Zeta Wing (C64)

Zeta Wing (Sarah Jane Avory) $3.99USD (Digital)

Game title: Zeta Wing

Game description: Zeta Wing is an arcade quality vertical shoot-em-up featuring 7 stages, each with their own graphical style and is inspired by the arcade game Gemini Wing. There is no real backstory on offer with Zeta Wing – the game is designed to provide pure and simple arcade blasting fun. Shooting an alien enemy results in 100 points be awarded, shooting the ‘Z’ and ‘W’ symbols gives you 500 points while getting past the end stage boss will result in 20,000. For every 50,000 points you accumulate you are rewarded with an extra life. Destroying an entire enemy attack wave results in a ‘P’ symbol being dropped. Collecting 12 ‘P’ symbols results in an upgrade to your weapons and there are a total 10 upgrade on offer. The power up system works quite well and acts as an incentive to take the aliens head on instead of trying to evade them. Fortunately, losing a life only results a degrading of your weapons systems by one level as there is nothing more frustrating as losing all your power ups after you get hit. Zeta Wing is a very colourful game with each level having its own distinct look. The game’s main technical feature is its 7 layers of parallax scrolling, which at times looks mesmerising – a great feat given that is all done within a single load.

[ Buy ]

  • Graphics - 89%
    89%
  • Sound - 75%
    75%
  • Fun - 90%
    90%
  • Depth - 80%
    80%

Review Opinion

As you start playing Zeta Wing you instantly pick up on both the graphical and sonic resemblance to Gemini Wing. The graphics are full of colour but more importantly movement with the game screen is buttery smooth. There is no stutter in sight as your craft, the alien enemies and their bullets all smoothly flow across the screen to provide a strong sense that you are about to have a true arcade quality experience on your C64.

It’s probably the closest thing we can get to a PC Engine style shooter within the confines of a single load on the C64 and, perhaps, it is this single load limitation to the game design that prevents Zeta Wing from being an ‘epic’ title (given there is only 7 levels and a limited story narrative).

Neverless, this shooter will have you hooked within the first minute of playing. A fun and accessible arcade shooter with addictive qualities featuring impressive technical coding all presented within a single load.

Overall
84%
84%
Sending
User Review
71.79% (19 votes)

Pros

  • Distinct themed levels
  • Smooth parallax scrolling
  • Lots of fun
  • Difficulty is well balanced

Cons

  • No story narrative
  • Only 7 levels

Video Link Included

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