Reviews// After Burner Climax

I remember buying the Sega Dreamcast version of Crazy Taxi when it was released in February 2000. An arcade-perfect conversion of an undoubtedly fun and insane game. With one caveat – having played the game in fits of happiness for three hours straight, I slowly realised that there wasn't much substance beyond the pure arcade experience. Not for a £40 disc release, anyway.

Fast forward ten years, and the landscape of simple arcade conversions has changed significantly. After Burner Climax – AM2's stunning update to the flight combat classic – is promising the same short burst of arcade euphoria for a fraction of that price, thanks to its digitally-distributed format.

The premise is simple enough. You control one of three fighter jets – the F/A-18E Super Hornet, the F-14D Super Tomcat or the F-15E Strike Eagle – and blast through fifteen short stages filled with enemy aircraft and environmental hazards. It's all to stop a terrorist faction from launching a missile that will yadda yadda yadda. What's important is sheer level of fun packed into each fifteen-minute run.

Equipped with an automatic gun turret and a limited supply of missiles, your survival tactic is essentially to shoot the enemies before they shoot you. The armour gauge your plane has will be able to take several rounds of gunfire and wall-scrapes, but usually your foes will launch a crazy amount of homing missiles to take you out. You can only survive two of these, so it's best you start ducking, dodging and weaving any which way you can.

There are several manoeuvres at your disposal. Holding one direction and then jerking the opposite way will allow you to barrel roll – most effective against initial waves of enemy fire. As missiles start to track your movement you'll need to use the accelerator and brake to avoid collision courses. Plus jetting along the gorgeous Sega-esque landscapes at full speed is just awesome.

Your greatest weapon, however, is in the Climax mode that the game's title refers to. Build up a meter by destroying enemy planes and dodging missiles, and you'll be able to engage a mode that slows down the action and allows you to pick off any and every enemy on screen. Letting go of the Climax button will allow you to shoot your entire payload to the crowd (ooh-er, missus).

The madness all takes place against an intensely rocking soundtrack, of which you can also option to hear classic After Burner II music while you slay some nasty aircraft. Vistas are categorically and unequivocally 'Sega' – the blue skies, bright sandy deserts, bright cityscapes against starry horizons... if ever you wanted a reason to love the publisher again, After Burner Climax is it.

Just like the aforementioned Crazy Taxi, there are some bonus features in After Burner Climax that you won't find in the arcade version. An EX Option offers several tweaks to the Arcade mode gameplay that gives you an easier time of it – things like more continues, bigger combo windows, faster planes and half damage. You need to earn these bonuses though in the game.

Similarly, a Score Attack mode gives players a chance to tackle the game in its purest, unlimited-credit form to see who can rank up there in the online leaderboards.

It's enough to make After Burner Climax a replayable title whenever you have a spare couple of moments, and perfect as a PSN or XBLA game. And best of all? It won't cost you £40.

SPOnG Score: 90%

As a digitally-distributed title, we can't recommend this game enough. It has all of the hallmarks of the Sega we all love, coupled with sublime gameplay mechanics from the hands of Japanese masters AM2. Games like these are perfect for online distribution models, and After Burner Climax represents great value for money. Get this if you like playing games.