Board 8 > Rate the VG Story Day 466: Zero Wing

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Todays game is Zero Wing. How would you rate the story on a scale from 1-10?

You can still rate previous days games if you want or change your score, just post the name of the game and the score. If you want to know which games you have rated or what score you gave a game, just ask me. If you want to know what you rated a previous game just let me know. Nominations for future days are welcome.

Previous Results:
Clannad - 9.75 (4 votes)
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers - 9.68 (11 votes)
Outer Wilds - 9.61 (22 votes)
Silent Hill 2 - 9.5 (20 votes)
Planescape: Torment - 9.5 (13 votes)
Higurashi When They Cry - 9.5 (9 votes)
Eternal Darkness: Sanitys Requiem 9.38 - (13 votes)
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker - 9.33 (10 votes)
428: Shibuya Scramble - 9.27 (9 votes)
Nier Automata - 9.25 (31 votes)
The Forgotten City - 9.2 (4 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - 9.2 (20 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations - 9.19 (35 votes)
Judgment - 9.17 (6 votes)
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West - 9.15 (10 votes)
Deus Ex - 9.14 (13 votes)
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - 9.13 (15 votes)
The House in Fata Morgana - 9.06 (11 votes)
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - 9.04 (8 votes)
Yakuza 0 - 9.03 (13 votes)
Red Dead Redemption 2 - 9 (8 votes)
Final Fantasy XIV (overall) - 8.98 (11 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - 8.95 (31 votes)
Steins;Gate - 8.94 (9 votes)
Lunar: Eternal Blue - 8.93 - (7 votes)
Mother 3 - 8.91 (15 votes)
Umineko When They Cry - 8.89 (14 votes)
Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward - 8.88 (21 votes)
Return of the Obra Dinn - 8.85 (10 votes)
Silent Hill 4: The Room - 8.83 (6 votes)
Suikoden II - 8.8 (11 votes)
Persona 3 - 8.76 (22 votes)
Nier - 8.75 (18 votes)
Omori - 8.75 (8 votes)
Grim Fandango - 8.75 (14 votes)
Xenogears - 8.73 (24 votes)
Tales of Berseria - 8.71 (15 votes)
Suikoden V - 8.7 (10 votes)
Metal Gear Solid - 8.68 (28 votes)
Final Fantasy Tactics - 8.67 (27 votes)
Shadow Hearts: Covenant - 8.67 (6 votes)
Pyre - 8.64 (7 votes)
Portal 2 - 8.64 (19 votes)
Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward - 8.64 (11 votes)
Bastion - 8.63 (12 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 8.63 (32 votes)
AI: The Somnium Files - 8.59 (13 votes)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 8.58 (6 votes)
The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask - 8.57 (28 votes)
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together - 8.56 (8 votes)
Persona 4 - 8.56 (32 votes)
Disco Elysium - 8.56 (17 votes)
Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy - 8.55 (4 votes)
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - 8.53 (18 votes)
SOMA - 8.5 (6 votes)
The Great Ace Attorney: Resolve - 8.48 (11 votes)
Fate/Stay Night - 8.48 (12 votes)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 8.47 (16 votes)
Undertale - 8.45 (42 votes)
Dragon Quest V - 8.44 (16 votes)
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean - 8.44 (8 votes)
Mass Effect 2 - 8.44 (29 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd - 8.43 (12 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice - 8.42 (17 votes)
What Remains of Edith Finch - 8.41 (19 votes)
Chrono Trigger - 8.4 (41 votes)
Shadow Hearts - 8.38 (8 votes)
Blasphemous - 8.38 (4 votes)
Shenmue II - 8.38 (4 votes)
Snatcher - 8.33 (6 votes)
Final Fantasy X - 8.31 (56 votes)
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - 8.31 (17 votes)
Final Fantasy VII - 8.29 (38 votes)
South Park: The Stick of Truth - 8.25 (18 votes)
Dead Space - 8.25 (8 votes)
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - 8.23 (6 votes)
Fallout: New Vegas - 8.23 (13 votes)
Lunar: Silver Star Story - 8.22 (9 votes)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - 8.21 (19 votes)
Parasite Eve - 8.19 (9 votes)
Dragon Quest XI - 8.19 (17 votes)
Final Fantasy VI - 8.19 (43 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 8.19 (43 votes)
Persona 5 Strikers - 8.17 (9 votes)
The Walking Dead Season 1 - 8.16 (22 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies - 8.15 (17 votes)
Wolfenstein: The New Order - 8.14 (7 votes)
The Last of Us - 8.13 (35 votes)
The Witcher - 8.13 (7 votes)
Fire Emblem: Three Houses - 8.12 (14 votes)
Tales From the Borderlands - 8.12 (7 votes)
Conkers Bad Fur Day - 8.11 (9 votes)
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals - 8.11 (9 votes)
The Wolf Among Us - 8.11 (15 votes)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - 8.11 (17 votes)
Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice - 8.1 (5 votes)
Horizon: Zero Dawn - 8.06 (18 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - 8 (18 votes)
Portal - 8 (26 votes)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna: The Golden Country - 7.98 (5 votes)
Xenoblade Chronicles - 7.98 (28 votes)
Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End - 7.97 (16 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - 7.96 (14 votes)
Hades - 7.96 (22 votes)
Tsukihime - 7.94 (7 votes)
Inscryption - 7.93 (10 votes)
God of War (2018) - 7.93 (14 votes)
Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - 7.92 (13 votes)
Persona 5 - 7.92 (27 votes)
Life is Strange - 7.92 (32 votes)
Alan Wake - 7.91 (8 votes)
Spec Ops: The Line - 7.9 (17 votes)
Cyberpunk 2077 - 7.9 (7 votes)
Bloodborne - 7.88 (20 votes)
Kid Icarus: Uprising - 7.86 (13 votes)
Night in the Woods - 7.8 (15 votes)
Silent Hill - 7.8 (15 votes)
Psychonauts - 7.79 (7 votes)
Deadly Premonition - 7.77 (11 votes)
Killer7 - 7.77 (11 votes)
Final Fantasy IX - 7.77 (26 votes)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - 7.75 (14 votes)
Mario & Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story - 7.75 (10 votes)
Silent Hill 3 - 7.75 (8 votes)
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future - 7.75 (6 votes)
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain - 7.75 (4 votes)
NEO: The World Ends With You - 7.75 (4 votes)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - 7.75 (4 votes)
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - 7.73 (32 votes)
The Last of Us: Left Behind - 7.73 (11 votes)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor - 7.73 (11 votes)
Mega Man Zero - 7.71 (7 votes)
Kentucky Route Zero - 7.7 (10 votes)
The Sexy Brutale - 7.75 (6 votes)
Until Dawn - 7.68 (19 votes)
Vagrant Story - 7.67 (6 votes)
Bioshock - 7.65 (24 votes)
Skies of Arcadia - 7.63 (15 votes)
Suikoden - 7.63 (15 votes)
Paper Mario: The Origami King - 7.63 (6 votes)
Saints Row 2 - 7.63 (4 votes)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - 7.63 (4 votes)
Radiant Historia - 7.62 (13 votes)
Doki Doki Literature Club - 7.61 (28 votes)
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - 7.6 (5 votes)
Final Fantasy VII Remake - 7.58 (20 votes)
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - 7.57 (6 votes)
Celeste - 7.56 (26 votes)
Half-Life 2 - 7.55 (10 votes)
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake - 7.54 (12 votes)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - 7.51 (31 votes)
Policenauts - 7.5 (5 votes)
Erica - 7.5 (4 votes)

