From the Vault — originally published April 23, 2010. Some links, videos or prices may be out of date.
After Burner Climax is originally a 2006 arcade, combat flight video game developed by Sega-AM2 and published by SEGA. The game is the sequel to the popular arcade and console After Burner games and is the fourth title in the series. The game was first released in arcades in 2006 and just released on Xbox Live on April 21, 2010 and PlayStation Network on April 22, 2010 for $10.
Make no mistake this is SEGA at its absolute best. SEGA has always been one of the absolute best arcade game makers. This is a great port of the arcade game. it helps that Afterburner Climax is THE best After burner game ever.
After Burner Climax introduces two new flyable aircraft to the series: the F/A-18E Super Hornet and F-15E Strike Eagle. The iconic F-14 Tomcat from previous games has been replaced with the F-14D Super Tomcat. The player selects the aircraft at the start screen.
In the graphics and style department the game is great. On consoles the game still has the arcade flair by keeping the game start, game over, and continue screens and the the “credits” system intact from the arcade version.
The game on PS3 and Xbox 360 runs at a steady 60 frames per second and the colorful visuals are striking. The game moves fast and the action is relentless. The game is by no means long. You can run through the whole game in 15 minutes though there is a ton of replayability there as you can choose alternate paths and unlock hidden stages by completing targeted missions within the missions. For example in one mission there will be a dodgy prototype aircraft that you get bonus points and unlockables for successfully destroying. Another mission in particular has a stealth bomber that you must chase down and take down using only your guns because you cannot lock your missiles on the stealth bomber. Also in a mission there are friendly aircraft that you must avoid destroying while taking out the enemy’s. Its all very fun and the branching paths a-la-outrun adds variety in playthorughs.
The game works with HAWX and Ace combat joysticks if you ahve them but is also fine with the normal control pad. I found it better to turn down the movement sensitivity when using the control pad. The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions both allow for custom soundtracks which is great. There are achievements, trophy’s and the game has its own list of unlockables. Shooting a particular amount of enemy’s down, firing a certain amount of missiles and such will unlock extra options in the game that can allow for unlimited continues, stronger shields and more. This increases the replayability of the game. There are also score attack and other modes and online leaderboards. You WILL want to replay it just to beat your own scores.
For $10 After Burner Climax is an absolute steal and pretty much the perfect arcade game to console port. It is a true arcade game ported in a great way to Xbox live Arcade and PlayStation network. This is the SEGA we want back. Keep it coming!
