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The protagonist of Federation Z is Koji Bakuto, a great fan of Zazinger-M, a Japanese animated series about megarobots (does it remind you of anything?) and a nonplaying character in Moon's Fandom Festival, by the same author. In fact, the game is part of the same narrative universe, or rather "Mooniverse", taking its name from Moon, the likeable retro-computing fan also seen in Moon And The Pirates, reviewed in the last Annual.

Federation Z moves the story into space. The Zork Federation is a group of planets expanding into the so-called Omega sector. Koji, aboard his A9K-2 starship, is hired to carry out seven missions in the service of General Zork, head of the Federation, who briefs him about the tasks to perform from time to time.

First, Koji must fly through the Omega sector and reach the central spaceport. Space is large, and a coordinate system helps you to navigate it: keeping track of interesting places becomes then indispensable. In addition, through hyperspace, Koji can set a place to return to almost instantly later, which is very advantageous. Spaceships of a hostile alien species roam the sector, and if Koji meets one of them, a subgame begins: a kind of reverse tug-of-war, the purpose of which is to get the enemy ship away from his own, by repeatedly pressing the Fire key. Some enemies are rather weak, others are stronger, and if they collide with Koji's ship, they will take away some of its energy, which is essential to move. Energy decreases while flying and due to impacts with meteorites or projectiles from defensive satellites, which can all be eliminated by firing at them with the laser cannon, which shots are also limited.

Missions include the collection of minerals from comets - there are four types, and each comet provides only one type - and reconnaissance of planets abandoned due to the hostile aliens' invasion. Defeating enemies, as well as selling minerals in the Ufomart chain shops, allows you to obtain credits, the Federation's currency. Credits, in turn, are used to purchase energy and ammunition, or improvements for the ship, for example the mining module that allows you to extract minerals from comets, or the nauta-finder, needed to understand if the lost astronauts you can meet in the sector are real castaways to save or enemy traps.

Federation Z is ultimately a sort of 'lite' Elite, an interesting mix of arcade, adventure and management. It is true that in the long run the subgame is repetitive, and you soon realise that it is easier to avoid meteorites and satellites, rather than fight them. Despite this, the variety of missions to complete is wide enough to hold the player's attention, which is the most important feature in this genre of games, much more than the graphical and sound aspects, both rather basic in Federation Z.

Finally, it is worth underlining that the game was created with the Churrera MK1, another example of an uncommon use of this tool, almost exclusively employed for platform or maze titles.