Can You Beat Zero Wing Without Defeating Any Enemies?

Zero Wing for the Genesis, known to most for its infamous intro containing delicious amounts of Engrish and the All Your Base Are Belong To Us meme that spawned from it.
Believe it or not, I have owned it for years, long before the meme came along in 2001. I've seen a number of people bash the game unfairly and I don't really understand why - I've always thought it was a perfectly good shoot 'em up, in fact, I played it quite a lot and even beat it a few times.
One thing that always stood out to me was that defeating the bosses was entirely optional: once they've been around long enough and still haven't been killed, they will leave of their own accord and you can continue without feeling the guilt of their death weighing on your conscience. I believe this is a feature for arcade shooters to prevent players from stalling, but why they still have it in a Genesis game, I can't work out.
Well, for old time's sake, I decided to see if it were possible to beat the entire game without killing any enemy at all, or any killable object whatsoever, really. I also decided to forgo any power-ups, which are dropped by weird capsule beings that could count as enemies anyway.
#Zerowing #AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs #IsItPossible

[@fevermario]

During the bit where you were pausing and unpausing the game, I briefly thought that my browser was lagging really bad, until I saw the caption.

[@Danariya1]

I like how doing this challenge basically made the game change genre, turning it from a "shoot em up" game into a "bullet hell" one

[@hyperslime64]

"Somebody set up us the bomb" is my favorite line from the intro, and having Tails(?) voice it makes it 10 times better.

[@jimduchene]

People who compare this to Big Riggs are dumb or kids. Big Riggs barely holds itself together, has no AI, no soundtrack, no physics, no gameplay. Zero Wing only suffers from an illness known as lazy translation, fairly common among its kind. If you cut it, it has fun gameplay, the soundtrack is great and as you show here has some thoughtful patterns among ennemies. Good video, and nice to see you give credit to this little gem.

[@VestedUTuber]

I think what's happening is that they see the bad translation and then immediately assume the rest of the game is just as bad without even playing it.

[@Peter_1986]

I am really tired of the meme translation. I feel that it actually kinda killed the game itself, because almost nobody cares about the actual gameplay; they always talk about "lol the translation during the opening scene".

[@Sean_Bird]

Well, that's certainly a way to spice up a classic meme. This should be interesting, trying to play a shoot-em-up without doing the title of the genre. Also, I have to say, this game has some great tunes in it.

[@Mordecrox]

Unfortunately that's how many pros play, one would ask how they dodge certain patterns and answered it's actually impossible; Some shmups keep tally of how long you hold shoot even and use that for dynamic difficulty. So a "pro" learns what aggravates the dynamic difficulty, and does the bare minimum so patterns are manageable.

[@sakesaurus]

@@Mordecrox bruh this is zerowing not battle garegga

[@goldenhydreigon4727]

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US

[@somacruz7759]

Dammit! You beat me to it 😆

[@twiinArmageddons]

Saw this coming from a mile away

[@somacruz7759]

@@twiinArmageddons :)

[@irfanafendi4837]

WHAT YOU SAY !!

[@akirbyobsessee7396]

Welcome back to our 8:00 showing of “whoisthisgit wants to play touhou but doesn’t want to be associated with it”.

[@mrherb9142]

On a diplomatic mission to request the return of all your base

[@mattguy1773]

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

[@qu1253]

What you say!!

[@SwitheKun]

Zero Wing? more like Zero Kills

[@PainMakesYouFeelBetter]

This challenge would've made me go insane. Props to you for the best attempt at it and good job!

[@Quenlin]

18:30 I object, I've only killed two people.

[@SwitheKun]

The pausing didnt bother me tbh, if anything it shows just how hard this really was to do, even with the pausing and also made it easier to see how you were dodging certain shots. I agree it would be neat to see a TAS of this challenge but I dont know how to go about making them either. I feel a few kills could have been saved in stage 8, but at that point it definitely had "please just let it be over" vibes, lol. I imagine your sanity took a massive hit during this challenge.

[@Lenoh]

TASing is easy, all you need to do is find an emulator that allows you to make savestates and slow your gameplay. Do that, beat the game, and play back your recording. Boom, it’s a TAS. This is why you see rerecord counts in the five digits; it’s easy to make a TAS, it’s far harder to play the same part of a level hundreds to thousands of times.

[@charziz6693]

You just turned Zero Wing into a Touhou game. Congratulations.

[@Nicius-]

Yes

[@irispaiva]

I kinda wanna see him playing Touhou now

[@RaceBandit]

32:39 | _"SQUARE HITBOXES ON CIRCULAR OBJECTS!"_ I think that was a Tasselfoot quote.

