Zero Wing difficulty modes

[Wittischism]

This spring I will be running an in person Mega Drive Zero Wing tournament and just had a question about the difficulty settings. I realize it is not high on the difficulty scale for a shmup but because of the meme and everything I also just want it to be popular enough with non-stg players. It's free and not too serious but it's a bigger show so it will get some skilled players.

What are the differences between easy, normal and hard?

Should I just go for a one life run, as well? To prevent possible looping.

Thanks

[Mortificator]

In the European version, the difficulty determines the ending. In the Japanese version, the later endings are locked behind multiple loops.

IIRC the gameplay differences between difficulties are just the typical stuff like how fast enemies fire. I wouldn't underestimate how rough Zero Wing could be for novices once they get a few stages in, though, at least if played at 60Hz.

[Wittischism]

In the European version, the difficulty determines the ending. In the Japanese version, the later endings are locked behind multiple loops.

IIRC the gameplay differences between difficulties are just the typical stuff like how fast enemies fire. I wouldn't underestimate how rough Zero Wing could be for novices once they get a few stages in, though, at least if played at 60Hz.

Okay cool, thanks for the response. Yeah, forgot to mention that I have the pal version. The meme version, basically lol. Probably just sticking with defaults. If someone loops it, it'll be fun to watch anyways.