Zero Base

And Now for Something Completely Different...

Ok, earlier I reviewed an FPS and, that's rather weird but not so much, I mean I reviewed few others FPS that used a custom engine. Now instead I'm here to talk about an arcade shooter made with... Rpgmaker 2003! Oh yes. That's crazy, but considering that the developer of Base Zero is non other than Kazesui, the author of the incredible Unbit (reviewed two years ago, and read HERE how weird and good it was!).

This time the game is less bizarre, it's a classic shooter set in space (inspired/based on Zero Wing, since the title "Zero Base" of course!) in which we control a lone hero fighting a horde of enemies: RAD DOG is the name of the heroic pilot that is trying to defeat the MAD CATS army and regain the lost bases of the COOL MUTTS! Simple, isn't it? Not than a more complex story was required, anyway what about the game?


If you do not know this popular quote from Zero Wing we cannot be friends!

It's classic: you move with arrows and shoot with Z. That's it, dodge bullets, destroy enemy ships/mechs/turrets and collect power-ups, while avoiding crashing against solid objects. The game supports autofire, so you can simple keep the button pressed and move around! Nice.
Saving is clearly disabled during the game, you can do that between levels and we start with an already made save that starts from the first level, BUT lets you skip all the dialogues of the introduction, so it was a very good idea to include that.

Concerning the power-ups these are grey little...stars? Well they have a coloured dot inside and keeps changing colors, so you can receive a random upgrade, one increases the speed of the ship (and that's good since initially the speed is average) and the others enable different laser attacks.
There are three levels, three bosses, but do not worry if they seems to be few, the game is challenging enough that you will spend some time repeating some areas, I'm sure, after all this is one of these games with lives and no energy bar (so one touch means death), and bullets fly everywhere!

The graphics seems to be a mix of custom made assets and some classic Rpgmaker2000/2003 RTPs (like some backgrounds and the doors, for example), but these futuristic assets well mix with the rest and recreate a classic sci-fi setting. Music is also pretty good and appropriate.


Each of the three levels ends with a boss that's obviously tough and big!

Final Verdict
If I remember correctly I played another Rpgmaker2003 shooter, but was a minigame inside a community game, AleX III. And it was pretty good, so it's no a surprise if Zero Base is pretty good too, despite the limitations of the engine! Anyway it works, only thing I did not like is that enemy's bullets can pass through solid objects while our lasers don't, and this is unfair, but uh ok anyway!

In the end this is a solid shooter, with nice graphics and good controls, challenging but fair. Once again, great job!