3D After Burner II

Genre: On-Rails Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

After Burner II is an On-Rails Shooter originally released in Arcades in 1987 and later ported to numerous other platforms over the years but as far as I can tell in my research, its release on Nintendo 3DS in 2015 marks its first home release outside of Japan. Whether or not I inadvertently missed a home release of the game, this statement still isn’t as momentous as it may seem, as this game is widely seen as an extended version of the original After Burner, which has seen countless releases over the years. Anyway, this game has you flying an aircraft and shooting down enemy fighters.

The visuals in this game look decent, using a faux 3D effect that works well enough and conveys a good sense of speed, with the sound conveying the loudness of being in a jet aircraft (somewhat undermined by a digitized voice clip saying “fire” when you lock onto an enemy). Overall, there’s nothing too impressive going on here, but this game is iconic and memorable all the same.

It’s just a shame that the gameplay can’t live up to the iconic status of this series. Your control of your aircraft seems really loose, and far too often you’ll find yourself dying to 1-hit kills from enemies that you didn’t even see coming. I know this game was revered when it was originally released in arcades, but playing it now I just do not see the appeal at all.

The Nintendo 3DS release of the game adds a few extra features, such as save states, sound and display settings, and various control options, including the ability to use either the touchscreen or Circle Pad Pro as your throttle (or at least supposedly this is the case – in practice I didn’t notice any difference).

In the end, After Burner II looks good, and has a good selection of features, but the core game underneath is still a horrible mess, and unless you have a lot of nostalgia for this game when it originally came out in arcades, I suggest you avoid it.

tl;dr – After Burner II is an On-Rails Shooter where you fly a jet plane taking down enemy fighters. This game is still a classic iconic Arcade game, and the Nintendo 3DS version is a good port with some decent features, but none of that changes that the game itself is just not very fun, with poor controls and enemies that can down you with one hit. Unless you have fond memories of the game’s original release, you’re better off avoiding it.

Grade: D+

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