Nintendo Switch Just Added One Of The Greatest Memes Of All Time
Starting this month, Nintendo Switch Online users are getting the chance to experience a piece of gaming meme history that only true gamers understand. Nintendo just announced that four new Sega Genesis games were being added to the Switch Online library. Among them is the 1989 side-scrolling shooter "Zero Wing." Created by Japanese developer Toaplan and originally released as an arcade game, "Zero Wing" gave us the classic meme "all your base are belong to us."
The meme comes from the introduction to the game in which the villain taunts the player with this now-classic line. An instance of a Japanese-to-English translator not fully grasping English grammar, the awkwardly phrased line was a hit with gamers and became a popular meme by the 2000s. Since then, it has appeared all over the internet and has been referenced and modified in numerous ways.
In 2004, The Register reported that pranksters in North Carolina hacked a local TV station and programmed the news ticker at the bottom of the broadcast to display the meme along with other messages. In 2008, Electronic Arts referenced the meme in their game "Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3," with the Japanese Empire faction using the taunt. Elon Musk put his own spin on the meme in 2014 in a blog post about patents titled "All Our Patent Are Belong To You." It even got a reference in "Breath of the Wild" in the form of an Easter egg that fans may have noticed. Now, if you have a Switch, you can go back to where it all began.
All Your Memes Are Belong to Us
With the release of "Zero Wing" on the Switch Online library, gamers in North America can now experience the meme, which turned 20 last year, and the rest of the game for the first time since the original arcade game came to the region in 1990. There doesn't seem to be any word yet if this version will include the 32 secret endings that were originally only available in the Japanese release of the game, but it should be fun either way.
Along with "Zero Wing," Switch Online users will also get to play "Comix Zone," "Mega Man: The Wily Wars," and "Target Earth." "Comix Zone" is a 1995 side-scrolling beat 'em up, "Target Earth" is a 1990 side-scrolling shooter, and "Wily Wars" is the 1994 "Mega Man" game which included remakes of the first three games, along with a new game titled "Wily Tower." If you have Switch, check out these classics and experience the meme for yourself.