After Burner
System: SMS
Release Date: March 1988
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Flight Sim
Sega’s coming at you with one of their great arcade classics ported home with After Burner. The question we have to ask, is this a good port or not? I’m going to give it a thumbs down. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy the arcade After Burner, it’s really enjoyable getting in the cockpit in the arcade and playing. This home experience, however, is not so enjoyable.
You’re piloting one of the fastest planes in the fleet, the F-14 Thunder Cat. You take a behind the plane view and can move in eight directions. You have the ability to shoot missiles with Button 1 and machine guns with Button 2. You can fire the machine guns in bursts of three if you hold the button down. The small white rectangle shows where you are aiming the guns. You can target enemies on screen and lock on to them with your missiles.
The manual claims that the roll maneuver, which you perform by pressing left and then immediately right and vice versa, will allow you to dodge anything the enemy can throw at you. I find that to be false and infuriating. I was able to get to level 4 of 18 before calling it quits.
Graphics: 1.5
The actual art is pretty good, but it’s so choppy, it’s hard to play.
Sound: 1.0
One song that loops and your typical shooting sounds.
Gameplay: 1.5
It doesn’t work so well. The roll is supposed to be your saving grace. It wasn’t.
Difficulty: 1.5
I suppose if you play it a lot you could get further than I did. I didn’t have the patience.
Fun Factor: 1.0
Because I wasn’t having much fun. I didn’t want to keep going.
Overall Grade: 1.3
After Burner earns a D+. While the arcade game is great, the SMS version is not. Don’t bother with this one.