Hours of arcade fun, 12 intense minutes at a time...
Painting targets to lock on missiles while rolling your jet to avoid enemy fire is essentially all you will do in After Burner Climax. And you'll probably spend a fair amount of time wondering what just happened, too. The game is that fast. Luckily, you will also quickly unlock additional continues to play longer, until you eventually figure out how to play the game and even see the credits roll. And you'll still probably be wondering what just happened.
What the home version of After Burner Climax gets most right is its surprising and unusual difficulty curve. The game is incredibly difficult at its default settings. I know I really struggled at first... However, as you play you will begin to unlock "EX Options" such as a giant missile cursor, extra lives, or fighter jet armor, which go a long way toward making the game ridiculously easy. While using these cheats, the game begins to make sense, you see what you need to do to unlock secret levels and get high scores, and get accustomed to the intense speeds. Hidden among the cheats are unlockable options to make the game even more difficult, so once you've got the hang of things, you can go back and act like you've been a pro all along. This sort of reverse difficulty curve may be unusual, but it makes mastering the high-speed chaos very satisfying.
I won't be posting any high scores on the leaderboards, but I'm glad they are there. No arcade Arcade game is really complete without them...
Clearly, After Burner Climax is not for everyone, but for those who are willing to invest the time and do a little score chasing, it can serve as an excellent challenge and provide lots of fun.