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After Burner II Complete Review


When the original After Burner II was released in 1987, it caused quite a stir on the arcade scene. Once video gaming had been brought to the home it was inevitable a home release would happen. In fact, quite a lot of home releases happened. After Burner has been released for the Amiga, Amstrad, Atari ST, Commodore 64, NES, 32X, Master System and the PC. However, the real ‘shining light’ in these ports has to be the 32X release.

As you can imagine, every other port of After Burner II has had something missing. Whether it’s the canyon bonus-stages or detail in the floor, every other port hasn’t been able to deliver the complete arcade experience to the home. It’s a shame it took 7 years to come but it’s finally here; on the 32X. The 32X version of After Burner has all its’ crash animations intact, no loss of scenery and textures, all the bonus-stages, even the Hang-On bike and Testarossa from Outrun make appearances in the sections where you land to re-fuel and stock up on ammunition. This is a real treat for After Burner fans.

The premise of the game is exactly what you expect from a game like this; you fly your SSF-14 aircraft into enemy territory and do as much damage as possible. After a few stages you will be given more ammunition and after a few more stages a bonus stage will occur. These are usually centered on flying through a canyon and blowing up as many of the enemy’s radio masts as possible.

Controls couldn’t be simpler and are greatly helped if you use a 6 button controller. Holding A allows you to roll your aircraft, B fires missiles and C fires the Vulcan cannon. X, Y and Z control the speed of the aircraft from low to high. This is all complemented by a brilliantly controlling aircraft.

The game runs at a fantastic pace. The sheer amount of enemies attacking you accompanied by your frantic rolling makes for a vomit inducing experience but nothing short of spectacular. This is all made better by the fantastic scaling abilities of the 32X. This is pure SEGA.

The real disappointment however is the fact that this is just a re-release. Nothing new has been added; no new stages, aircraft, nothing. This is just a classic from SEGA’s library which has been recycled to flesh out the 32X’s library. Because it’s an arcade game, the thrills featured are also very short-lived making this another game that’ll be put on the shelf after you’ve played it for a few hours. Don’t get me wrong, what’s on offer is great, arcade fun but there just isn’t enough of it to merit a 32X release. The 32X can do better which is what makes this game all that more bitter.

If you want a great arcade experience to add to your 32X library (which you probably will, considering what’s on offer is very small) then this is a spectacular purchase. If you’re looking for something new and fresh that pushes the 32X’s hardware to its’ limits then this isn’t that game. This is a classic example of a game with no depth but at the end of the day, do you care when the action is this fun?



8/10



Written by Sonic Yoda on 26/5/08


Instruction Manual

Cartridge



Screenshots

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