... likely delayed. I was going to post this up on the Turbo group but wasn't sure since the PCE port did so badly this time haha. It'll have to redeem itself on the next one.
It’s really underrated and I personally like it more than Hellfire as well. Even Toaplan sees their two side scrollers as their least favorite. But I always found ZW not only a solid game, but the incredible music puts it over the top for me. The MD port is just fantastic.
I think back when it came out I never got a chance to play it. I would’ve remembered that intro. It was so much later with the internet and meme going around I had to check it out. Too bad as I would’ve enjoyed the game itself and music back then.
Yep the Megadrive is by far the better port, i even prefer it to the arcade due to the extra level of weapon and the far superior music which sounds amazing when going through decent speakers, the arcade music sounds aneamic in comparison. These comparison vids are great btw.
I agree the arcade had some really cool tunes, but they sound thin and missing the mid-base and lower freq. that really made the mega drive stand out. It's a winner all around and now my preferred way. I love the difficulty on the arcade. If only I could transpose the MD music into it haha.
That endimg was yay. Very good of the story adding to the pictures. To depth it added! What a surprise was taken on me. Congraturation. Shmup junkie forever....and always as, "if you are having them you are smoke them" Video very great. A great day have!
Yea the ending with the text added to the pics even tho it was only a minute it actually sucked me in like old games did. Sure we now have voice acting. But that's why I loved the rpgs from 1997 where you had to read the story.and much like a book it definitely fills out the imagination.something that's very missing from today's games, unless they go fir the old school feel on purpose. Great vid as always. I do cigarettes,so I am having the smoke on one! Cheers junker
I do miss the old chip tunes, they had a melody you could remember and would stick in your head. It did feel like game music. Early CD games were often really good too, if not always successful. But when they got too fancy and lost the simplicity of great original tunes it was downhill. Even basic tech on the NES was enough to make some classics still used today. Definitely agree.
Excellent video mate and every bit as entertaining as all your previous awesomeness! Amazing edits and love the humour as well. I wasn't sure if I'd played Zero Wing but after watching your video I know I did back in the day. I definitely never finished it though. Time to revisit, I hope. Cool looking shooter with some very cool sounds. I Totally agree with the verdict as well and such a shame the PC Engine version (that end of level boss, ahem) didn't get the same attention as the Megadrive and it's base bound OST. 10/10!
Hey buddy there you are! I’m glad I was able to give you some solid entertainment for 30-40min and you had fun with it. The mega drive version is definitely the way to go on this one imo. 👌
Thanks appreciate that. I'm very excited for a lot of the Toaplan games M2 is releasing for Switch... they can't come soon enough. Tatsujin Ou is one I can't wait to play.
I got a japanese megadrive cart from a co worker with mc donalds sticker on it without any label! It was zero wing !!! Man i was very impressed with the game back in the day that was way before all the memes 😆
I wonder how much that unique mcdonald's version of Zero Wing is worth now haha. Maybe it was a promotional item. Or maybe they just put a sticker on it. 😂 It's a kick butt port I was impressed too. And yeah no memes since the Japanese version didn't have bad translations. But it had those amazing 32 different endings. Who would actually beat it 32 times to see them all? Good thing someone hacked it later to get all of them.
Thanks! This was my most recent comparison I did and had a lot of fun with it, but it's been a while and I'm about due for another. Have a couple games in mind I'm deciding between to do next.
@@ShmupJunkie I still have some to watch but ya man,keep those up,there so helpful.While i got ya i gotta say Hellfire is one of those games that i blew off cause the ship seemed ridiculous big and the cartridge art wasnt much to me.After watchin that one i know i didnt give it a fair shake but i will now
Wow! First time hearing the arcade music and it surely sucks big time compared to the revamped/rock on 🤘 Megadrive version and the more mellow PC Engine. Great channel man, keep it up!
It's a lot thinner sounding than I would expect, although the actual tunes are still cool. The MD really rocked it here I was impressed. I enjoy these comparisons I've got a couple more baking as well I want to do. Feb. is a crazy month with new game releases so it's keeping me pretty busy.
I thought it was all pretty good all up until the final track. Maybe missing the edge of the MD tracks but still well arranged. Something about the instrumentation on stage 8... kind of like a pipe organ type sound just didn't do it for me at all! 😅 At least not compared to the MD version. But up until that point, there were actually a couple of the PCE tracks I did like more.
Even though the PC-Engine can only do 1 background layer, Naxat Soft (porters of this version) could have at least used animated tiles to preserve some of the parallax scrolling in the game considering that a lot of it is tile based. You can see clever uses of animated tiles to give the illusion of 2 layers in bunch of PC-Engine games, for example: Stage 2 in Gradius 2, last stage of Magical Chase, a lot of the over lapping scrolling in Thunder series. Also, I think the Sega version is more balanced of them all. I never liked the balls to the wall difficulty in any of the Arcade shmup games that are first and foremost designed to suck the coins out of gamers than present a fair challenge so it's not a plus in my books. They optimized Zero Wing for home play on Sega and way to much on the PCE to a fault.
No doubt Naxat especially could have easily pulled off more interesting backgrounds. They did it in Stage 4 which I showed, but then many others just nothing. I could never find any interviews or other interesting info about the development of the pc engine version, unlike on the mega drive which has some cool details and info. So I only guessed it was not enough time to do a complete port and they had to cut corners. It's true the basic CD format was limited compared to SuperCD, even moreso in some ways versus the hucards. But like you said, even the difficulty was toned down too much. The Sega port was a perfect home console version to get new players accustomed to the game. I am thinking it made a good starter shmup for a lot of younger kids back then too.
Another amazing comparison 👏🏼 Now that @ojwales basically gifted me the Genesis Everdrive I can finally try all the Genesis/MD shooters you rave about 🤤😍 Might just have to start with this one 👏🏼
Oh yeah? I didn't know you had an everdrive in the house now. That'll be sweet. This one is not bad to start with at all. It'll be easy for you in the beginning and it defaults to easy, so I'd set it to normal, but it picks up on level 5 and gets even more fun.
@@ShmupJunkie yeah dude @ojwales said he wanted me to play Genesis properly 😅 Like I told you when you sent the Everdrive...I'll be forever grateful to both of you 😭🙏🏼
Thanks! Way too many hours, probably full time job level 40-60hrs for something like this easily. And it'll make me a few dollars in ads haha. It's really fun though I am enjoying making them for now. It's bringing some joy to myself and all you guys in an otherwise crappy year.
It's an extra 4th level of power ups. You just have to keep grabbing the green power up only enough times without dying and it will upgrade to level 4.
Thanks. It definitely does have the Hellfire feel, minus the multi directional firing. The music is definitely sick I enjoyed it for that alone. It's also easier than Hellfire until you get into the second half of the game, so it won't start kicking your butt right from the beginning.
