After Burner II is an updated re-release of After Burner. Besides extra levels, a few new enemies, a few touches at the soundtrack and more disposable missiles, the biggest addition is the ability to slow down or speed up manually. The rest of the gameplay remains identical.

Despite being called After Burner, most ports to home computers and consoles are based on this version. The NES, Amiga and Commodore 64 received two different ports with significant technical differences. This entry documents the original ports and the second ones can be found under the following entries: NES and Amiga / C64.

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Screenshots

After Burner II DOS Loading the game. (CGA)

After Burner II ZX Spectrum When you have a lock on you can fore a missile at that enemy and it will follow it until it hits it

After Burner II Genesis Skidding across the water...

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Promo Images

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Alternate Titles

"After Burner Complete" -- Japanese and European 32X title
"After Burner" -- Amiga / CPC / Atari ST / C64 / DOS / Genesis / MSX / NES / 32X / ZX Spectrum title
"AB2" -- informal/slang
"3D After Burner II" -- Nintendo 3DS title
"アフターバーナーⅡ" -- Japanese spelling

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Part of the Following Groups

User Reviews

There are no reviews for this game.

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Critic Reviews

Vandal Online	Nintendo 3DS	Jan 20, 2015	8 out of 10	80
Classic-games.net	NES	Apr 10, 2017	7 out of 10	70
Atari ST User	Atari ST	Mar, 1989	7 out of 10	70
Defunct Games	SEGA 32X	Oct 31, 2004	70 out of 100	70
Video Games & Computer Entertainment	SEGA 32X	May, 1995	7 out of 10	70
Atarimagazin	Atari ST	1989	4 out of 10	40
Gamers (Germany)	SEGA 32X	Feb, 1995	6 out of 15	40
Retro Archives	ZX Spectrum	Nov 05, 2020	6.5 out of 20	32
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	DOS	Jun, 1991		20
Power Play	Atari ST	Jan, 1989	7 out of 100	7

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Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Merge After Burner and After Burner II?	2	Игги Друге (46314) Mar 17, 2011

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Trivia

Cover art

Although the aircraft piloted in the game is a variation of F-14 Tomcat, the plane displayed on the North American cover is an F-15 Eagle.

Development

After Burner II was originally planned to have a World War II theme and be a realistic flight sim, but the idea was dropped because Yu Suzuki stated that "it would not have fit the arcade scene." A pure dogfighter was not his intention.

References to the game

In the movie Terminator 2: Judgement Day, John Connor is shown playing After Burner at the arcade at the mall.

References

During one of the take-off sequences of the game, you're followed by a small red car. It's the Ferrari from Outrun, another hit arcade game.

ZX Spectrum version

The ZX Spectrum version of the game has the plane firing its cannon constantly throughout and cannot be switched off. This is due to the fire button being used to fire the missiles.

Awards

Commodore Format
- January 1991 (Issue 4) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Bad)

Information also contributed by cafeine festershinetop and Rad Spencer

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Description