[@juliovictormanuelschaeffer8370]

All the like are belong to you, Git. Keep the good work up for great justice.

[@stefanoblack2221]

I do believe you, I myself still own the original cartridge I got as a kid, it was one of my favourite games on the system, the music alone is such and headbanger! Screw the meme, this game was awesome! Never thought of trying this type of challenge though, it was already hell to get to the end of hard mode normally xD but I never knew the bosses just give up on stopping you if you just keep dodging, that's crazy! Thanks for bringing back part of my childhood with this ^^

[@therealseanw.stewart2071]

I remember you from many, _many_ years back when you made those Dynamite Headdy videos. It's amazing to see you still producing videos, over a decade later.

[@pirupami9746]

I remember Angry German Tails

[@amandamakin1542]

I first saw whoisthisgit because of Tails Abuse back in 2009

[@nerdicusdorkum2923]

Wait, it's a feature to prevent hogging of arcade machines? I always thought it was either A: An alternative in case your under such heavy suppressive fire, you can't effectively shoot back or B: a cool gimmick for bragging rights.

[@sakesaurus]

in some games (esp. bullethells) timing out is easier for certain bossfights

[@nerdicusdorkum2923]

@@sakesaurus Yes it is... 'cries in a corner unable to get under the boss to actually fight back'

[@mechzilla569]

This video is for great justice

[@kinggodzilla7779]

why does cats sound like eric cartman lol

[@matbrun5663]

If there is anyone that could do this in one life then all are hearts are give to him.

[@addisonjudah]

Alternate title: How to turn a shooter game into touhou

[@rcblazer]

A Shoot-Em-Up where you try not to shoot anything up? Sounds like a crazy tough challenge, and yes I know I am crazy because I shot up everything so good in the original Metal Slug I could beat that game without dying a single time!

[@CybeastID]

I *love* the fact you put a Tails voice in there.

[@likky1]

The capsules seem to follow your color scheme maybe they are allies sending equipment? Regardless i wouldnt shoot them either. They kill you as much as anything

[@YukiColburn]

Zero Wing - Touhou Mode

[@Mandercloud]

Mechanic: Tails Operator: Kermit CATS: Cartman Narrator & Captain: ???

[@irfanafendi4837]

Captain sounds like a US president!

[@foolishknight5209]

Nice bullet hell skills here man, especially since you can't see your actual hitbox.

[@Mizuryryn]

Man, he went retro shoot em ups into danmaku game

[@qu1253]

Great justice is my motivation for everything in life.

[@pirupami9746]

"Justice always wins!"

[@bigstupidgrin]

Wait, they built a video game around that meme?

[@bivcbmtgstgtssscqcrddgtrsm2257]

All your bad translation are belong to us.

[@pirupami9746]

Somebody set up us a shooter!

[@Dr0dd]

If I remember right in a few other shmups (Gradius? Maybe Parodius?) some bosses leave on their own too. Would be interesting to attempt the same there.

[@Quenlin]

I know Sol-Feace does it.

[@randomdudeofdahood3973]

Gradius does it too, I am pretty sure.

[@VestedUTuber]

It's a staple feature of most bullethell games too. I know Ikaruga and the Touhou games do it.

[@bivcbmtgstgtssscqcrddgtrsm2257]

Now that's what I call bullet hell.

[@premium-juicebox]

gosh i absolutely love these types of videos

[@WhiteFangofWar]

We get signal! It GIT! GIT say: 'How are you gentlemen, all your death not belong to us, for great respect for life?' What? You say all have good chance to survive make their time? (ahem) That tractor beam looks fun if you actually use it. I'm not hugely into shmups either, the only one that I really enjoyed and strongly recommend trying is Axelay for the SNES. In that one you only die if you hit a wall or an enemy; their bullets will merely damage you causing you to lose one of your three selected weapons (another nice thing, being able to choose from several weapons).

[@Alex-yk4nj]

All your base is belong to us

[@verysadcatc7897]

Atleast you can enjoy the music while suffering.

[@DiegoG2004]

How to turn a scrolling shoot-em-up into a Touhou game

[@redmage076]

"For great justice"

[@magitek09]

You! You, magnificent bastard! Seriously man, you're amazing!

[@MrMeowstic7]

So the pause trick that you used is actually a common thing in lots of games known as pause buffering. It gives people more time to react to tight situations and can also be used to completely cheese stuff. An example would be yellow devil from megaman 1. I'm sure you probably know the elecman weapon pause glitch cheese for that

[@CybeastID]

The Mega Man 1 glitch is not actually pause buffering, pause buffering is used to hit first frame inputs. MM1's glitch is based around the fact that pausing doesn't pause the timer for s.

