Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
It is the fourth Sega game to use a hydraulic "taikan" motion simulator arcade cabinet, one that is more elaborate than their earlier "taikan" simulator games.
Designed by Sega veteran Yu Suzuki, After Burner was intended to be Sega's first "true blockbuster" video game.
It was designed outside the company in a building named "Studio 128", because Sega had a flextime schedule to allow games to be worked on outside company headquarters.
After Burner was intended to be Sega's first "true blockbuster" video game; the project was a closely guarded secret within the company during its development.
Mifune said it had "amazing power", but was considered too dangerous to operate and had the power levels lowered.
Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games called it a "fabulous game" with praise for the gameplay and motion cabinet while noting it has a lock-on mechanic similar to the Data East arcade game Lock-On (1986).
Top Score said it has "all the finger-numbing action of the best arcade shoot-em-ups, combined with some of the most stunning animation ever seen in a video game" and that it was "a glossy air combat game that ranks higher than similar efforts that have preceded it".
Ciarán Brennan of Your Sinclair said that, despite the higher price point, do not "let a little thing like a pound coin stand between you and action like this".
Robin Hogg of The Games Machine called it the "hottest Sega release so far" with praise for the graphics and gameplay, but with some criticism towards the £1 UK price.
In the United States, After Burner won the award for "Most Innovative Game" at the Amusement & Music Operators Association's 1988 AMOA Games Awards.
Computer Gaming World reviewed After Burner on the Master System, citing aircraft depicted in "remarkable detail", "spectacular" scenery, and excellent explosions.
An area based on After Burner, "Carrier Zone", appears as a tennis court in Sega Superstars Tennis and as a race track in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
It is the only home port in Japan based on After Burner I, so it has no speed control, and it differs in stage layout, in letting you shoot down enemy missiles, in making the player line up with the nozzle of the refuelling plane, and in its added boss characters.
Analog control was also implemented using the analog controllers "XE-1AP" and "AE1-EX" sold by Dempa Shimbunsha, making it the first Mega Drive game to support analog control.
Until the 3DS version was released, it was the only way to play with the melodic music on the arcade screen.
The original theme of the series was not to make ports that reproduced the originals faithfully, but to "rebuild them on more advanced hardware" — that is, to remake them — and After Burner, the 10th title in the series, follows that theme.
Designed by Sega veteran Yu Suzuki, After Burner was intended to be Sega's first "true blockbuster" video game.
After Burner was intended to be Sega's first "true blockbuster" video game; the project was a closely guarded secret within the company during its development.
When the game was in its initial concept stages, Sega had adopted a flextime work system, allowing development of games to be done outside the company; After Burner was one of the first games to be produced under this new system, with development taking place in a building named Studio 128.
The game was programmed and tested on a PC-98 system, making it the first Sega-published video game to be developed using personal computers rather than workstations.
Reviewing the 32X version, GamePro commented that the graphics, sound, and gameplay are all great, but that the only difference between it and the Genesis version of After Burner II are some minor graphical and audio enhancements, making it only worthwhile to gamers who have never played an After Burner game before.
In 2006, Sega released a new sequel on Sega Lindbergh hardware, After Burner Climax, the first arcade game to bear the brand since After Burner II.
After Burner Climax was de-listed in December 2014, leaving the game no longer available for purchase, only to be brought back in March 2019 to digital mobile platforms for free, with ads, under the Sega Forever brand.
In the review in 64 it was given a very low score of 17 out of 100.
Released as one of the 1 titles in the Sega Ages 2500 series.
The original theme of the series was not to make ports that reproduced the originals faithfully, but to "rebuild them on more advanced hardware" — that is, to remake them — and After Burner, the 10th title in the series, follows that theme.
The Mega Drive version is pre-installed as one of the 60 games on the Mega Drive Mini 2 (MD Mini 2), a reissue console from Sega.
It took 2nd place overall in the 1st Gamest Grand Prix run in the magazine Gamest (Shinseisha), as well as 6th for Best Ending, 1st for Best Graphics, 8th for Best Speech Synthesis, 3rd for player popularity, and 2nd for Best Income among large-cabinet games.
In the Gamest Mook The Best Game (1991), based on a popularity vote among Gamest readers covering every arcade game released up to then, it took 21st place, and the magazine wrote: "You cannot talk about taikan games without playing this", and "Among taikan games it left the rest far behind, with powerful graphics and sound full of presence.
It scored a total of 26 points in the Cross Review in the magazine Famicom Tsushin, and 20.61 out of 30 in the "Game Report Card" reader poll in Family Computer Magazine, as set out below.
It scored a total of 29 points in the Cross Review in the magazine Famicom Tsushin, and 21.25 out of 30 in the "Game Report Card" reader poll in Mega Drive FAN, as set out below.
It scored a total of 28 points in the Cross Review in the magazine Famicom Tsushin; an average of 76 in Gekkan PC Engine from 75, 80, 70, 80 and 75; a total of 33 in Marukatsu PC Engine from 8, 8, 10 and 7; and 21.77 out of 30 in the "Game Report Card" reader poll in PC Engine FAN, as set out below.
This score also placed it 181st among all PC Engine titles (485 titles in total, as of 1993).
It scored a total of 25 points in the Cross Review in the magazine Famicom Tsushin, and 22.9 out of 30 in the "Game Report Card" reader poll in Mega Drive FAN, as set out below.
The game itself is a port of II, but the title was changed to After Burner Complete.
Designed by Sega veteran Yu Suzuki, After Burner was intended to be Sega's first "true blockbuster" video game.
Suzuki was inspired by the 1986 films Top Gun and Laputa: Castle in the Sky; he originally planned for the game to have an aesthetic similar to Laputa, but went with a Top Gun look to make the game approachable for worldwide audiences.
After Burner was intended to be Sega's first "true blockbuster" video game; the project was a closely guarded secret within the company during its development.
Unlike the North American version described below, this one was sold in Europe.
Unlike the European version described above, this one was sold in North America.
The game itself is a port of II, but the title was changed to After Burner Complete.
Released as one of the 1 titles in the "SEGA AGES series" (Sega Saturn), which set out to archive Sega's classic games.
Critics praised its impressive visuals, gameplay and overall presentation; it was described as important and influential.
MegaTech magazine praised the smooth and fast gameplay, as well as the sound.
There is a bug, however: on an early-model Sega Saturn with the Analog Mission Stick, missiles can occasionally fail to fire.
The sentences quoted on this page were taken from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles exactly as they stand. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) — usable under those terms. They are the work of the people who wrote them.