While the arrival of Streets of Rage 4 and The TakeOver might lead you to assume that the belt-scrolling brawler is back in vogue, it's still a pretty niche genre in 2020 – and, to be brutally honest, that has been the case since the mid-'90s, by which point Street Fighter II had made the one-on-one fighter the genre of choice for millions of players all over the globe.
Zero Team – the only side-scrolling fighter created by Seibu Kaihatsu, which is most famous for its Raiden series of vertical shooters – arrived at just the wrong time in arcades. By the time it rolled out in 1993, everyone was going crazy over Street Fighter, and consequently, it faded from view and was never ported to any home system. In fact, the game was largely forgotten until 2016, when it was finally made playable using MAME. That breakthrough has led to Zero Team being added to Hamster's excellent Arcade Archives collection, and while it's hardly in the same league as Streets of Rage or Final Fight, it's going to be of intense interest to fans of this style of game.
Zero Team is a four-player fighter which features the typical attack combos, aerial kicks and throwing moves made famous by Capcom's Final Fight. You can also press the 'attack' and 'jump' buttons together to perform a special attack which fries nearby enemies but also depletes your health gauge a small amount. Zero Team mixes things up a little by allowing you to roll when you're knocked down (and thus avoid incoming blows or projectiles) and add special attacks to your standard combos by pushing 'up' on the controller just as you complete a flurry of punches.
While the sprites are tiny compared to those seen in Final Fight and any of Capcom's other belt-scrolling brawlers, they make up for it with their abundant personality. While Ace and Speed are basically palette-swaps, the muscular Big-O packs a welcome punch and female fighter Spin jiggles around like Mia Shiranui when she walks. Enemies are equally well-rendered, right down to the Stan Hansen look-alikes who grimace and contort their bodies when you attack them. The levels are packed with neat incidental details, too, making this a seriously handsome game by 1993 standards; it's just a shame that the music is so dull.
The biggest issue with Zero Team is one that can be levelled at virtually any side-scrolling fighter: repetition. It becomes old very quickly, although it's quite challenging – and, to its credit, it doesn't resort to the usual cheap tactics you find in other arcade belt-scrollers. While it's definitely on the shallow side, this is a fine example of the genre that's certainly worth a spin if you're into this kind of game; if you can enlist the assistance of three other players then it becomes even more enjoyable. Zero Team is yet another lost gem in the Arcade Archives range; Hamster's work in this realm is commendable, and we hope it continues for as long as possible.
Comments 28
As long as what?
@kevin74 ...the children believe.
@kevin74 Haha, sharp.
Please finish your article, @Damo...
Love the cliffhanger ending.
Edit: now that the conclusion’s finally out, I’m not sure it was worth the hype. Solid, pretty short finale, with no real plot twist. C+
Bought it day one, along with the much more primitive 64th Street. I love overlooked games, and I pretty much like any beat'em up anyway.
What I also like, by the way, is seeing an Arcade Archives review here after all this time.
It’s a game I’d download if it were on sale for really cheap.
Would buy if Hamster would finally re-design their cheap looking Arcade Archive icons.
As long as... is this a game of simile like a Christmas Carol?!
Well this review set us up for a sequel don’t see many review sequels
What a cliff hanger
Will get this on the next discounted round
That review was
@AndyC_MK84
I have been wanting to build one. What has helped in the mean time is a Super Retrocade. Anything pre 1995 it runs perfectly; sans SPIDER-MAN arcade. Just too much for it.
As? As what??? I gotta know the ending!
I'll be picking this up when I get the chance. I can't get enough of brawlers.
...as long as a very long thing indeed.
This game does have some lame music, but I find that to be part of its charm. Especially stage 3, 😄
I plan to get all of Seibu Kaihatsu games that show on the Switch as long as
@ThanosReXXX I like to keep you all guessing.
A side scrolling beat-em-up with a jiggly female fighter is my favorite kind. I might just have to pick this one up.
@AndyC_MK84
If you have ROMS and an SD card the Super RetroCade is basically an out-of-the-box Raspberry Pi.
@xxx128 I agree
@Damo Well, you sure did so good on you...
This article implies it was the efforts of the open source MAME project that made this commercial product possible. I know MAME now allows this, but has Hamster admitted this themselves?
WHERE would us retro gamers be without Hamster’s efforts on the Switch? 😊 countless arcade classics available and many lesser know titles reintroduced as well! And according to Hamster, hundreds of titles yet to come!!!
My only gripe is the availability of the Hamster line up on Xbox is limited for some reason to Neo Geo games only and I’m not sure sure why!! With Xbox’s excellent backwards compatibility efforts all these classic titles can’t be brought forward to the Xbox series X and that just stinks. Otherwise, Hamster is a retro beast!!
And by the way what happened to Raiden?
@mrbogus HAMSTER, as far as I know, sources their games directly from a PCB. Their Contra release all but confirms it for me that they still do. Otherwise they wouldn't have emulated the missing co-processor.
I'm confident that they were able to obtain a Zero Team PCB for the process.
I hacked a PS mini to play Zero Team and Big fight Trouble in the Atlantic Ocean.
It makes me pleased it got a Switch release so just off to download it. It’s really not that difficult as I can get to that Skeleton/Robot thing on 1 credit using the woman. Bosses can be killed easily with the Rocket Launcher so long as you don’t waste it in the normal gooks.
Actually really good game with touches and variations in the levels that it doesn’t get boring.
@AndyC_MK84 IDK about all that but sparkster kicks ass. We need a new one!!!!
@Yanina yeah I have Frogger and not gonna lie the icon's for there games aren't exactly lookers
@mrbogus MAME only has the export versions of the game (which have worse audio and messed up stage order) emulated; protection on the original release and the "New" version (which are what is featured in the Arcade Archives release) still has not been cracked, so they certainly didn't source this release from MAME.
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