Hot damn that stage 8 music rocking! "The butters getting hard and the jello's jiggling" haha. I've seem the " all your base belongs to us "meme before but didn't know anything about the game. I will add this one to my backlog. Hopefully the arcade won't be too hard but if it is I can play the megadrive. Thank you foe saving me the trouble of playing the pc engine port. I recently took a 235 lb crt and turned it into a tate setup. It's ridiculous. I think you would get a kick out of it. Check it out Tate stuff towards the end.
Yeah it is! The MD port is definitely the way to go on this one. It's not nearly as hard as the MD Hellfire port I think you'll dig it. You've got a lot of CRTs going! Automatic points for having Ninja Gaiden going on the one. Noticed you are using the Shinybow SCART converter which is good I use that one too. I couldn't find the time stamp where you turned it on it's side but I can only imagine. If you know where on there you did that I definitely want to check it out. I only have one CRT I keep in my gameroom.
@@ShmupJunkie i fucked up and sent you the wrong link. This one has the tate setup. It's towards the end. th-cam.com/video/be2rVU5Qq4E/w-d-xo.html I really dig the mexhanics on helfire. That's the one where you cycle through your weapons to fire in different directions right?
I don't think I've slept 12hrs straight since I was in high school 😂 but that must've felt good to catch up. No such thing as late the video is always waiting for when you arrive.
For great justice! Yeah, Sega clearly has the better port, and my favorite version overall. Even before I really got into playing shmups I always had the Genesis Zero Wing soundtrack to listen to while I was drawing or something.
That OST is just so good I wish it got more attention or releases. It's really Toaplan's best one right next to Tatsujin. I only ever played ZW originally on PCE and was just luke warm on it, so the Mega Drive version was definitely a revelation playing it after.
That old Hori stick is my definite favorite to use on any system. It has all those switches at the top I immediately thought of using to spoof the video 😅. A juxtaposition of launching and getting ready to play.
Can’t argue with that. Zero Wing literally has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time and the MD version is easily the best of ‘em. It really makes the game what it is.
I pretty much felt the same way and you know I'm a pretty big PC Engine fan. It's a pretty decent port but not as good as the MD for sure. Aside from the extra level and final boss there isn't much else I'd prefer about it. I just don't know what happened there at the end of the pc engine port with no background on the boss at all.
I don't blame you, most were really good. Some I even liked more too. But I was also comparing it a bit to the remixes in Hellfire which T's music did. Those I was completely in love with, it was no contest. Whereas here I just loved what they did with the MD port, making them even better than the more tinny arcade original tunes. I'll admit though the PCE tracks were still really good despite me being a bit iffy on that final stage.
The pce music is actually pretty good too it’s only that last stage track I think went too off the rails with weird instrumentation. But yeah it’s missing that edge that makes the others so good. Kind of like an overproduced version of the originals.
Great comparison, but overall the mega drive absolutely wins handsdown especially when it comes to the music which is on another level it seriously is it demolishes both the PC engine and the arcade original.
If I remember well, Zero Wings on MD ave the special "cheating" bullets. Where the enemy shoots bullets at you and the bullets should continue on their straight line but have a tendency to change their trajectory slightly when your ship move. There is another game like this but I forgot which one, it was even more cheating like the bullet was passing near your ship and it should be safe, but the bullet suddenly skip a few lines to touch you.
Ahaha, fun as always! :D a question.. I see you often compares PCEngine with SegaMegaDrive. Since I am working on a comparison between Sega MD and Nintendo SNES, aren't there arcade conversion on SNES?
Yes there are many, and some I will do as well. Parodius is a good one, although it's not on MD, only SNES and PCE. There were very few shmups on the SNES that also ported on the Mega Drive. Maybe Thunder Spirits/Thunder Force, but on SNES it's not the same game and not very good. There are many games on Sega and SNES with same ports, but mostly other genres like platformers and beat em ups. You will have a hard time finding any shmups to compare between them.
@@ShmupJunkie ok! Thanks! I saw days ago a post where you were talking about localization, languages on the channel and so on but can't find it anymore.. can you link me that? 💪
@@ShmupJunkie your gonna overdose on this news Junkie www.gematsu.com/2019/12/m2-to-release-nearly-every-toaplan-game-for-console-starting-2020-in-japan
@@dahnilama1417 wow I didn’t know the plan was the entire catalog! That’s crazy. I can’t wait to play arcade originals of some like V-V also. That’s insane news indeed thanks for that heads up. 🔥
@@ShmupJunkie just hoping they release physical collections like the psikyo shooting all stars but obviously with all the extra stuff M2 are known to add to their ports.
This comparison brought a lot of thoughts to mind. The PCE soundtrack seems rushed in comparison to the Megadrive's (as a matter of a fact, a lot of things in the PCE port seem rushed). The reinstrumentation seems weak and downsampled to a simple synth/piano sound while the Megadrive's is absolutely banging. Probably the best use of the MD's FM Synth I've heard in a while, the music sounds way more "punchy" and both the snare drum and the reverb on the guitar sounds WAAAAYYY better. To put it simple, the PCE OST sounds like generic 80s Pop music while the MG's OST sounds like pure unadulterated 80s ROCK. Also, for the first 8 minutes or so of the video, I thought the MD version was the PCE... the graphics are THAT good. The anime intro is cool and all that, but MD takes the cake again. I'll look for shmuplations' interviews to see if there's any mention of these ports as the PCE looks a bit rushed.
You mean Thunder Force don't you... I know you do 😂 I have to admit there were a couple stages here, especially 2 and the last level that were up there I was lovin' it. 🤘
That would be awesome if there is more info on the port. I should check that site more on some of these games in case there are cool tidbits I don't know I can add in. I do know that this released not long, just months, before Nexzr, so maybe Naxat redirected resources at some point to that awesome project. Just a stupid guess though. It's like some things about the port are really well done, like they put enough time into, and other things unfinished. Especially no options or difficulty levels or loops, just odd for a Toaplan game. Speaking of great pc engine shooters, though, editing the end of this video did remind me I have been wanting to do an episode on Nexzr so maybe that will happen soon.
![History of the Amazing PC Engine! [Book II]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Fh-pXInZeNc/mqdefault.jpg)
![History of the Amazing PC Engine! [Book II]](/img/tr.png)
When it comes to the soundtrack I vastly prefer the Mega Drive over the others. It’s so HARD and CHIPPY. Great video as always!
Thanks and can’t argue with that. There were a couple arcade tracks I really liked but overall the MD music is awesome. Honestly a lot of the pce tracks are good compositions but they just don’t have that raw and hard hitting sound so they lose their edge. Too polite I guess.
Yes, the MD soundtrack is by far a greatest!
@@ShmupJunkie - Arcade version music sounds like an Amiga game.... & I love that 👍.
