is a scrolling shooter video game developed by

Jaleco was a corporate brand name that was used by two previously connected video game developers and publishers based in Japan. The original Jaleco company was founded in 1974 as Japan Leisure Company, founded by Yoshiaki Kanazawa, before being renamed ...

for the

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

in 1990 which saw a release in

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and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

one year later in 1991.

Story

Battle Unit Zeoth takes place in the future where mankind is invaded by a race of alien robots known as the Grein. Forty-two years ago, the humans of

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

united to drive out the first invasion of the Grein aliens in a fierce and costly war, but as the Grein retreated, they left behind a secret underground base filled with self-replicating Grein machines. Ten years after the Earth's victory, the secret Grein base opened and a new attack force decimated the city of New Age. To retaliate, Earth's military has deployed a

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines, typically depicted as piloted, humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japan ...

known as Battle Unit Zeoth, specializing in alien combat. It is the Zeoth's assignment to stop the attack force, go into the Grein secret base, and destroy the mechanical occupants before a new invasion force arrives.

Gameplay

Players control the Zeoth mecha using jet-powered thrusters to propel the battle unit through the air, and can fire weapons in four directions (left, right, up and down) to destroy Grein enemies. The game includes five stages which include New Age City, the underground base, and the Grein's mechanical command headquarters. The odd-numbered stages are horizontal scrolling stages while the even-numbered stages are short, vertically aligned platform stages. Each stage ends with a boss fight. Players receive points by destroying enemies and clearing stages which contribute to their score, but the high score is not saved and is lost when the Game Boy is turned off. The Zeoth mecha is equipped by default with a standard Vulcan cannon weapon, and a limited hyper shield, depicted with a meter at the bottom of the screen. The Zeoth can also trigger a hyper bomb to eliminate all Grein enemies on the screen at the cost of two hyper shield meter units. The Zeoth is destroyed if the hyper shield meter is depleted, but the player is offered limitless continues and a chance to start the stage over with a default Zeoth mecha. Players can shoot and collect special item containers found in each stage to restore the hyper shield meter, equip a different weapon, or enhance the equipped weapon. Containers marked with a "U" upgrades the hyper shield by replenishing some of its meter. Containers marked with "B" or "L" equips a beam weapon or laser weapon, respectively. Containers marked with a "P" power-ups the equipped weapon, increasing the pattern and strength of shots fired. Each weapon can be enhanced by power-up containers from level one to a maximum of three. Collecting excess "P" powerup containers restores the hyper shield meter. The beam weapon is upgraded to fire a wide wave of strong beam shots, while the laser weapon is upgraded to fire a large criss-crossing pattern capable of striking more nimble enemies.

History

This game was released in Japan under the name "Battle Unit Zeoth". When

began planning for the US/Europe release they renamed it "Jetpack". This name was later changed back to "Battle Unit Zeoth". It is thought that Jaleco changed the name because they did not think American audiences would buy the game as it sounded too foreign.

References

{{reflist

External links

''Battle Unit Zeoth''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

1990 video games Game Boy games Game Boy-only games Jaleco games Science fiction video games Scrolling shooters Single-player video games Video games about mecha Video games developed in Japan Video games set in the future