Sector Z
General
Info
Background
Layout
Hazards
Item Appearance Spots
Character Appearance Spots
Strategies
-Luigi
-Mario
-Donkey Kong
-Link
-Samus
-Captain Falcon
-Ness
-Yoshi
-Kirby
-Fox
-Pikachu
-Jigglypuff
My Opinion
General Info
Sector Z is the home stage of Fox McCloud, the cocky figher jock from StarFox. The whole stage is basically the back of the Great Fox, Fox's mothership. This is by far the biggest stage in the game and it is a pretty fun stage to play on.
Background
The name of the stage, "Sector Z," comes from the Z shaped nebula in the background. The Great Fox is slowly patrolling through this space sector and you can see stars in the background. There is also a lot of space junk surrounding the Great Fox, and sometimes you can see a piece of junk come into the foreground, which is a pretty cool effect.
Layout
Sector Z is a very simple stage. Basically there are three sections in this stage. There is the section above the cockpit(1) with the edge at the end. To its right is a wing/fin(2) that rises from the back of the ship and on the end of the wing there is also an edge. The edge is there because there is a sharp drop in elevation to the third section that is on top the main thrusters of the space ship(3). There is an edge on the end of this section too. Below the ship, of course, is empty space, which doubles as a pit.
Hazards
Other than the standard pit, there is nothing really here to be concerned about... except for that space fighter comes along to shoot you every so often. That blue and white fighter is the Arwing, Fox's prized star fighter, but this time it will shoot at anybody, including its owner. Apparently its pilot doesn't want you guys to play on the back of its mothership, so it's here to shoot you off. Here's a detailed description on this bugger.
Active Hazards
Arwing
Attack No. 1: Quadruple Laser Blasts
Damage: 16% per blast. Lasers are fired in pairs and the Arwing fires
four pairs at a time.
Range: Very Long (Across the whole stage if there are no obstacles)
Flight Path: Regular
Attack Description: This is the Arwing's primary method of attack. When
it cruises from right to left on the stage, if any character gets into
its line of sight (or stand near the nose of the fighter), the Arwing
will open up its laser cannons and fire four pairs of green lasers at
the target. Each laser does 16% damage and since they come in pairs,
its very likely that both shots will hit the target at the same time.
These laser blasts are at least as strong as the average forward smash,
cause a lot of damage, and can eat away at shields like they are nothing.
The Arwing will stop firing for a few seconds. If someone gets in its
way again, the star fighter will start firing again. These blasts can
easily kill any character, especially those who are unfortunately enough
to get hit by two pairs or more.
Attack No. 2: Explosive Laser Blasts
Damage: 18% per blast
Range: Very Long (Comes from the background)
Flight Path: Regular
Attack Description: The Arwing doesn't just fly right to left on the
stage; it can also fly in the background and swoop in, firing at the
characters who are on the ground at the time. These laser blasts will
explode when they hit the Great Fox and hurt any characters who happens
to be standing at the spot. These explosions cause significant damage,
are quite powerful, and can't be blocked. This is a lot rarer than the
first method of attack, but it does happen.
The above are not the only ways the Arwing can kill players. When the
Arwing appears, it serves as a temporary platform for the players to
use. Sometimes the Arwing doesn't like players to stand on it, so it
will spin around and dump anybody off of its body, so its paint job
doesn't get ruined (just kidding). Sometimes, however, the pilot inside
wants to take anybody on board for a ride, and the ship will zoom very
fast past either the vertical and horizontal boundary, and anybody on
top of the Arwing at the time will be killed. I believe the Arwing do
things according to a set of instruction and doesn't kill on purpose,
but sometimes I doubt myself, especially at one time where the Arwing
knocked a player out with the lasers, and then sort of flied towards
the player and then KOed her with another round of lasers. The Arwing
is very dangerous, and you better watch out for it when you are playing
on Sector Z.
Item Appearance Spots
Items will drop from the sky and land all over the stage.
Character Appearance Spots
Everybody will start on the part of the stage between the cockpit and the wing. 1P is on the leftmost position and then to the right is 2P, 3P and then 4P on the rightmost position. The character reappearance spot near where the wing starts to rise.
Strategies
Here are some strategies I can think of for this stage.
-This is a huge stage, so if things don't go your way, run the other
way. It'll take a while for your enemies to catch you again.
-You can get some pinball action by beating people against the vertical
wall between the wing and the thruster section. You need to have pretty
good timings to do that though.
-To avoid a character with a hammer, lure him/her to the right side
of the stage and then either jump back on top of the wing or hang on
the edge. The hammer person can't get out of that part of the stage
since he/she only has one jump.
Luigi
Luigi is not affected by the stage that much. This is an okay stage for Luigi but he doesn't really have any special advantages here.
Mario
Mario is about the same with Luigi, but he can use bouncing fireball to damage people, especially when standing on the tip of the wing and firing at the people below on the thruster.
Donkey Kong
DK is good on big stages, since he's much harder to kill. He can also find a place to charge his giant punch and go back to his opportunistic roots to get cheap kills. Just don't do it over and over again since everybody else will all come after DK.
Link
Link fares better on larger stages since it's harder to knock him off the stage. He can also use his boomerang and bombs to deal some damage.
Samus
Samus likes this stage a lot, because its big size allows her to snipe at her opponents with the charge shot. If people come after her, she can easily run away. This stage is also not bad for spiking, so Samus can get a few kills there as well.
Captain Falcon
Captain Falcon is good on this stage. He can safely use his unmatched running speed here without having to risk of running himself off the edge. It's also harder to knock him away here and this helps since Falcon can't recover very well.
Ness
Ness is great on this stage. The stage is so big that he can use his PK cannonball as an offensive attack, and he can spike here too. Here is a special trick for Ness. If Ness has a lot of damage, just get him into the path of the Arwing and put the PK Shield (down+B) on. The Arwing will start shooting as usual and Ness can recover up to 128% of damage!
Yoshi
Yoshi is okay on this stage. There are no platforms so that means Yoshi can easily exercise his ground pound on any part of the stage and he can also spike here too. Not bad for Yoshi.
Kirby
Kirby is pretty good on any stage, so he's pretty good here as well. He can do most of his moves here. Just keep playing Kirby style and you shouldn't do too badly. Kirby can easily pinball people against the wall under the wing and trap people there with his inifinite combo too.
Fox
Fox is pretty good on his own stage. Even though there are no platforms to help him juggle, Fox can easily deal damage from far away using his blaster. He can also use his quick speed to outrun his opponents. Fox can even use the Arwing to do his bidding (Well, it is his fighter after all). Just use the reflector (down+B) and reflect the Arwing's lasers at your opponents. Anybody who gets hit by these even more powerful lasers will receive a $hit load of damage and fly really really far.
Pikachu
This stage is okay for Pikachu. He can use his thunder jolt here to attack from a distance and use his quick running speed to get away from tough situations. The stage is big so it will be harder to kill Pikachu off.
Jigglypuff
Jigglypuff fares better here than most other stages, since it's harder to get killed here because of the sheer size of the Great Fox. Of course, you still have to be very careful with Jiggly to have a chance at winning.
My Opinion
This is one of my favourite stages because it has so much room. For me, a DK, player, this is great. The stage is pretty good for all other characters as well and is a good four player stage. Of course, sometimes some people will keep running away, but it's fun to chase them around the stage, catch them, and then KO them. The Arwing may be dangerous but it adds an interesting element to the stage. The only complaint I have about this stage is sometimes the camera gets stretched so far, it's a bit hard to see my own character. This only happens when there are characters standing on each end of the Great Fox, so it doesn't happen very often. Overall a pretty good stage.