After Burner

I remember being blown away with the outright speed and explosive zeal from Sega's Afterburner back in 1987, in the arcades. While finding sit-down versions of this game were next to impossible, that was pretty much fine by me, as I preferred the stand-up cab. Ever since then, I've compared Afterburner to just about every 1st/3rd person fighter plane game there is. When the 32X was released, I recall thinking how appropriate if it would be if Afterburner were released on it. From rumors to truth, a 3rd party developer was in fact developing a port. YES!!!

After Burner Complete sur 32X est donc une excellente conversion de l'arcade, la seconde avec Space Harrier. Là aussi il aura fallu attendre la 32X pour pouvoir profiter d'un tel jeu, mais l'attente en valait la peine car After Burner Complete est un titre que tout fan de la série se doit de posséder. Avec son gameplay enragé, sa bande-son culte et sa réalisation très réussie, le titre bien qu'un peu court fera pour sûr de fréquents passages dans la console histoire de se refaire une petite partie sur un coup de tête.

Você pilota um caça supersônico de última geração, tendo de enfrentar caças inimigos e desviar de seus mísseis. O seu ponto de vista é tridimensional (sem óculos), mas você não está dentro de seu avião: ele aparece na tela, e é comandado "de fora".

Com três jatos F-14 Thunder Cat (de acordo com a pontuação, cinco milhões ou 15 milhões de pontos, podem surgir jatos adicionais), você precisa superar 18 etapaas de combate aéreo para encontrar os planos secretos e voltar ao porta-aviões Sega.

I am totally amazed! I cannot convey to you, how perfect a translation After Burner is. I swear to you, all the intense gameplay, every graphic, every sound sample and every level of the coin-op, is absolutely duplicated on the 32X. Trouble is, the game is so ancient, you'll need a good memory and a dose of nostalgia to give a hoot. Melancholy.

Overall, After Burner is a solid title. The game play is still flawed, and often times more chaotic than it really needs to be. But the inclusion of a reasonable continue system help mask some of it’s downfalls. Graphically, the game is a real treat and needs to be seen to be appreciated. The excellent sound effects and 80’s rock round out the package. There aren’t a whole lot of good 32x titles, and this one definitely stands out. Recommended.

While I can't help but quake at the sheer power of the graphics routines, hum along to the 128K tunes and snigger as yet another Comm... er, baddy goes down in flames, the thing that amazes me most about Afterburner is that it's totally devoid of any addictive qualities whatsoever. Not many, anyway I suppose that some of you might want to keep going to see all the various levels and refueling sequences, but it's not really worth playing just for the shooty bits. Buy it for the speed, graphics, free stickers and posters if you must, but be aware that they're covering up a serious lack of content. Damning perhaps, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Great sound, great graphics...great game? Only if you haven't played it before. Veterans, check out the speed, then move on. Rookies, strap in, lock on and fire!

After Burner for the 32X is really a very good game with great arcade action. It's a little late, coming a year after the release of After Burner III for the Sega CD and several years later than After Burner II for the Genesis, but if you own a 32X and haven't seen previous After Burner titles, you'll love his fast action and scaling scenery of this version.

Unfortunately this is a direct port from the arcade, which means it is very short. But it is very fun, give it a week or two in between completions and it's fun again. If you own a 32X you must own this title. If you don’t there’s no reason to track one down.

Very colourful and fast-moving version - probably the best of the 8-bit ones. It's got the speed of the Spectrum version and far superior use of colour. Unfortunately the gameplay is still pretty boring.

A conversion of an immensely popular arcade game, Afterburner does everything in its power to deliver the same feeling, but fall short.

I wish there was more to write about but there isn't; the game is a dumbed down version of an already ridiculously simple game. I think After Burner fans will be mad at the missing controls and speed but maybe slog through it if they are in a tolerant mood. Everyone else who tries it will most likely play it for five minutes, grow bored, and shut of the old SMS. I can't say it's really that bad, it scraps the bottom rung of mediocre, but I can't recommend it. The box art is nice for a SMS game though, maybe you could put it on a shelf or something.

After Burner is an average shooter. While it looks good, there is just so little to do. Enemies all move and shoot similarly, and there are no power-ups. Shooter fans and fans of the Arcade version are probably the only ones who should try this one.