@@TexasHollowEarth Did Amiga games have that FM synth inspired sound too? I never owned one, few did, but I’m going to be discovering some of that cool library soon myself on the mister core. I’m excited to try some out.
@@ShmupJunkie The “Paula“ was a 4-voice hard-panned sample-based chip, so it could play virtually anything.
The arcade version used a Yamaha FM synthesis chip, which was completely different in the structure to the “Paula“ on the Amiga.
Fun fact: This was effectively a training game for new hires at Toaplan at the time in order to get their feet wet. As such, it originally wasn't intended to be released to the public. For whatever reason, it was pulled for an official release for arcades in 1989 regardless.
I just read about this on shmupulations like a day after the video was done, which is too bad as I would've loved to include that in the video as a really cool bit of info. It's almost like they were competing against each other and ended up making some really cool stuff that was unexpected. I love fun stories like that and now I know.
I actually checked this game out purely because of the meme, and was amazed to discover it's actually a really solid experience, and the soundtrack.. so good!
So good! It's my favorite part of the experience. And I just learned from someone else here it was composed by 4 different people. I'll need to get a physical copy for myself now of this MD port.
The level 2 theme is awesome ("A New Day for Me"). 80s rock or melodic metal covers absolutely slay!
As a shmup lover -- Zero Wing is super fun, especially thanks to its soundtrack!
Whoever wrote the Sound Driver for the Gen/MD version did a brilliant job, bringing in that powerful percussion that not only the other versions lack, but you don't hear super-often on the Gen/MD to boot.
Yeah I was really really impressed. Usually some of the pc engine hucard games had that, like the percussion in blazing lazers is amazing. The MD really blew me away with it's soundtrack in this game I had to give it mad props.
I always found the "What you say?" line far funnier than the infamous "All your base are belong to us!". It kills me every time!
Somebody set up us the bomb was one of my favs haha
it seems to be a one-to-one literal translation of Japanese. Classic.
My headcanon is that it's said in a low, drawn out, incredulous manner. Whaaaat you SAAAAAAY?!
I use that quote often in real life -- and it's crazy how often folks get the reference!
what you say?
I actually didn't know about the pce cd version so it is great to see them side by side, Got to be some of my fave content on youtube right now so keep killing it bro!
Thanks man I will try. The PCE version is the first I ever played and why I was a bit meh on the game overall and never played it more than once when it came out. The MD intro I always knew about, but the music surprised me how with good it was. And the gameplay was better overall. So I'm definitely more a fan of that port now.
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!
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Chapters:
00:00 - ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US
01:09 - A Brief History of Zero Wing
01:57 - Presentation - Sega Mega Drive vs PC Engine CD
03:17 - GRAPHICS Comparison - Sega Mega Drive vs PC Engine vs Arcade
11:59 - MUSIC Comparison - Sega Mega Drive vs PC Engine vs Arcade
18:09 - THE AMAZING Final Stage
19:59 - GAMEPLAY - Sega Mega Drive vs PC Engine vs Arcade
30:47 - and the WINNER is...
31:10 - But Wait! PC Engine vs CATS
32:17 - ALL YOUR END ARE BELONG TO US
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Without a doubt your show is the best part of every Sunday. Thanks for another banger of an episode Junkie.
Very cool of you to say. Main reason I am making these is for the fun and also how much everyone is enjoying them. Certainly not for the pay out. 😂
I still have a lot of good ideas I want to do videos for, so I will keep it up long as I am able.
Great intro reconstruction. "Take off every zig!!"
I actually didn't know there were versions other than the Mega Drive out there.
Aside from the arcade, I think these two ports are it far as I know. The MD port is definitely definitive of the two I enjoyed it. Although now that I played the arcade I really loved the speed of that game. For great justice!
Another excellent video! The intro and ending was great 🤣 and of course the comparison itself 👌 God that MD music is absolutely banging!. I'm pleased it's the version I own but the Arcade is definitely on my radar now.
I had the most fun on the intro of course, but the ending was some fun too. I had to do something fun with the PCE cut scenes and then show some of those hilarious 32 japanese endings. The music makes this game for me. It's good but not amazing until the later stages, but the tracks keep me going. The arcade is really tough like Hellfire but it also means those early stages are less of a drag.
Too good! I loved the final text at the end! This one looks like it must have been fun to do.
Oh yeah very haha. I didn’t know the Japanese mega drive port had 32 unique endings. And some are so funny just as interesting as the bad translation. So I had to share some of them.
Best intro ever! I was particularly impressed with Timmy's performance! Joke aside as always with you amazing documentary, thank you so much Sir you are a blessing...
Haha, yes Timmy knows how to do the ridiculous roles quite well 😆 The intro was fun to do. I am due for another one of these comparisons soon it's been a while.
I appreciate the effort made to create the orchestral versions of Zero Wing's music, but the Genny's sound kit was used to incredible, wonderful effect in this one. It's my third-favorite Genesis shooter, largely because of the excellent music. (#1 - Thunder Force III, #2 - Sub-Terrania) Was lovely watching your comparisons of these three versions of ZW! Thanks!!
You're welcome! And yes I agree. When it came to Hellfire, I found the CD arrangements even better overall (aside from the opening track). But here, the music on MD is straight god tier and untouchable. I'm with you on that. The music alone makes it much more special than it would otherwise be. Love seeing Subterrania on your list too, that game is rad!
@@ShmupJunkie SubTerrania is the perfect storm of excellent, difficult gameplay with fantastic atmosphere and music by a composer, Jesper Kyd, who's still doing lovely work to this day.
@@HayTatsuko Oh yeah? Now I’m curious what other games he’s composed for. I’ll be I can look up a bio
Shmup junkie's favorite meme: "AlL yOuR bAsE bEloNg To Us!!!!"
I'm gonna have to hand it to the Mega Drive. I really like how the PC Engine CD always kicks the music up. A great example is the improvements they made to R-Type on the CD version. It kicks ass! But in this case They went harder with the percussion and bass on the Mega Drive which to my ears grooves better than even the arcade version. The PC Engine CD music sounds great, but they went a little too ethereal and light with the soundtrack on their version.
--edit:
I typed that before the video finished. Shmup Junkie said the same thing lol! my bad!
Haha well great minds think alike. The MD version definitely kicks butt. I wasn't personally too fond of the RType complete CD remixes as the original music is so well done, I preferred it not tampered with. But with Hellfire, which you'll see if you watch that comparison I did, I personally thought the arranged CD tracks on the PC Engine were even better than on the MD (aside from the first level, that music is iconic and I prefer the original). Of course Ts music did that soundtrack and everything they do is gold.
I love these in depth comparisons, and great intro! I need to play Zero Wing!
