Even if you’ve never played the side-scrolling space shooter Zero Wing, chances are pretty good that you’ve seen its most significant contribution to gaming: “All your base are belong to us.” When Zero Wing was localized for North America, it received an unintentionally hilarious English translation that completely mangled the language and gave us “Somebody set us up the bomb!,” among other comedic gems. Even in Japan, the game was a little wacky. And it’s now been confirmed that the Japanese version of Zero Wing had 35 different endings!
Via Kotaku, Legends of Localization has revealed a detailed explanation of each ending from Zero Wing‘s original incarnation in Japan, along with a video that compiles all 35 variations. That should save gamers the time of having to play through Zero Wing multiple times just to see them all. The endings appear in order after being completed each time, before returning to the fourth ending and repeating the cycle after the 35th ending.
The first ending features some bizarre California Raisins-like creatures dancing to Offenbach’s “Can Can Music.” According to the report, those creatures are actually Pipiru, the mascot of the game’s developer, Toaplan. The second ending is just a graphic of a burning enemy base alongside the credits. The third ending is actually the best one, as it provides a cinematic of the player’s ship docking with a larger vessel and returning home triumphant.
From the fourth ending on, it’s simply a screenshot of the game’s leading alien villain with alternate Japanese dialogue. Some of the text refers to obscure comedy bits and at least two mention the condiment gomashio. Some of the other endings are variations on the villain telling the player that the game is over or asking them to join the villain’s empire. It’s pretty amazing that someone took the time to make all of these screens, and that they went largely unnoticed for so long.
What do you think about Zero Wing‘s multiple endings? All your comments are belong to us!
Image: Taito/Toaplan
