Section Z [Model CAP-SCZ]

Section Z © 1987 Capcom Company, Limited.

Section Z is the conversion of Capcom's arcade shooter released back in 1985. Anybody familiar with some of the greatest Capcom's shooters of the time (like Side Arms - Hyper Dyne or Forgotten Worlds) will definitively see a family resemblance. The hero of the game, unlike other traditional shooters, is a flying human in a heavy space armor (called Captain Commando in the American version). A gigantic space fortress is approaching the Earth and the player's duty is to infiltrate it up to the last section (hence Section Z) and destroy the commander. The fortress is divided into small sections and, at the end of each one of them, our hero's path usually splits up. The decision on which way to take may not be critical at first but it soon gets the player to run around in circles. Our hero can use a main laser gun and each button gets him to fire in one direction (left or right). Some enemies, as expected, drop power-ups - some of them take effect instantly (like speed-ups or extra-energy), but others get stored and activated later by pressing select (they include special weapons such as wave-laser, 3-ways or force-field). Some zones also hide warp fields, each one of them can beam the player up to a bonus room. Finally, the life system can be confusing at first -the shield absorbs shots but doesn't protect our hero when he gets hit by an enemy ship. Finally, thanks to the diskCard system, three slots are available to save the game's progress.