Advance to Section Z and destroy "L-Brain", the artificial flying body.
Section Z is a Horizontal Scrolling Shooter developed and published by Capcom for both the arcade in 1985 and Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987.
The protagonist must infiltrate an enemy space complex and destroy L Brain, a supercomputer used by the Balangool Empire. The A.I. is located at the eponymous Section Z.
In markets outside Japan, the hero is named "Captain Commando" in an attempt to bolster a game franchise for him which did not catch on.
Tropes:
- Artifact Title: The NES version features numbered sections instead of the alphabetized ones like the original Arcade Game. Thus the final area in the NES version is actually Section 59, rather than Section Z like in the arcade version.
- Difficulty by Region: The game was released on the Famicom Disk System and had a save feature that allows players to resume the game where they left off. The NES version on the other hand forces the player to complete the whole game on one sitting.
- Final Boss: L Brain served this role as the boss of the final level "Section Z".
- Meaningless Lives: The NES version gives you three lives every time you begin the game. You lose a life and five energy points every time you physically touch an enemy, forcing you to restart the current section. However, losing all your lives does nothing other than resetting your score, since you'll always restart from the same section no matter what. Thus, the only way to truly "lose" is to run out of energy, which happens every time you're hit by enemy bullets: in such cases, you simply warp back to the very first section of your current stage. The Famicom version was actually released for the Disk System and thus had a save feature. Losing every life and getting a Game Over is the only way the game prompts the player whether he wants to continue or save his progress to resume another time.
- No Name Given: The protagonist cannonically lacks a name and the "Captain Commando" name was only used in the English NES version.
- Pinball Zone: Section O is filled with flippers and deadly pinballs that bounce around the screen.
- Red Is Heroic: The protagonist (Called Captain Commando in the console port.) wears red and is determined to fight through the complex and destroy L-Brain.
- Reformulated Game: It was originally a flying 2D shooter released for the arcades in 1985 consisting of five stages (three side-scrolling levels and two vertically-scrolling ones, although all played from a side-view). The so-called "sections" in the game were simply short corridors that the player proceeded throughout the entire game until reaching the titular Section Z, where the final boss awaits. The NES version, released almost two years later in 1987, turned the sections into fully-fledged areas with branching paths and hidden rooms. There are three stages consisting of 20 sections each, but since the Sections are now numbered (starting from Section 00) instead of being alphabetized like in the arcade game, the final area is now Section 59 instead of Section Z, rendering the game's title meaningless.
- Shielded Core Boss: L-Brain, in the NES version, is protected by twin shield generators in front of it which can regenerate in a few seconds.
- Title Drop: The final stage of the arcade game is titled "Section Z".