6/10

I've played it. Story is pretty basic, but it gets an extra point for the hilarious translation issues.

UltimaterializerX posted...

10

Nice to see what meets your criteria of a 10

1

10

The story (and its translation) took a generic shoot 'em up and made it legendary. That's about all you can ask for from a shoot 'em up story.

6/10 still waiting for a continuation

1.5/10. Incoherent and silly.

I am surprised people played it?
Or most ratings are based on the meme?

Nanis23 posted...

I am surprised people played it?
Or most ratings are based on the meme?

All your ratings are belong to us

10/10

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

The story (and its translation) took a generic shoot 'em up and made it legendary. That's about all you can ask for from a shoot 'em up story.

This.

More gamers know Zero Wing's story better than most other video game stories, because of how quotable and iconic it is.

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Nice to see what meets your criteria of a 10

There are different ways for things to be perfect. If someone gave a fancy savory meal that took hours to prepare a 10, but then also gave a some cookies a 10, would you act surprised and question how they can also like sweet food?

TomNook posted...

There are different ways for things to be perfect. If someone gave a fancy savory meal that took hours to prepare a 10, but then also gave a some cookies a 10, would you act surprised and question how they can also like sweet food?

I would question his criteria for scoring being too liberal because sounds to me like he is someone who is easily pleased by anything.

The definition of a 10/10 meal being "some cookie" is the perfect analogy for a video game story being a 10/10 masterpiece because of an unintentional translation error.

And this is coming from someone who thinks All your base are belong to us is fucking hilarious and voted for CATs in nearly 90% of his contest matches.

7/10

CATS escapes before you destroy the final boss so you never get to kill him. You also have to beat the game three times to see the best ending.

