Afterburner – Game the game

Afterburner is a pretty boring game

My first attempt resulted in a lame score and only Stage 3

But I’m not sure why. I mean, it has all the elements that should make it pretty awesome (and why little Forsoothed would’ve thought it was awesome): you pilot a sweet F14, your missles ‘lock on’, you get to shoot billions of enemies, it’s not impossibly hard (possibly the name of someone’s sex tape)…

I can’t believe you clicked on that link, you perv! (srsly though, it’s SFW)

Maybe it’s just an example of a game/style that’s been done better as time moves on? Or maybe the ‘fly in a straight line with no real control over where you’re going format’ just doesn’t have any staying power once you’re past the coolness of the F14?

WHO DO I WORK FOR AND WHAT I’M I ACCOMPLISHING HERE? Are we at war? Who are we? What is war?

YOU GET TO DO MID-FLIGHT REFUELING! #rad

Warning – “game studies” sentences incoming

Afterburner is probably an example of a seriously ludo-game like Tetris, no story whatsoever, but without the interesting mechanics. A ludo-game without the “fun”.

End “game studies”

Anyhoo, the good parts: all of the aforementioned cool stuff, plus you get to launch from an aircraft carrier, the ‘Sega Enterprise’. Oh Sega, you do go on. The gameplay is quite crisp and since I’m not going to have the patience to play through the boredom, I immediately wanted to find a cheat to see what the bosses (if there are bosses) would be like. Apparently there are 18 stages in Afterburner, I think I made it to 5 or 6 with some real effort.

Final thoughts, or “After” burner (oh self, you do go on)

In retrospect, this should’ve been a ‘played it for 5’ game: worth resurrecting for a quick (barrel) roll, but I’ve spent more time writing about Afterburner than actually playing it.

You let me down younger self, you let me down.

I did get better, 10X my first go-round #hardcore

 

Advertisement

Afterburner – Sega Master System – Pre game

This game was the great white buffalo of my childhood. I only ever got to play it a few times and because I grew up in a small town, the rental options were… slim.

Basically, little Forsoothed loved this game so much, but never had much of a chance to play it.

itsybitsysteps.com/

Thus, I don’t remember much about it: barrel rolls by executing a quick L-R (maybe); getting shot down ALL the time; and AIRCRAFT CARRIER LANDING. I don’t know if that last one was a reality, but I sure hope it is.

AH! I also just remembered that I came across this game at about the same time as that F14 Tom Cruise movie… he was Maverick… Anthony Edwards dies (I know I know, spoilers)… WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER THE NAME!?!

TOP GUN!

http://www.music-bazaar.com/

Oh man, F14’s were the bad ass-est things ever. Did you know, the Tomcat was retired in 2006?

*single tear*

Fly on you badass, fly on!