Well now you know which one to play! They take a lot of work but it’s a good video people can hopefully watch many years later if they’re looking for it. Of course making the intro is the fun part 😆.
I watched your intro twice in a row, you made me laugh too much! 🤣 Thank you for the good time and for the precision of the comparison. Well done! 👏
Thank you my friend. Of course making the intro was the most fun part to do. It will be fun to do some others one day like that, but this game was perfect for it.
Coupla things: this content is awesome, your shirt is awesome, and for the love of all things holy Toaplan music was so friggin' awesome XD
Toaplan music most awesome followed by cool content and cool shirt. Got it 😅
That final stage music really blew my mind followed by stage 2. My shirt is something the wife made for me and put up on red bubble. If you ever want one I can get you a link as a bunch of other people have gotten them too lol.
Every time I watch your movie, it suddenly turns out that I need to play a shooter. This time I try to reach boss in Darius Twin for SNES. I'm so close!
That means I am doing my job well. 😀 Thank you. Darius Twin is not too bad compared to the older PC Engine Darius games, you will get it for sure. 👍
If H.R. Giger was paid for all the artists that cribbed his art style he would be like Bill Gates level rich
My God I can't get enough of that MD final stage music! I think I'm gonna remix it in that style.
It's freakin' awesome right! 🔥
@@ShmupJunkie it's like the perfect balance between a chiptune and a real band.
Another great video and comparisson!! A highlight is the soundtrack, simply stunning....guess what am I playing tonight?? 😁 I believe this is the first one that the MD wins in every field, right? Congrats my friend, I really enjoyed it!! 👏🏻👏🏻
You got that right dude. Every comparison was much closer and the ports were both good on each console. They all had pros and cons. This one is straight up MD all around. Play it tonight and stick it on normal mode (I think it defaults to easy), it's not too bad and you'll definitely enjoy the music. Stage 2 was my other favorite aside from the final level, but so many are good.
@@ShmupJunkie the MD version defaults to easy or was it the PCE one?
The drums beat on MD rocks.
So I just watched a half an hour long comparison of the Zero Wing versions. All that knowledge won't bring you any further in life. But I loved it so I know this is my real hobby. My girlfriend is interested in games but wouldn't watch a video like this. I can watch it many times.
Too bad I don't own the PC Engine version. I like to compare different versions by myself. I play the Mega Drive version nearly every week but I don't know why I love this game so much. Great video!
Sometimes life is just about enjoying your hobbies, so I am glad I was able to give you a half hour of enjoyment. My wife doesn't even watch the videos I make either so... haha. But she does help with do some of the funny and ridiculous stuff when I need extra hands. She got to hit me over the head with a frying pan for the revenge giveaway video and enjoyed it so much she posted it in her instagram stories lol. I love many games for the music alone, and this one is no exception now that I played the mega drive version all the way through.
Great video. It seems you put a "few" hours into these and it shows.
Thanks! Yeah a few x 10 sounds about right 🤣.
Another great video Shmup Junkie. That intro 👏🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼. I appreciate the effort you put into these. Very informative and entertaining. Keep em coming!
Thanks buddy. I did have fun making that intro 😅 Lots of effort but worth the time. I have fun and you guys all enjoy them.
Oh, that's a game that takes me down memory lane, for sure. I've played the crap out of this one in the Arcades, and I had it absolutely mastered. I didn't play the PC Engine version, and just a few times on the Mega Drive.
Thanks for the video and bringing up those memories from the back of my mind =)
If you played it in arcade and still have the muscle memory, you can certainly smoke the console ports. Although the MD gets tougher on the harder setting toward the end. I was never lucky enough to see an awesome cab like this in the arcade. The PCE port was actually the first of it I ever played.
Bought a Japanese cart (and cart adapter) of Zero Wing from a local market in London back in '91/'92.
Absolutely live this game to bits!
This was fun!!
I love the mega drive version. But to me.. the lack of boss musics is a disappontment.
Keep it up sir!!
Glad you enjoyed it my friend. It's unusual there wasn't boss music it certainly could have added to it. I guess Toaplan just made that design choice. At least the music tracks are all really good!
@@ShmupJunkie They did the same with hellfire for their reasons. The music is awesome indeed.
I clicked for the Shmups but stayed after that high budget intro 😂
We spare no expense when it comes to jokes at our expense haha. Honestly I have a little too much fun with these and am past due on another. I enjoyed some of these old comparo vids.
Just by the opening the video deserves be watched, it's too fun! Great work again in comparison!
I had to have some fun with it right 😀. A lot of people were asking me to do Zero Wing after the Hellfire comparison, so now I've got Tatsujin, Hellfire and Zero Wing covered from the upcoming release. Too bad Fireshark only ever got a mega drive port.
@@ShmupJunkie Nice! gogo with Fire Shark now :D
Hey man. Another great video. Seriously, you could write books about these games. The Shmup historian. The Shmup master. Keep it up man you’re doing great stuff. I always like the funny parts you put into your videos as well. As always, can’t wait to see what you have lined up next.
What’s funny is I’m always kicking myself for missing things I wanted to mention and forgot. Like how the screen flashes red on this arcade rom I played when enemies die. Or other tidbits I missed or didn’t know. But I guess that’s what articles are for they are easily updated. Videos aren’t the best medium for making additions. I definitely enjoy making the fun bits I put in. It’s like we each get to be our own director and make a final product for people to enjoy.
I had so much fun with this video ;)
I had fun making it especially the intro 😀
Thank you for this video, great work.
Loved hearing the music comparisons. Mega Drive 4 life 😁
Dude, I seriously love your videos. I do everything I can to spread the good work.
Thank you so much man. And I appreciate it a ton as it’s hard to get found when small on TH-cam and get more people to know you exist. So it’s word of mouth from great subs that are a big part of my channel getting noticed. I really enjoy making the videos and hope to keep making them long as I’m able. Mainly because you and others are enjoying them as much as I am.
Awesome Job Dude, these Comparison Videos are Brilliant!👍👍😃💯💯
I did have a really good time with these back in the silly days. Maybe will make another one someday when I'm feeling froggy haha. Thank you.
The soundtracks of Genesis are better, more punchys, more grittys, so powerful... The Megadrive is so Amazing, Genesis 😍😍😍 forever
Definitely in the case of Zero Wing I agree ☝️ It’s the best version including the music.
Another great video! I still don’t think the sound is right without the sound effects though!
I keep trying sections with sound effects, but it makes it harder to hear me for some reason. That and I love some of the music so much, it forces me to make it all quieter so the sound effects aren't overwhelming or too loud. For games that let you adjust the levels in the options, I was thinking of just turning off the game music and recording sound effects only. Then I can turn that down in editing and use the separate music track in the background. But then it's not fun for me to play without music haha. So I am still figuring it out. 😅
Loved this episode so much. You're getting better and better bro.
