by belgavion:

©2010 Gav Ross:

Many veteran gamers would have fond memories of the late 80’s After Burner arcade machines with their tilting cockpit hydraulics and frenetic jet fighter physics.

The game was rejuvenated in 2006 with a new entry titled After Burner Climax; and it’s this version that has made its way onto the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace.

Climax is the series’ fourth instalment overall and it retains the tone of the original by being an unapologetic arcade experience that’s completely devoid of any kind of simulation aspects.

Hectic, explosive action at full throttle is the order of the day and After Burner Climax serves it up in spades.

• Pure After Burner Climax Arcade Fun

Pilots are able to lock onto enemies with a circular cursor and choose to shoot an endlessly-replenished amount of missiles at far-off enemies and fire simpler machine gun bullets at planes that come up the rear. Controls are kept reasonably simple with only two buttons used for each of the ammo types, while the left and right triggers are for acceleration and deceleration.

The analog stick can be flicked left or right for frenzied barrel rolls or simply to dodge the plethora of homing missiles that always seem to be rapidly descending upon you. Each of the 13 main stages are very short and give a quick summation at their end of how many enemies were downed along with overall grade scores of how you’re doing.

The main mission of Arcade Burner Climax is over before you know it, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The entire game can be breezed through in less than 15 minutes and while that may sound like there can’t be much value in that amount of gameplay, there are constant incentives to go back ‘one more time’ to try and improve your score and ranking.

Achievements hunters would be pleased to know that all 200 points can be obtained in less than a couple of hours; and there isn’t a great amount of skill required. After Burner Climax has its own set of separate, achievement-like goals called ‘EX options’ – which are somewhat like cheats to help the player progress through the stages easier.

Things such as ‘automatic missiles’ and ‘lower enemy damage’ can be unlocked without much effort. Basically, it’s the type of game that gets much easier as you go along once some of these EX options are used. Even a non-gamer could probably sit down and get a AAA-grade with only about half of the options turned on.

All of this sounds rather easy, doesn’t it? There’s still a hardcore element to the game though that the most avid fans of the franchise will appreciate. All EX options themselves take a while to unlock and there are special stages and endings open to those that can complete certain objectives throughout the main mission.

Then, of course, there’s the friends list and leaderboard rankings. A training mode is also available for individual stages so players can improve their techniques before taking to the skies in the main mission again.

Although it’s over far too soon, After Burner Climax is gorgeous to look at – with varied environments including oceanic islands, volcanic and snow-capped mountains, desert missile bases and perilous canyons.

At times – especially during the final few stages – it can feel as if far too much is happening on screen at once, but this only adds to the ferocity of the end-game enemies.

The soundtrack is typically loud, boisterous and arcade-like with an option to use music from the original After Burner 2 – which is not really needed but it’s a nice touch.

After Burner Climax is something 95% of gamers will probably play through and be sick of within a few days, but there’s enough score-beating depth here to appease the devotees and keep them coming back many times over.

7.5/10

©2010 Gav Ross

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