[@Drabit642]

It looks pretty neat, all too familiar with the meme but I don't think I've seen footage of it before, my only knock on it that I've seen, the only reason I wouldn't have played it, is only having one HP. I never had much experience with arcade games, I hadn't heard of this 'fight ends after x time' as a counter measure, I figured using a fairly generous time limit for each level was the way they'd normally try to handle that.

[@maxlefou]

i almost spilled my soda by the nose when Cats started speaking like cartman xDDDDD

[@oldmanmcfunny546]

Video idea Can you beat the game without your plans belonging to us

[@Peter_1986]

The main boss on stage 1 is absolutely ridiculous in the arcade version; he throws about twice as many orbs as in the Mega Drive version, and he also frequently moves closer to the middle of the screen.

[@RolandTemplar]

Why the Z of the game's logo is similar to the one of Zorro

[@iamlucidess]

Cats: So a single ship got past all our defenses without killing anyone?

[@Dr0dd]

might be the best way to get past their defenses if they never even notice you as a threat

[@qu1253]

He knew what he doing.

[@rmzing]

I so want to see a TAS of this challenge.

[@jojojojojojojojojojojojo4181]

I like the names you have them! Namely the grasshoppers and fairy ships

[@pyjamakama]

hell yeah i love watching challenge videos of games ive never played! :D

[@starshkr46]

I would love to know Git's opinion on Touhou and other danmaku/bullet hell games.

[@pirupami9746]

There's a good chance it's too anime for him

[@deliveryman7001]

I imagine you're gonna see a therapist after the atrocities you had to go through playing this game as pacifistic as possible... treat yourself to a top tier beverage man.

[@JammerRammy]

LMAO at the voices in the intro

[@Architect172]

This should be called a max dodge runn.

[@diabolicalcium4033]

what rpgs can be beaten if you run from all random encounters?

[@kinggodzilla7779]

nice vid 👍

[@nehehehgraylois]

i thought my computer was fucking up when you started doing the pause trick

[@PunkDisciple23]

I suppose the answer to the title is no then.

[@starsiegeplayer]

You know what you're doing.

[@whoelsebutmeofcoursei]

LMAO the bosses leave if you don't kill them, that's... cute? Very considerate

[@user-jd8je8qw3i]

More interesting challenges!)

[@MountainMemelord]

I say that since turrets are non-sentient, they don't count.

[@skylinefever]

I wonder how many people would have played this game if there were no translation errors.

[@pirupami9746]

Well, Final Fantasy Anthology exists

[@cutetrapchicken]

man thats fucked i was just watching the old video you did on weird endings where you talked about this game crazy

[@ls190v2]

All your base are belong to us?

[@laurentiusmcmxcv]

That's the first time I saw git this pissed off. Oof. Great job tho.

[@kstanni87]

But do you know what this means, you doomed the Earth since you let the enemy invasion force fly past you instead of killing them.

[@patchey8019]

move zig!

[@maxstone9999]

More importantly is if you can beat the game without laughing at the intro.

[@pirupami9746]

Only way would be being iliterate

[@madokalover]

back in the first gradius games the bosses self-destructed so u dont hog the arcade machine. the reason they self-destruct instead of leaving is probably because the programmers got lazy and instead of programming them to leave they could just reuse the death animation. almost every shmup did it after as tradition, even non arcade ones, although some games like battle garegga have the more realistic behavior of having the boss leave instead of self-destructing. gradius has always stuck with self-destruction as tradition and i even think they had an story explanation for it. in the darius games, back up fighters start appearing alongside the boss if you take too long. they become harder and harder to deal with if you wait even longer, until it becomes unbearable!

[@jasperl.8216]

Gaming KZbinrs discussing strategies for challenges for games no one will 4ver attempt It's very entertaining though!

[@suryasukma6588]

Dirty trick? You mean "za warudo"?

[@WardenOfTerra]

This is fuckin' hilarious hahaha

[@sebastianodepietri6411]

Ok, cool and all, but are we gonna talk about this game's music? I've heard fire emblem tracks that are less cool! (oh dear loptous what have I done? I can already hear the fe fans coming here to kill me.)

[@pirupami9746]

Arcade, Genesis, PC Engine = dope rock/techno soundtracks

[@sebastianodepietri6411]

@@pirupami9746 I agree.

[@pirupami9746]

@@sebastianodepietri6411 And World of Longplays played through lots of game from those consoles so we can enjoy them in the fullest!

[@sebastianodepietri6411]

That's good.

[@BlackPawns]

37:11 📮