I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Between Bayonetta, Aliens vs. Predator, Alpha Protocol, Resonance of Fate, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, and Yakuza 3, SEGA would be back in the saddle right now if these games were exclusive to the oft-hoped-for Dreamcast 2. Thes games embody what SEGA does best; crafting fun, accessible, and highly memorable titles. After Burner Climax easily falls within that realm.

After Buner Climax is an After Burner game through and through. You select one of three fighter planes ( the F/A-18E Super Hornet, F-15E Strike Eagle, or the F-14D Super Tomcat) and take to the skies to blast rival flyboys. Really, that’s all you need to do.

Thankfully, a game with such a simple premise as an equally simple control scheme. One button fires your guns, another your missiles, one more your afterburners. A new feature is Climax Mode, which is essentially After Burner Climax‘ bullet time. When your Climax meter fills up, tapping the button slows down the action to a crawl, which gives you time to position your jets’s reticle over as many targets as possible and unleash a slew of missiles. This comes in handy as After Burner Climax has a combo meter that keeps tracks of your multiple kills.

And you’ll want to lay waste to all enemy fighters thanks to the excellent game design. After Burner Climax features responsive controls, and an exhilerating sense of speed that will leave all wannabe Mavericks smiling from ear to ear. The graphics complement this by showcasing absolutely gorgeous environments that are a joy to pilot through. Chasing bogeys through cramped canyons never gets old, nor blowing up jets over volanic eruptions. After Burner Climax doesn’t try to be a sim (or pseudo-SIM) like Ace Combat, which is why it works. It’s 100% arcade.

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Much like Yu Suzuki’s arcade classic, OutRun, After Burner Climax presents you with a fork in the road after certain levels, which allows you to complete the game using a different series of routes . Unfortunately, the soundtrack is nowhere near as excellent as SEGA’s classic racer, but it does have the appropriate tunes to make you want to pull the trigger. SEGA allows you to switch from After Burner Climax‘ tunes to After Burner II‘s at the menu screen.

If you’re a gamer accustomed to titles that offer 80+ hours of gameplay like Record of Agarest War, After Burner Climax is not for you. It’s unashamedly arcade (it can be beaten in about a half hour), which is fitting as it originally debuted in 2006 as a token muncher. This home port adds unlockable EX options (revealed when you meet certain in-game criteria) that add new gameplay elements, but the game is relatively short by today’s standards, which is fine in this reviewer’s eyes. Not every title has to be epic in scope.

After Burner Climax lives up to the legacy set by the original After Burner. Fans of the older titles will find this 800 MSP title a more than worthy download. Fire up some Kenny Loggins, enter the danger zone,  and prepare to be taken back to yesteryear.