After Burner Climax

For all its speed and visual attraction, Climax lacks the tactile thrill of OutRun's drifting and can often feel more like a frantic scramble to paint the screen with your cursor than a measured challenge.

Afterburner Climax is a great, and reasonably priced way to play the arcade game in the comfort of your own home, but it's a remarkably simple game that will leave some people wanting a lot more.

Ask yourself if you totally likes retro gaming and playing games over and over until you really master everything in it. If you don't, you'll probably end up playing After Burner Climax 2-3 times and get bored. But if you do, look no further. After Burner Climax is absolutely the game for you with insane speed and action, old school style.

Only the most talented see the credits first time around. [Issue#59, p.104]

After Burner Climax is an old-school arcade game. Your motivation is high scoring only, and that‘s it. Playing through all levels takes you about 30 to 40 minutes, so don‘t expect too much.

The sleek, superficial action of After Burner Climax is thrilling in short bursts but not deep enough to last.

After Burner Climax is just like a rollercoaster: after a few rides you've gotten your thrill and then you want to try another kind of ride.

It is a exhilarating experience planning a classic fighter game such as After Burner, but the exhilaration is simply too short to justify the 800 points required to buy it.

The arcade on-rails flight combat action of the “good old days” is certainly present and accounted for. But unless that’s what you’re after, you would be better off leaving After Burner Climax grounded.

The graphics may have improved but this is still the same old After Burner - for better and worse.

The first impression you will get is positive. Unfortunately, that quickly fades. After several hours you’ll be bored with the game due to a lack of depth and content. After Burner: Climax is only recommendable if you love hunting for high scores and eternal online leaderboard glory. If not, then wonder if you really want to spend ten euro’s on this.

Popcorn arcade action that's far more exciting to watch than it is to play. [July 2010, p.120]