Zed Blade

Zed Blade is a horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up game similar to Gradius III and Last Resort, where players assume the role from either of the three playable characters (master sergeant Uncle Beard, sergeant Ms. Charlotte and corporal Swift Arnold) with their respective space fighter crafts through eight stages that take place on a futuristic sci-fi setting across the Solar System in a last-ditch effort to stop the invasion against humanity on Earth led by Yggdrasil's on-board supercomputer with his army of enemies and regain full control of the unit once more as the main objective. In addition to the single-player mode, the game also features a two-player cooperative multiplayer mode. If a memory card is present, the player is allowed to save their progress and resume into the last stage the game saved at.

A noteworthy gameplay aspect of the title is that prior to starting, players can arrange the weapon system of their picked ship in the character selection screen, some of which have their speed setting already pre-determined, by choosing between three options for frontal shots, missiles and rear shots, all of which are fired by pressing the A button and controlling the ship is performed with the joystick. In addition to the three main weapons, players are also equipped with set number of bombs depending on the ship chosen at the beginning that are fired by pressing the B button, while its firepower can be increased by collecting a hyper bomb upgrade capable of dealing maximum damage against enemies and bosses, the latter of which are fought at the end of each stage in order to progress further through the game.

Zed Blade takes place in a futuristic sci-fi setting where mankind has managed to expand into the stars and travel to every planet in the Solar System. A large project to establish a space frontier was started with the development of an automated space station named Yggdrasil, which is controlled by a state-of-the-art supercomputer, however the crew of the Yggdrasil began to refuse in responding any of the incoming communications from Earth months after its deployment, with Yggdrasil suddenly launching attacks against Earth through usage of a large fleet of highly developed space fighters, robots and war machines that leads to the enactment of "Operation Ragnarok", where three of the best space fighter pilots from Earth must restore order by seizing control of Yggdrasil and halting the invasion.

Zed Blade is the only game created by NMK for Neo Geo and was initially only launched for the arcades by SNK on September 13, 1994. Its soundtrack was done by composer Manabu Namiki. A Neo Geo AES version was announced and completed but never released. A Neo Geo CD version was also announced and even showcased for playing to the attendees at SNK's booth during the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in 1995 but like the AES version, it was never released.

In North America, RePlay reported Zed Blade was the fourteenth most-popular arcade game at the time. Zed Blade received mixed reception from critics since its initial release.

Captain Squideo of GamePro praised the frenetic action, cooperative play, controls, weapons system, visuals and sound design.