Thanks man that means a lot. I’m trying to slowly improve each one. Will see how many more episodes before I jump the shark 😅
Completely forgot I had this game. Thanks made for an interesting afternoon.
On the mega drive? I still need a physical of that and think I'll pick one up now that I enjoyed it as much as I did.
@@ShmupJunkie Yeah I have the mega drive version and have played the original in Mame. PC Engine is too expensive now. Maybe in a few years.
@@tekmate the pce port isn’t great enough to warrant the cost anyway. That MD port is smokin and you get the killer intro. I need a physical now too.
The sound on Mega Drive is so fantastic ! Once again...
Lol you know you love a soundtrack when it feels like half the video is a sample range of every song! Joking aside, whilst I will say that many of the individual songs are great, the overall ost has no consistency I feel and ends up feeling like each track could be from a different game.
Loved your intro, amazing effort haha! This game is certainly more famous for its meme than anything else but it's great to see the Megadrive rocking away above the competition. Great video man!
Good point the tracks do vary quite a bit in style. Stage 4 was a straight up Tatsujin homage especially on the arcade version. I enjoyed them so much though I didn't care. Stage 2 was another one of my favs on the mega drive what an awesome tune. The game always felt a bit slow to me until later, but the arcade really opened my eyes a bit to how it was originally intended. That one nails you almost right from the start and doesn't feel slow by comparison.
The inconsistency might be because this was composed by four different persons. Yuge, Uemura, Tomizawa and Ohta. Originally the point of the whole game was just to be a playground for the new junior staff to experiment in making a game so therefore the game kinda lacks coherent focus. However the title was well received by toaplan staff and the seniors took over and finalized it as a complete product
@@PiesliceProductions That’s really cool info! Where did you read about that? I’m not as well versed on many MD games vs PCE. I would’ve gladly included that cool detail in the video somewhere had I known. FYI on my discord channel I’m doing a topic each week for the video I’m working on. So anyone with cool info like this can chime in and I can add it while it’s in process. If you are ever interested to pop in I can get you a link. Thanks for the info I learned something new on this today
@@PiesliceProductions Makes sense. The inconsistency is not really a negative, just something I noticed, but regardless, like I said, each track holds up extremely well on its own. I love stuff like this though.
@@ShmupJunkie shmuplations has lot of translated toaplan staff interviews
Great comparison! I think both the Sega and Turbo soundtracks blew the Arcade away!
I wouldn't disagree with that. I actually liked the turbo tracks a good bit until the last stage where it kind of blew it... I wasn't a fan of the instrumentation. The arcade was good and had the cool tunes, but also was very thin sounding. The mega drive music was amazing I was completely hooked on some of those tracks.
excellent analysis! I love the quirky art style in this game
Supposedly it’s because 3-4 different people worked on various stages separately. Almost like competing with each other to see what they could come up with. So it’s kind of all over the place but also really unique.
I've mentioned before that Zero Wing is the training wheels game of shmups. When I was young, the difficulty of Gradius and other shooters put me off from spending time on them instead of platformers. It was Zero Wing that finally said, "Okay, wuss, I'll take it slow and easy on you to start with. Just soak in the awesome visuals and music while you develop some muscle memory, kid."
After that, the other shooters started to click with me and I was a proud addict ever afterwards.
That's a very good point. The MD difficulty is perfect I think for a console game and starts easier for anyone to play. Younger players could get into it too. If I didn't play the arcade first I probably wouldn't have even noticed. The PCE was just too much of that like you said. MD had the perfect difficulty balance here. I wasn't lucky enough to get such kind training wheels... my first shooter was either Gradius or Life Force on NES. There was a lot of ass kicking in the beginning, ie my ass getting kicked 😅
@@ShmupJunkie I was always intrigued by Gradius and Life Force, I loved the look and concept of any space shooter I'd come across, but prepubescent me would struggle through the first stages only to run out of lives and patience in the second, and then move on to something else with a more generous reward stimulus. The early stages of Zero Wing are pretty pedestrian as far as challenge goes for a more mature player, but to a knucklehead kid its early build up of weapons against slow enemies shooting slow bullets made you feel powerful and incentivized you to push on into later stages.
I burst out laughing when he said the jello’s jiggling 😂
Chick Hearn's old famous line. It's in the fridge. Eggs are cooling, butter's getting hard and the jello's jigglin. 😂 I miss having hearing him announcing basketball games.
@@ShmupJunkie I wasn’t aware. Still hilarious though
what a showcase of FM synthesis properly done on the Mega Drive, with the help of additional PSG channels to make it sound even richer. This along with Midnight Resistance is where the home console sound beats out
the arcade original.
The extra mid range really helped the mid-bass and lower freq. giving it a richer sound and not as thin. It's gotta be on of my all time fav MD shooter OST next to TFIV and Musha.
The whole video's sound design is a bopper btw.
Thanks! Not many people notice the work that goes into having it all flow well between the music and transitions. The more of these I do the better feel I get for it. But I’m still working with basic gear like using my iPhone to do live recordings.
Zero Wing was redone by a group called Bitwave Games recently. You can get it on Steam. I never played the OG version so I can't compare too well, but it seems like a very good port. Cheap too!! Between these two versions though I go with the TG16 version easily. I almost always tend to pick the TG16 version, the colors are always much brighter and the music is usually better. I've never really been a fan of any music on the genesis, it always sounded so twangy and electronic to me.
The recent bitwave releases aren’t of these ports but the original arcade game. So that’s the way to go for anyone wanting to play the arcade games. I’m usually more a fan of the PCE ports myself too in many cases, but definitely found myself preferring this MD port. It makes sense since it was done by Toaplan themselves. I really think they nailed it on the music and even improved it over the arcade, I’m a big fan of this MD port. Along with it not feeling overly toned down and slow on the PCE port. I do think it’s still a good port though just a bit too toned down for my taste. The new Bitwave Steam releases are still working out a bunch of bugs but it has great performance and a lot of potential. Plus a ton of features. I showed it briefly in my latest 2023 update video. It’s worth keeping an eye on.
Kickass video as always dude, that intro nearly had me in tears! It actually took me a second to realize you were doing a parody, that's how well you pulled off the Engrish dialog.
I've only played the arcade version so far but one thing I noticed in your footage is that the screen seems to flash red every time you kill an enemy which seems pretty annoying. I played the Japanese version which doesn't have that fortunately.
Thanks man! I had a ton of fun making the intro. It's the arcade version that has the red flashing and I honestly thought all arcade ROMS did that. So are you saying the Japanese one doesn't? I used the international rom. The mega drive and pc engine clearly don't, it was just an arcade thing. But if I'd known the Japanese rom didn't do that I would've used that instead for the footage. I got used to it after playing for a while but it was a bit odd at first. Now I am curious to download the Japan rom and see for myself. I was actually going to mention that flashing in the video on the arcade and totally forgot.