After Burner, like Out Run, is a mammoth conversion to attempt and inevitably suffers some way during the translation. On the Sega, the game has the speed and the same style of action, but without the incredible graphics it's little more than a fast and very difficult shoot 'em up.

Die Grafik sieht zwar in keinster Weise nach 32 Bit aus, ist aber, im Gegensatz zur älteren Mega-Drive-Version sehr schnell und flüssig. Auch der Sound wurde zum Glück noch einmal aufgepeppt und kann sich nun durchaus hören lassen. Man fragt sich allerdings, warum Sega für seine 32-Bit-Aufsatz-Konsole keine neuen Spiele herausbringt, sondern alte Schinken aufwärmt. Verglichen mit der MD-Version halten sich die Verbesserungen in Grenzen, zumal das Gameplay schon damals nicht das beste war.

Long awaited it may be but let us hope no-one is holding their breath because there is no R-Type miracle here. Afterburner is a dog. The various sequences and backgrounds are there, but what gameplay that existed in the coin-op has been forgotten. The graphics themselves are patchy speccy affairs and only the sound redeems the package Jez San must be rueing the day he took this job on, because for once we were right – it is unconvertible.

In the arcades, After Burner was a perfect hit. It was loud, flashy, and it had an amazing cabinet that put you right inside the cockpit (even though the game was played from a behind-the-jet perspective). At home, when you’re paying more than a quarter to play, you need a little more than that. After Burner doesn’t belong home. It’s easy to miss just how awful After Burner really is. It throws so much at you, you take it in as the greatest action game ever made. On the 32X, you can plainly see just how unplayable it can be. The controls are far too loose, it’s hard to see anything, nothing ever changes through each stage, it’s unfair, and it’s far more enjoyable to crash land than it is to play.

The oversensitive controls don't help matters. Your crosshair is difficult to aim, and the evasive "roll" maneuver is difficult to execute. The best strategy is to shoot constantly and move the directional pad like crazy. There's an option to fire your machine guns automatically (which I recommend) and a voice that alerts you when a missile is locked on, removing the need for any sort of cranial activity. The mindless mayhem is only good for seeing what the beautiful stages look like. The diverse terrains are very attractive, with colorful skies and smoothly scaling (albeit pixilated) scenery. Every few stages you'll refuel in air or on land, and I like how the punk on the motorcycle tries to race you up the runway. Afterburner shows some potential, but its gameplay is too fast and confusing. If there was an option to play the game at half-speed, this might have been great.

The sprites don't look bad at all - in fact, they are only slightly inferior to the 32X version. The planes are large and detailed, but the flat scenery below is uninteresting. I also wasn't impressed by the trail of gray circles that appear when your plane goes down (it that supposed to be smoke?). This is not a bad translation, but the game itself is pretty lame.

Overall, After Burner for the Sega Master System is terrible. The screen is way too busy, you can’t tell if enemies are coming or going, it’s hard to shoot things, and it’s easy to die. The graphics are clever at best, and the soundtrack is nothing to write home about. Most offensive of all however, is the complete lack of fun when playing. Avoid After Burner at all costs.

After Burner is a sad game, not simply because it was sad to begin with, but even more so because Sega decided to not really do anything to make it better. They just took the same crappy game and made it slightly crappier because they had to tone down the sound quality and graphics. They really should have made a unique game for the Master System based on this, perhaps a nice shooter or something. Instead, the player is plagued by the same arcade menace that I don't remember anyone actually playing. Consider long and hard before buying this game.

Don’t buy Afterburner. Don’t even try it. A good deal of Sega Master System owners found their consoles equipped with the simplistic Hang On. At the time, I remember thinking, ''is this all there is to it?'' It featured only a handful of levels: the daytime, the nighttime, the desert, and so on (again, with the palette swapping), and these stretches would be repeated, getting a little harder with every loop. But there were landmarks in the distance, and light posts and the like would mark the road, giving you the illusion of forward motion. Afterburner has none of this. If you should somehow, unluckily stumble into a bout with this game, and forget all the horrible shortcomings I’ve mentioned, the reasons as to why you shouldn’t play—the single, simple, ingratiating tune that plays incessantly should offer you a constant reminder.