Developer: Sega Publisher: Sega Release: 05/93 Genre: Action
I like flight sims, especially flight simulators on console. That is a bit of an oxymoron as the genre excels on the PC but I make no excuse for my preferences. After Burner blew my mind and G-Loc remains one of the few arcade games I wish I had the courage to try out. When you are a kid with limited money the choice between spending a few dollars on one game of G-Loc or multiple tries at TMNT was an easy one. Despite my love for the genre it continually disappoints me. After Burner II on the Genesis was not a good game and the less said about G-Loc the better. Sega was two for two with bad ports and went for the hat trick with After Burner III. Congratulations they passed with flying colors.
After Burner III is actually a loose port of Strike Fighter, a completely different game only released in Japanese arcades. But the two titles are so similar I doubt most noticed or even cared. With the Sega CD’s scaling capabilities this should have been an easy slam dunk. Yet somehow it turned out even worse than the subpar port of After Burner II on the stock Genesis. Whether it was because of outsourcing is irrelevant. What is is that this is not a game worth spending your money on.
Strike Fighter itself was largely built on the back of G-Loc but removes many of that games more frustrating elements, the biggest one being the stupid time limit. It was obvious this was designed to drain quarters in the arcade. But the home version should not have that problem. You also have an unlimited supply of missiles. Sega tried to vary it up in the home version of G-Loc with different missile types but in practice the difference was negligible. These two gameplay changes make it much more playable in the grand scheme of things. But that does not make it a good game either.
With the main frustrations of the past games gone After Burner III should be a rollicking good time. Yet somehow that is not the case. For a game named After Burner it moves like molasses. The lethargic pace is the least of the game’s worries. You have two camera view, the standard cockpit view and a new third person camera. Your ship is so large it obscures your view of incoming enemies and missiles making it worthless. The cockpit view is better but only slightly. It is still hard to dodge incoming missiles and the HUD obscures too much of the screen. It is hard to believe that they screwed up something so simple yet here we are. Yet there is more wrong with the game.
My main problem with After Burner III is that it is boring overall. Your cannons are virtually useless in taking out rival planes. That means you will spend 90% of your time missile locking and blowing up distant targets. The waves come in different formations but it is still monotonous to line up your sights and simply press a button. The occasional ground mission varies things up but the non-existent and pixelated terrain robs them of any impact they may have had. With twenty missions it is hard to stay interested to want to see this through to its conclusion.
With most of the arcade style design decisions removed After Burner III is not as brutal as the prior games but still has its moments. Both viewpoints make it hard to dodge missiles and I still do not understand how avoiding enemies on your tail works. On the plus side extra lives are in ready supply based on your kills. Even limited continues are little deterrent to seeing the end of this one. Your attention span is the real challenge.
It cannot be stated enough just how disappointing After Burner III is visually. The Sega CD can scale and rotate playing fields like the Genesis cannot and should have been able to approximate the look of a Super Scaler arcade unit. Instead we are left with flat planes with only the bare minimum of terrain detail. In fact most of the time they are a single color with no bushes or anything at all! What little scaling exists is choppy and very pixelated. The only impressive element of the game is its takeoff sequence. But you sure as hell did not buy this expensive platform for that.
In Closing
After Burner III should have been good. Instead it is a lesson in how not to create a port and treat a once revered series. The Sega CD needed as many action games and exclusives as it could get. But with quality like this it is no wonder it garnered a negative reputation quickly. After Burner as a series deserves better.