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

The definition of a 10/10 meal being "some cookie" is the perfect analogy for a video game story being a 10/10 masterpiece because of an unintentional translation error.

So you are saying that something simple can never be perfect? There needs to be levels of complexity in order for something to reach a high state of enjoyment?

Realistically...
1/10
It is incoherent gibberish that was great for internet memes. Memes that died so hard and so long ago that cjayc cancelled the quotes contest because he somehow thought people still gave a shit about "All Your Base" when clearly, at the time, we all cared more about shorts being comfortable according to a Pokemon NPC. How long has it been since cjayc left gfaqs? And this game's bad translation was no loneger a joke before then? Just weak. Also, even with a good translation, the story here is bad.

7

Phantom Hourglass - 4

Nominate Spirit Tracks

I want to give it a 10

But I feel like that's a disservice to whatever I rated SotN which has great hammy dialogue that's as memorable as the Zero Wing nonsense, and a better story on top of that.

6.5 feels about right to me. It enhances the game and is memorable. The 1 scores are more silly than the 10s here.

Rating Zero Wing's story is like rating the movie The Room

Truth be told, you can't write stuff like this. Try as you might, you'll never top "somebody set up us the bomb" and of course "All your base are belong to us." This game is so quotable in ways it was never intended, and for that reason, even though it's incoherent and silly, I think it deserves a good rating

Look at games toward the top of our list, like Outer Wilds and Silent Hill 2. Say a quote from those games and people may struggle to place it. Say one of the two I mentioned above and people immediately know it's Zero Wing.

9/10

plasmabeam posted...

Rating Zero Wing's story is like rating the movie The Room

Don't entirely agree. There are similarities to be sure but some key differences

- The Room is much much longer and needs to hold your attention to get to the silly stuff

- Zero Wing stands on its own better. Show someone unfamiliar with what The Room is and they might get bored before they get to the really stupid quotable stuff. Zero Wing has you right out of the gates as long as you speak English.

- Zero Wing is a competent albeit generic story where quirkinesses in the writing/translation make it memorable. The Room on the other hand doesn't suddenly become a good or even decent story if it's cast well or the presentation is improved.

A better comparison would be Revenge of the Sith. There isn't a ton of meat to what Revenge of the Sith is, but you could make it a pretty good story with some good casting and tweaks to the dialogue and presentation. However it does have a following that it wouldn't have if the quirks were removed due to being enhanced by the ridiculousness of it.

Like I probably wouldn't give The Room a 1, but I wouldn't give it a 6.5 either. Probably a 2.5 or 3? It's like a 1 and lifted by the ridiculousness of it. Zero Wing is a 4 or 5 lifted up by the absurdity.

10

Lopen posted...

Don't entirely agree. There are similarities to be sure but some key differences

- The Room is much much longer and needs to hold your attention to get to the silly stuff

- Zero Wing stands on its own better. Show someone unfamiliar with what The Room is and they might get bored before they get to the really stupid quotable stuff. Zero Wing has you right out of the gates as long as you speak English.

- Zero Wing is a competent albeit generic story where quirkinesses in the writing/translation make it memorable. The Room on the other hand doesn't suddenly become a good or even decent story if it's cast well or the presentation is improved.

A better comparison would be Revenge of the Sith. There isn't a ton of meat to what Revenge of the Sith is, but you could make it a pretty good story with some good casting and tweaks to the dialogue and presentation. However it does have a following that it wouldn't have if the quirks were removed due to being enhanced by the ridiculousness of it.

Like I probably wouldn't give The Room a 1, but I wouldn't give it a 6.5 either. Probably a 2.5 or 3? It's like a 1 and lifted by the ridiculousness of it. Zero Wing is a 4 or 5 lifted up by the absurdity.

I agreed with you up until the Revenge of the Sith part. Something about that doesn't quite click because RotS has a strong (but poorly executed) tragic arc at its heart. It's a good story told poorly. Zero Wing is a serviceable story told hilariously badly.

Not saying I have a better comparison at the moment, but RotS just isn't working for me.

Yeah you're right. RotS is a too good a story if executed well, despite it gaining a little from the buffoonery over a more bland execution. It's just the best example I can think of and a closer analog than the Room imo.

Hard to say. Like part of me thinks Battlefield Earth is closer but I feel like that has fundamental problems on the storytelling end too. It's hard to find truly bland premises that are lifted by crazy silly performances. Resident Evil 1(the video game, not the movie) is probably the closest I can think of.

Away once again, so no topic tonight and likely not for a few days.

8

4

I'd be doing my 10s a disservice by giving it one, much as I like the idea

6

Bowser's Inside Story: 7.5

5.5

Bump

Next topic should be up tomorrow.