Action Fighter
System: SMS
Release Date: November 1986
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
When I first started up Action Fighter, I thought, ooh, I can get into this. It’s a top down vehicular combat game that starts the Super Rider out on the Brain Mk III from Hang-On. This particular model has guns that you shoot out from the front. You’re on a set of missions from someone to destroy targets across five levels. You race against the level timer to complete your objective. Gameplay takes place in two distinct sections, a driving section, where you start out as the motorcycle and a flying section. In the driving section, you are tasked with collecting parts for your bike. Once you collect pieces A – D, you transform into a car. Then by collecting two more pieces, you transform into a jet car and take to the sky.
The motorcycle is easily pushed around on the road by other vehicles, so it’s important to collect those first four pieces quickly. Also occasionally on the road is a SEGA truck, which will give an upgrade to the Super Rider. First, the guns get upgraded to rockets, then you get a surface to air missile, then temporary invincibility. The rockets are really helpful, as you take targets out in one hit, which makes collecting the parts much easier. Death happens quickly, though, and with it go all of your weapons upgrades. The road in front of you twists and turns and widens and splits and narrows. Other vehicles don’t regard your safety, so don’t feel bad when you blow them up.
Once you take it to the sky, you face off against wave after wave of planes, jets, helicopters, zeppelins, missiles, and more. The enemies follow the same pattern over and over again, so if you can remember what each type of enemy does and where it comes up in sequence, you theoretically should be able to get through the levels pretty easily. It took me about an hour to make it to the first boss.
You’re able to gain upgrades and bonuses in the air section by killing certain waves of enemies. I found by killing two waves of zigzagging planes, I would get a rocket upgrade, so destroying all of those became immediate priority. Taking out a small raft with the horribly inaccurate bombs would give a powerup that immediately cleared the screen. I realized that destroying every enemy in the sky portion was probably opening me up to a lot of extra deaths by taking away maneuverability from bullets, which is fine until the timer runs out, then you need to finish the mission in a couple lives.
At the end of each mission is a boss, which is more evil and unfair as everything else in the game. I don’t really know how anyone is expected to finish this game legitimately. I was able to kill the boss on level one, but only once. The boss on level two are a swarm of tanks that shoot down at you and give you no room to maneuver. Level three has a gauntlet of three fast shooting helicopters that fill the screen up with bullets. Level four has tanks that you have to hover in front of to bomb, they shoot so quickly, I don’t see how anyone would avoid them. The last boss consists of two consecutive aircraft carriers that are constantly firing while moving their tiny hitbox out of range of your bombs. I’m sure there are exploits used to defeat each boss, but I wouldn’t have the patience to find them. When you’re tired of blowing up, enter “_©_SEGA.” as your name. Now you can walk through bullets on your way to victory.
Graphics: 1.5
The graphics are fine, but they lose a bit for having clouds that you and enemies clip through, making it hard to see things.
Sound: 1.0
The song gets annoying as it is constantly playing and not very good. The sound effects are fine, though.
Gameplay: 2.0
The game controls fine. Except for the air to surface bombs. The targeting indicator is basically worthless.
Difficulty: 1.0
The driving portions aren’t particularly fair, with the helicopter dropping bombs right on top of you. The air portions are fair as the enemies always act the same. The bosses are horribly unfair and kill playability.
Fun Factor: 1.5
I let out a lot of swears while playing. I don’t know if I was having fun or wanted vengeance for all the deaths I endured.
Overall Grade: 1.4
Action Fighter earns a D+. Y’know, I got frustrated a lot playing this one, despite putting a couple hours into it, I wasn’t happy playing it.