Yeah I only found out about the red flashing afterwards but admittedly I don't remember anything that explicitly said it was only in the international version, although it only seemed to come up in western reviews back in the day.
There's both a 1P and 2P variant of the Japanese version though and I've only played the 1P so it may still be in the 2P version. For all I know they could actually be very different. Same! Same! Same! (aka the Japanese version of Fire Shark) is infamous for just that: the 1P version is ridiculously difficult compared to 2P, it's basically like starting on the second loop.
@@kobito1176 You may be right on the 1P vs 2P idea. I played the 2P rom so maybe the one with check points doesn’t have it. It will give it a try and find out. Figure you are right since your version didn’t have it.
The best comparison ive EVER SEEN XD
Thank you. It's also the most recent, so I've slowly been building on my previous ones to keep improving them.
@@ShmupJunkie Can't wait for the next. I'm a big fan of the Megadrive and PCE shoot'em ups.
Awesome video, loved every minute of it once again! I think the thing i appreciate most about your vids is that you take the time to get good gameplay footage throughout the whole game. I know that has to be time consuming but it's what put your content on another level. I know it may be elitist but it really makes it hard to take a review seriously when they reviewer is just sitting in the middle of stage 1 dying over and over again.
I've had one or two people mention that I shouldn't play through the whole games as it gives too much away. But some of the best footage I capture and that's most fun to watch or on the late stages. So I've been torn about it and just kept doing what I'm doing for now. It's not elitist to say that a review is not really a review, but more a surface level impression if they haven't at least seen a good portion of what the game has to offer and explored it's modes. More a "hey this is what I think of the game" kind of thing which is fine. But I know what you mean as I don't have much time to watch videos, so I don't spend it on anything that doesn't provide something either funny or cool or useful, or all of the above. Really that's what I've been doing is making stuff that I would want to watch myself and glad that others have really enjoyed them too.
Mushroom head tips????? 🤣🤣🤣
I love these videos. I gotta give this game a try. I've probably only played the rom for a whopping 30 seconds. Now that I've seen all of the awesome bosses I need to change that!
Admit it. You’re gonna play it for the mushroom head tips 🤣
@@ShmupJunkie fuckin BUSTED
Genesis: ALL YOUR GAMES BELONG TO US!
PC Engine: WHAT YOU SAY!?
It’s been a minute since a battle video.
Any thoughts on a Thunder Force V Saturn vs. PS1 video?
Or perhaps a Saturn vs. PS1 shared shooters video that TFV would be included in?
Yea I’ve actually thought about doing another one pretty soon. And it was going to be Thunder Force V, Kyukokyu Tiger, Forgotten worlds or Raiden. It’s definitely in the cards!
@@ShmupJunkie Wow that’s kind of a crazy coincidence. TFV would be sweet but Raiden would rock too.
I very much enjoyed this. Thank you. Quality audio and footage. Funny memes.
I can't think of a better channel for Shmups (maybe even Retro?hm) than yours. Was that Nexzr namedrop a hint at what is to come next? If yes, then oh boy am I already hyped for that one.
I said it before I just try to make vids for myself and what I enjoy watching. And it works out others enjoy them too and I love to hear it. The name drop wasn’t coincidence I love that game and you just may be seeing something on it really soon. It also worked with the timeline as Nexzr released that same year I think just months later. I’ve been wanting to feature it for a while. There are almost zero reviews and videos about it anywhere so it deserves a really good one.
These two ports present an interesting situation. Neither on its own is arcade perfect, but if you looks at them as a pair of games, they then become almost arcade perfect when combined.
I've always enjoyed Zero Wing but my only experience has been on the Megadrive. I don't even remember playing the arcade version come to think of it. Obviously I will rectify that after watching your video. Another great one btw, you should keep the hair mate, suits you. 🤪
I had never played the arcade version either before. Expect a Hellfire like experience haha. The bullets fly so hard and fast. I am definitely keeping the hair who knows when this meme will need to resurface again for one reason or another haha
gonna have to give it to the Mega Drive for this one. I think this is one of the carts that recently got officially reissued from Castlemania Games too
Yeah that Toaplan collection it's going to be part of it. It was supposed to release December but I never heard anything about it since my pre order... likely delayed. I was going to post this up on the Turbo group but wasn't sure since the PCE port did so badly this time haha. It'll have to redeem itself on the next one.
This is my number 1 all time favourite game on the megadrive, yet most people i mention it to, dont even know this game existed
It’s really underrated and I personally like it more than Hellfire as well. Even Toaplan sees their two side scrollers as their least favorite. But I always found ZW not only a solid game, but the incredible music puts it over the top for me. The MD port is just fantastic.
I remember playing this game with my cousin, we laughed our asses off while reading the dialogues
I think back when it came out I never got a chance to play it. I would’ve remembered that intro. It was so much later with the internet and meme going around I had to check it out. Too bad as I would’ve enjoyed the game itself and music back then.
The Zero Fire release under the Shot Triggers line includes both versions of each console.
Yep the Megadrive is by far the better port, i even prefer it to the arcade due to the extra level of weapon and the far superior music which sounds amazing when going through decent speakers, the arcade music sounds aneamic in comparison. These comparison vids are great btw.
I agree the arcade had some really cool tunes, but they sound thin and missing the mid-base and lower freq. that really made the mega drive stand out. It's a winner all around and now my preferred way. I love the difficulty on the arcade. If only I could transpose the MD music into it haha.
That endimg was yay. Very good of the story adding to the pictures. To depth it added! What a surprise was taken on me. Congraturation. Shmup junkie forever....and always as, "if you are having them you are smoke them"
Video very great. A great day have!
Yea the ending with the text added to the pics even tho it was only a minute it actually sucked me in like old games did. Sure we now have voice acting. But that's why I loved the rpgs from 1997 where you had to read the story.and much like a book it definitely fills out the imagination.something that's very missing from today's games, unless they go fir the old school feel on purpose. Great vid as always. I do cigarettes,so I am having the smoke on one! Cheers junker
"Butter's getting hard and the Jell-O's jiggling!" made me lol hard. Big fridge vibes.
Figured there had to be some NBA fans out there that'd get the old Chick Hearn line. 😅
"Mild-mannered" nails it, it's pretty much why lots of modern game soundtracks don't feel like game music.
I do miss the old chip tunes, they had a melody you could remember and would stick in your head. It did feel like game music. Early CD games were often really good too, if not always successful. But when they got too fancy and lost the simplicity of great original tunes it was downhill. Even basic tech on the NES was enough to make some classics still used today. Definitely agree.
Excellent video mate and every bit as entertaining as all your previous awesomeness! Amazing edits and love the humour as well.
