Zero Team is an Beat 'em Up Arcade Game created by Seibu Kaihatsu (original creators of the immensely popular Raiden series) in 1993. It was published in North America by FabTek later in the same year. The game is notorious for its encryption method on its arcade revisions (a problem that also plagued many of the original Raiden games), making emulation difficult at best. However, the Japanese Arcade version was released as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives in November 19, 2020 for Nintendo Switch, and December 8, 2020 for the Play Station 4.
The plot is...about some terrorist organization that has kidnapped a woman, prompting a military special force to go on to rescue her. And...that's it. The player(s) must battle hordes of enemies that explode upon defeat, going across six stages and concluding upon a battle in a hidden island.
The playable characters are:
- Ace: The Leader of the team, his Diving Kick do the most damage.
- Speed: As his name says, the fastest character.
- Spin: The sole female member, who has the longest reach for combos.
- Big-O: The Big Guy and the strongest fighter.
An Updated Re Release titled New Zero Team is released in 1997. It simply switched around the order of several levels.
Zero Team provides examples of:
- Anti-Hero: The protagonists will blow up several enemies and possibly hit a few innocents with no punishment just to save one woman.
- The Big Guy: True to his name, Big-O, who is the strongest fighter and towers over all player characters and most enemies.
- Cast from Hit Points: As with the majority of the beat 'em ups. By pressing Attack and Jump, the player can do a devastating move that costs some health.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Ace is red, Speed is blue, Spin is yellow and Big-O is green.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Against most bosses, not standing in the same line as them will enable you to kill them quickly, and possibly even perfect them. Then comes the true form of the Final Boss and makes sure to cut you to pieces if you try that, encouraging you to stay close to him and keep attacking instead.
- Damsel in Distress: You have to save a typical one from the bad guys.
- Dual Boss:
- The very first boss, a couple of heavy samurai.
- The third boss fight as well, though the first one appears a minute or so before the second, and while easy on their own, the two bosses are very dangerous together, forcing you to weaken the first one as much as possible before the second one shows up.
- Excuse Plot: The story and exposition dialogue is minimal, even for a beat 'em up.
- Flunky Boss: The bosses often summon enemies to help them in various, creative ways.
- Interface Spoiler:
- The third boss, like the first one and unlike the second one, has the bar on the left side of the screen, not the center. This shows he will not fight you alone.
- The Final Boss, if his weakness and reliance on minions didn't tip the player enough, has a healthbar that has a mysterious icon and it does not look like that of a boss, rather that of a normal enemy. It's because the real final fight with him comes right after.
- Made of Explodium: Every enemy explodes upon defeat, just like the Arcade TMNT game and its sequel did before, except with even more oomph, with pieces flying everywhere. Bosses in particular, explode more spectacularly and leave many items you can get for points. And above all else, the Final Boss explodes thrice.
- Ms. Fanservice: Spin, thanks to her Stripperiffic outfit.
- Palette Swap: Ace and Speed share the same character sprite, only one is in red with black hair, and the other is in blue with blond hair.
- Recurring Boss: The heavy samurai bosses, who are several throughout the game.
- Shock and Awe: Speed's special move is based on lightning.
- The Smurfette Principle: Spin is the only playable female character, and the only one of two women in the entire game, the other being a Damsel in Distress.
- Stripperiffic: Spin's outfit is basically a sports bra with a jacket and a thong.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Unusually for a beat 'em up of the era, melee weapons dropped by enemies can only be thrown. The only usable weapon in the entire game is a rocket launcher.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Various civilians can be beaten up just like the mooks. However they cannot be killed, and simply flee when given the chance. You can even beat up the Damsel in Distress you are supposed to save during the final boss battle. Beating them up gives you a bonus.
