Review: Afterburner Climax

Afterburner Climax can be described as your basic patterned enemy shoot’em-up with a slight dose of bullet hell mixed in.   Bur just because you can describe it that way but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.  Much like you can watch Top Gun and only see a jet combat movie, you would at the same time be missing a homoerotic love story taking place between two young studs who have 12.5 tons of speeding hot metal crammed between their legs.

So put on those aviators, grab your wingman and pop open that Coco Oil. Its time to dip ourselves into the wind blasted world of Afterburner Climax.

Afterburner Climax (XBLA, PSN)
Developer: Sega-AM2
Publisher: Sega Games
Release: April 22, 2010 (consoles), 2006 (Arcade)

Not many people are really aware of developer Sega-AM2 and what they have brought to the gaming table.  Of course the acronym doesn’t help. Their full name is Sega Amusement Machine Research and Development Department 2. Still no? Then how about Virtua Fighter, Out Run, Virtua Cop, Space Harrier and, of course, Afterburner. With me now?  You should be, especially if you’ve been to an arcade in the past 10 years. So you can see that Afterburner Climax comes from good stock.

Afterburner Climax was originally released as an arcade game in 2006 complete with mimicked cockpit seat that would turn according to whichever way you moved the joystick. Though the release of the game on XLBA lacks that bit of immersion it does come with updated high-rez graphics, an improved framerate, and a few other extras that make the game shine in a way that it never could in the arcade. But we’ll get to those in a moment. First let’s talk about the game at its core.

At the beginning of the game you are given a choice of three jets to use but none of them seem to handle any differently or effect the game in any way.  Much like shirtless men playing volleyball in a movie about jets, they are in for simple aesthetic purposes. Each has different paintjobs to choose from most of which that are awful.  Speaking of jobs, what about the gameplay you ask?

A short and sweet cut scene later and you are thrown into the action.  This is comprised of flying straight, yawing left or right and shooting down as many enemies as possible. Sounds simple, but it’s actually very exhilarating and the difficulty is what I call “arcade hard.” Arcade Hard is a difficulty level whose sole purpose is to kill you enough during play, yet entice you enough with the gameplay, so as to have you keep feeding credit after credit into the machine.  What results is an almost addictive “just one more time” mindset which hooked me to this title much more than I originally thought it would.

Firing comes in two mode, machine gun and missile.  The latter of which requires a lock-on before it is able to be fired.  Lock-on is acquired by moving the reticule over the enemies as they appear, which “paints” the target. Press B, and its missile away! Fired, dare I say spurted, right into the face of your enemy.  At the same time enemies are firing missiles at you (oh no!) and you must do your best to weave left and right to avoid them.  You also have the ability to roll your plane but I can tell you know that rolling is probably the worst thing you can do.  It leaves you stuck, spinning, in the center of the screen, a primary target for any incoming missiles shot at your direction. In effect, getting caught with your pants down as those projectiles are hurling toward you.  I would say that my one major gripe with this game is just how easily one can go into one of these deathtrap rolls.  It happens a lot since it is mapped to a hard left to right (or vica-versa) pull on the analogue sticks, which is something you’re doing quite often to avoid enemy fire.

Besides this one minor flaw Afterburner Climax screams excitement.  In classic Sega arcade style, levels are varied, well designed and have multiple branches from which you are able to choose mid-flight adding a welcome dose of variation to what could have been a linear slog to the end.

Where this game shines, however, is in a new addition to come with the console version of the game. Namely the Ex Options.  Ex Options are basically cheat options which unlock as certain variables are completed during normal gameplay.  Variable such as shooting down a certain number of enemies, cleaning a level under a certain time, getting a good rating, or beating he game a certain amount of times opens up new abilities that the players can toggle on or off.  As you unlock these options, and turn them on, you’re jet goes from being a delicate surgical machine that must be flown with precision to a spinning, screaming, death-machine whose gears churn on the blood of the innocent and the semen of the guilty.

It gets to the obscene point of your reticule being huge, missiles shooting automatically when targets are painted, your machine gun firing automatically the entire time, you taking 50% less damage, your enemies being 2 levels down, etc. And, of course, getting more powerful makes it easier to unlock more Ex Options.  You’ll find yourself going back to complete in-game tasks (variables) just to become more powerful, and after a few playthrough’s the game becomes a quest to make your jet as powerful as possible to open up new routes, secret missions within the game (of which there are 4) and beat more powerful enemies that come and go fairly quickly in the main game.

And here is the strangest thing about this game.  Because of this…this backtracking…Afterburner Climax almost, almost, feels like a Metroidvania game.

That’s right. I just fucking said that.

Afterburner Climax is a fantastic title with an unexpected depth that really makes it shine in a sea of throwaway downloadable games.  Like a closeted fighter pilot once said, Afterburner Climax…you can be my wingman any day.

Score: 95 / 100