I wasn't sure if I'd played Zero Wing but after watching your video I know I did back in the day. I definitely never finished it though. Time to revisit, I hope. Cool looking shooter with some very cool sounds. I Totally agree with the verdict as well and such a shame the PC Engine version (that end of level boss, ahem) didn't get the same attention as the Megadrive and it's base bound OST. 10/10!
Hey buddy there you are! I’m glad I was able to give you some solid entertainment for 30-40min and you had fun with it. The mega drive version is definitely the way to go on this one imo. 👌
Another winner, with an awesome intro (yours that is 😅). Nothing beats Toaplan man, nothing...
Thanks appreciate that. I'm very excited for a lot of the Toaplan games M2 is releasing for Switch... they can't come soon enough. Tatsujin Ou is one I can't wait to play.
Toaplan will live forever.
Awesome presentation! Thanks!
Thanks 😊 I obviously had some fun with the intro
I got a japanese megadrive cart from a co worker with mc donalds sticker on it without any label! It was zero wing !!!
Man i was very impressed with the game back in the day that was way before all the memes 😆
I wonder how much that unique mcdonald's version of Zero Wing is worth now haha. Maybe it was a promotional item. Or maybe they just put a sticker on it. 😂 It's a kick butt port I was impressed too. And yeah no memes since the Japanese version didn't have bad translations. But it had those amazing 32 different endings. Who would actually beat it 32 times to see them all? Good thing someone hacked it later to get all of them.
Great video!
Thanks! This was my most recent comparison I did and had a lot of fun with it, but it's been a while and I'm about due for another. Have a couple games in mind I'm deciding between to do next.
I was playing it yesterday.4 some reason my PC did not freeze with hyperspin great game great music.Toaplan were masters of the genre
Great review junkie!
Thanks. I think I'm due for another comparison video soon it's been a while
@@ShmupJunkie I still have some to watch but ya man,keep those up,there so helpful.While i got ya i gotta say Hellfire is one of those games that i blew off cause the ship seemed ridiculous big and the cartridge art wasnt much to me.After watchin that one i know i didnt give it a fair shake but i will now
Wow! First time hearing the arcade music and it surely sucks big time compared to the revamped/rock on 🤘 Megadrive version and the more mellow PC Engine.
Great channel man, keep it up!
It's a lot thinner sounding than I would expect, although the actual tunes are still cool. The MD really rocked it here I was impressed. I enjoy these comparisons I've got a couple more baking as well I want to do. Feb. is a crazy month with new game releases so it's keeping me pretty busy.
battle of the shmups is a great idea,this channel is belong to me,i discover the channel today,more battle of shmups,please! sorry for my english ;)
Three other battle of shmups belong to us. Tatsujin, Hellfire and Air Buster I made. You can find them in a playlist. Enjoy them for great justice! 😉
I really love the music in the PC Engine port
I thought it was all pretty good all up until the final track. Maybe missing the edge of the MD tracks but still well arranged. Something about the instrumentation on stage 8... kind of like a pipe organ type sound just didn't do it for me at all! 😅 At least not compared to the MD version. But up until that point, there were actually a couple of the PCE tracks I did like more.
Even though the PC-Engine can only do 1 background layer, Naxat Soft (porters of this version) could have at least used animated tiles to preserve some of the parallax scrolling in the game considering that a lot of it is tile based. You can see clever uses of animated tiles to give the illusion of 2 layers in bunch of PC-Engine games, for example: Stage 2 in Gradius 2, last stage of Magical Chase, a lot of the over lapping scrolling in Thunder series. Also, I think the Sega version is more balanced of them all. I never liked the balls to the wall difficulty in any of the Arcade shmup games that are first and foremost designed to suck the coins out of gamers than present a fair challenge so it's not a plus in my books. They optimized Zero Wing for home play on Sega and way to much on the PCE to a fault.
No doubt Naxat especially could have easily pulled off more interesting backgrounds. They did it in Stage 4 which I showed, but then many others just nothing. I could never find any interviews or other interesting info about the development of the pc engine version, unlike on the mega drive which has some cool details and info. So I only guessed it was not enough time to do a complete port and they had to cut corners. It's true the basic CD format was limited compared to SuperCD, even moreso in some ways versus the hucards. But like you said, even the difficulty was toned down too much. The Sega port was a perfect home console version to get new players accustomed to the game. I am thinking it made a good starter shmup for a lot of younger kids back then too.
Another amazing comparison 👏🏼 Now that @ojwales basically gifted me the Genesis Everdrive I can finally try all the Genesis/MD shooters you rave about 🤤😍 Might just have to start with this one 👏🏼
Oh yeah? I didn't know you had an everdrive in the house now. That'll be sweet. This one is not bad to start with at all. It'll be easy for you in the beginning and it defaults to easy, so I'd set it to normal, but it picks up on level 5 and gets even more fun.
@@ShmupJunkie yeah dude @ojwales said he wanted me to play Genesis properly 😅 Like I told you when you sent the Everdrive...I'll be forever grateful to both of you 😭🙏🏼
Great video, I don t imagine how many hours you spent for making your video, great job I like them !!🙃🙃😉👍
Thanks! Way too many hours, probably full time job level 40-60hrs for something like this easily. And it'll make me a few dollars in ads haha. It's really fun though I am enjoying making them for now. It's bringing some joy to myself and all you guys in an otherwise crappy year.
@@ShmupJunkie keep some hours to play shumps my friend😄🙃🙃🙃🙃
how do you get de super green shot on the megadrive version?
It's an extra 4th level of power ups. You just have to keep grabbing the green power up only enough times without dying and it will upgrade to level 4.
@@ShmupJunkie thx didn't know that
dope video man! hellfire is awesome so i bet i would like this game, maybe i'll get it one day.
Thanks. It definitely does have the Hellfire feel, minus the multi directional firing. The music is definitely sick I enjoyed it for that alone. It's also easier than Hellfire until you get into the second half of the game, so it won't start kicking your butt right from the beginning.
@@ShmupJunkie haha right on yeah the first time i ever played hellfire i was like lol wtf.
Hot damn that stage 8 music rocking! "The butters getting hard and the jello's jiggling" haha.
I've seem the " all your base belongs to us "meme before but didn't know anything about the game. I will add this one to my backlog. Hopefully the arcade won't be too hard but if it is I can play the megadrive. Thank you foe saving me the trouble of playing the pc engine port.
I recently took a 235 lb crt and turned it into a tate setup. It's ridiculous. I think you would get a kick out of it. Check it out
Tate stuff towards the end.
Yeah it is! The MD port is definitely the way to go on this one. It's not nearly as hard as the MD Hellfire port I think you'll dig it.
You've got a lot of CRTs going! Automatic points for having Ninja Gaiden going on the one. Noticed you are using the Shinybow SCART converter which is good I use that one too. I couldn't find the time stamp where you turned it on it's side but I can only imagine. If you know where on there you did that I definitely want to check it out. I only have one CRT I keep in my gameroom.
