Afterburner Climax is an arcade shooter published by Sega that is now ported to the Xbox 360 Live Arcade. It is a classic arcade shooter that is sure to have a lot of nostalgic for old school arcade gamers. Does this port have enough fuel to ignite the interest of new and old players?
Story 2/5
Since this was originally an arcade shooter. There was virtually no story to follow other than what you were actually doing on missions. The port is actually the same with no added pieces to a story. Needless to say this had no effect on how gamers thought of the game. It was all about the game play for this game.
Game Play 4/5
If you’re familiar with other rail-shooters like Star Fox 64, then you should know what to expect from this game. What you basically do is control a aircraft through a linear path killing enemies along the way. There are times when you need to choose a path to go but other than that you dodge shoot and have a blast! You are able to choose 1 of 3 characters that all pack the same ammunition. You have bullets and rockets. You are able to free shoot and lock onto enemies. There is a special feature that happens when you fill your climax bar all the way; when that happens you are able to slow time time and destroy enemies at your leisure. Weird to get used to if never played any kind of arcade rail-shooter game like it.
Graphics 3/5
For an arcade port onto Xbox 360, I’d say that the transition went really went! If you compare the graphics to the arcade version and this one the similarity is so crisp. I’m pretty sure some of the graphics have been re-done to look even better. The fast paced action makes the scenery move by pretty quick but you notice when something looks as good as it does here.
Sounds 2/5
I loved the sounds of the old arcade machines where they made loud noises every time you insert a coin, it was awesome! On this port most of the sound effects are still there. Explosions sound similar but satisfying. The music is very corny for an action rail shooter. It’s still nice to listen to but I wouldn’t be rushing out to buy a soundtrack anytime soon.
Replayability 3/5
After you finish all the levels there are a few other things to do. For instance, you are able to go and to go and try the score attack mode and try to unlock some of the little stuff like achievements. Besides that, there’s not much replayabilty here unless you focus your time on trying to perfect each level and getting the highest possible score!
Overall 3/5
A fun and great port! Very affordable and it is sure to bring a lot of nostalgic value to us gamers who have actually had a chance to play this while it was still in arcades! A good recommendation!
It has a price of $10
You can purchase it on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade Market for 800 points
