"Constant maze shooter...gah..."

Section Z falls within a never-ending game category without fail, in which one wrong move could send you back several stages and ultimately to the point of where you have to start all over again. A side scrolling shooter, you take control of a humanoid looking mech and blast your way through several mind-numbing stages that are all divided into Sections, which follow the alphabet and eventually dump you out at Section Z.

What makes the game so boring and seemingly never ending is that if you take the wrong doorway at the end of each section, you’ll end up in a random location that you just played through! The action is also mismatched in some portions of the game, which make me believe that the game is modeled after the Predator game in which you make a single mistake and warp, you’ll end up back in a place with insane difficulty. Aside from the boredom that you find with the game, the audio and the visuals of Section Z don’t seem to match a game that is supposedly boasting action and adventure and rather creates a game that doesn’t do much to impress or create enjoyment.

-The Game Play-

The game play works on the ability to force you through several stages that run in a side scrolling fashion with a character that can upgrade his weapon with power pick ups. In this, you’ll face off against enemies that range from easy to target and defeat to larger ones that require a bit of strategy and precision timing to move past. Something that the game does offer is that it is constantly moving and in some cases, you’re moving so fast that you don’t have time to really stop and look for different things that you can pick up but rather rush through the different Sections instead.

With some of the stages, you’ll find that the difficulty and the ability to move around the incoming enemy shots is based solely on how fast the stage is moving, and if you don’t time things correctly, you’ll end up dead before you can blink. The fact that you take a wrong turn and end up several stages back in the game also adds a strange bit of challenge that is overshadowed by the undeniable annoyance of having to replay the same stages over and over again! This only makes up for some extremely repetitive game play that doesn’t leave a good feeling with me and most action gamers that are looking to make progress will find it cute at first, but very disappointing later on.

The game controls are rather simple, in which you merely maneuver your character around the screen with the help of the control stick and fire off your weapon with one of the firing button. Featuring very little that you need to learn to control, it is a matter of avoiding the shots and the different enemies that you may encounter with strategy that won’t put you at a disadvantage when you come out clear. This adds a little to the game play, but also becomes part of the cookie cutter genre that already has plenty of this to play with.

-The Visuals-

Visually, the game is the same no matter what stages you run through. You can get the feel of this when you go from section to section and the only thing that noticeably changes are the enemies and the stage layouts, but all of the detailing and colors are generally the same! You’ll find that special effects in the game really don’t come through unless you’ve picked up weapon upgrades and even those small upgrades to your weapons really don’t take away from the uninspired expanses of Sections that you’ll encounter.

-The Audio-

Audio wise, the game has an adventure track to it that is set back out of the way and really doesn’t make much of an impact during the game and while you play. The sound effects of the game are also limited to various tinny explosions and the annoying sound of your weapon being fired off at the various enemies! This is another example of what happens with music does when it isn’t applied properly, and even giving the game the benefit of the doubt and what era it is from, you’ll find that even this game is below the usual standards. If you can stand listening to the audio track that the game has to offer, you’ll find that it really doesn’t make much of a difference if you have it on or not, because the mind numbing boredom of the game detracts your attention away from it.

-The Verdict-

Section Z is a side scrolling shooter that should be reserved for die-hard fans of games in this genre. While not the worst example of the genre, it is definitely one of the more mediocre games that I’ve found in the Arcade and shouldn’t be much more than a causal play! With the repetitive visuals and game play as well as tinny sound, the only thing that the game really has going for it is that you can control your character with enough practice and use him effectively. If you’re willing to dump a bunch of money into this game at the Arcade, then more power to you, though I really don’t see what the big deal is about it.