@@ShmupJunkie i fucked up and sent you the wrong link. This one has the tate setup. It's towards the end.
th-cam.com/video/be2rVU5Qq4E/w-d-xo.html
I really dig the mexhanics on helfire. That's the one where you cycle through your weapons to fire in different directions right?
Oh dear 0:58 is funny they're mobilizing!
I'm late haha.I just pulled a much needed 12 hr bender of sleeeeppp. It was great.especially since the night before I got like 45 mins
I don't think I've slept 12hrs straight since I was in high school 😂 but that must've felt good to catch up. No such thing as late the video is always waiting for when you arrive.
For great justice! Yeah, Sega clearly has the better port, and my favorite version overall. Even before I really got into playing shmups I always had the Genesis Zero Wing soundtrack to listen to while I was drawing or something.
That OST is just so good I wish it got more attention or releases. It's really Toaplan's best one right next to Tatsujin. I only ever played ZW originally on PCE and was just luke warm on it, so the Mega Drive version was definitely a revelation playing it after.
Hell yeah - Love those Hori sticks btw
That old Hori stick is my definite favorite to use on any system. It has all those switches at the top I immediately thought of using to spoof the video 😅. A juxtaposition of launching and getting ready to play.
The megadrive version is my favorite Megadrive soundtrack ever, together with Golden Axe.
Can’t argue with that. Zero Wing literally has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time and the MD version is easily the best of ‘em. It really makes the game what it is.
Nice comparison. I definitely like the Genesis version better. EVERYTHING IS BETTER in that version than the pc engine.
I pretty much felt the same way and you know I'm a pretty big PC Engine fan. It's a pretty decent port but not as good as the MD for sure. Aside from the extra level and final boss there isn't much else I'd prefer about it. I just don't know what happened there at the end of the pc engine port with no background on the boss at all.
I honestly loved the PC Engine tracks the best. Like by far.
I don't blame you, most were really good. Some I even liked more too. But I was also comparing it a bit to the remixes in Hellfire which T's music did. Those I was completely in love with, it was no contest. Whereas here I just loved what they did with the MD port, making them even better than the more tinny arcade original tunes. I'll admit though the PCE tracks were still really good despite me being a bit iffy on that final stage.
All your cats belong to us 😁🎮
Zero Wing part 2, return of the CAT lady 😅 I can see it.
I can't stop watching this intro lol
Just like the original only way more cringe! 🤣
A great classic. I also prefer the Arcade and MD soundtracks. The PC engine just sounds too soft.
The pce music is actually pretty good too it’s only that last stage track I think went too off the rails with weird instrumentation. But yeah it’s missing that edge that makes the others so good. Kind of like an overproduced version of the originals.
Great comparison, but overall the mega drive absolutely wins handsdown especially when it comes to the music which is on another level it seriously is it demolishes both the PC engine and the arcade original.
Oh god 15:30 Touhou 5 Mystic Dream (Staff roll theme)
Well now I gotta go listen to it and compare! ha
If I remember well, Zero Wings on MD ave the special "cheating" bullets. Where the enemy shoots bullets at you and the bullets should continue on their straight line but have a tendency to change their trajectory slightly when your ship move.
There is another game like this but I forgot which one, it was even more cheating like the bullet was passing near your ship and it should be safe, but the bullet suddenly skip a few lines to touch you.
Yeah I'm giving Arcade and Genesis/MD a tie on this one. Awesome video bro!
They are both awesome. I loved the arcade simply for the killer gameplay not just the graphics, but some of those mega drive tracks! 😍
Ahaha, fun as always! :D a question.. I see you often compares PCEngine with SegaMegaDrive. Since I am working on a comparison between Sega MD and Nintendo SNES, aren't there arcade conversion on SNES?
Yes there are many, and some I will do as well. Parodius is a good one, although it's not on MD, only SNES and PCE. There were very few shmups on the SNES that also ported on the Mega Drive. Maybe Thunder Spirits/Thunder Force, but on SNES it's not the same game and not very good. There are many games on Sega and SNES with same ports, but mostly other genres like platformers and beat em ups. You will have a hard time finding any shmups to compare between them.
@@ShmupJunkie ok! Thanks! I saw days ago a post where you were talking about localization, languages on the channel and so on but can't find it anymore.. can you link me that? 💪
Can't wait for the M2 Toaplan ports coming to the switch.
Do you mean like Truxton 2? I definitely am looking forward to that one. Big time 🎉
@@ShmupJunkie your gonna overdose on this news Junkie www.gematsu.com/2019/12/m2-to-release-nearly-every-toaplan-game-for-console-starting-2020-in-japan
@@dahnilama1417 wow I didn’t know the plan was the entire catalog! That’s crazy. I can’t wait to play arcade originals of some like V-V also. That’s insane news indeed thanks for that heads up. 🔥
@@ShmupJunkie just hoping they release physical collections like the psikyo shooting all stars but obviously with all the extra stuff M2 are known to add to their ports.
This comparison brought a lot of thoughts to mind. The PCE soundtrack seems rushed in comparison to the Megadrive's (as a matter of a fact, a lot of things in the PCE port seem rushed). The reinstrumentation seems weak and downsampled to a simple synth/piano sound while the Megadrive's is absolutely banging. Probably the best use of the MD's FM Synth I've heard in a while, the music sounds way more "punchy" and both the snare drum and the reverb on the guitar sounds WAAAAYYY better. To put it simple, the PCE OST sounds like generic 80s Pop music while the MG's OST sounds like pure unadulterated 80s ROCK. Also, for the first 8 minutes or so of the video, I thought the MD version was the PCE... the graphics are THAT good. The anime intro is cool and all that, but MD takes the cake again. I'll look for shmuplations' interviews to see if there's any mention of these ports as the PCE looks a bit rushed.
Agree with you on almost everything 👍 Except for the use of the Megadrive sound chip, yes it is an excellent use but not the best on the sega 16bit.
You mean Thunder Force don't you... I know you do 😂 I have to admit there were a couple stages here, especially 2 and the last level that were up there I was lovin' it. 🤘
That would be awesome if there is more info on the port. I should check that site more on some of these games in case there are cool tidbits I don't know I can add in. I do know that this released not long, just months, before Nexzr, so maybe Naxat redirected resources at some point to that awesome project. Just a stupid guess though. It's like some things about the port are really well done, like they put enough time into, and other things unfinished. Especially no options or difficulty levels or loops, just odd for a Toaplan game. Speaking of great pc engine shooters, though, editing the end of this video did remind me I have been wanting to do an episode on Nexzr so maybe that will happen soon.
@@ShmupJunkie and Elemental Master too 😁😉