After Burner II

After Burner II is an arcade combat flight simulator game released by Sega in October 1987. It is the second game in the "After Burner" series. In the game, players fly an F-14 Tomcat jet fighter, gunning down enemies while avoiding incoming fire. "After Burner II" came both a standard arcade cabinet and a servo actuated, sit-down motion simulator version which moved according to the motion of the plane onscreen. The cockpit would bank in the same direction the on-screen aircraft was banking. It is an updated version of "After Burner", with the addition of throttle controls.
Development.
Development of "After Burner II" commenced after "Out Run" was finished. The game was mostly created by three men, Yu Suzuki, Satoshi Mifune, and Kawaguchi. During development, it was codenamed "Studio 128" to specify the secrecy of the project.
The primary influence of "After Burner II" was "Top Gun", although an art style in the vein of science fiction anime films like "" was considered but scrapped due to team wanting to appeal to a western audience.
"After Burner II" was considered to be a reissue of "After Burner", that included minor improvements such as a throttle that was absent in the original game.
Ports.
"After Burner II" has been translated and ported to numerous home systems: PC Engine, Sharp X68000, Genesis, Famicom, FM Towns Marty, Atari ST, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and Sega Saturn.
The game was rebuilt with stereoscopic 3D feature as one of 3D Classics for Nintendo 3DS.
Reception.
"Mega" placed the Genesis/Mega Drive version at number 38 in their Top Mega Drive Games of All Time. "MegaTech" magazine praised the smooth and fast gameplay, as well as the sound.
Legacy.
In Japan, "After Burner II" was released on the PlayStation 2 as part of the "Sega Ages" classic series.
M2 ported "After Burner II" in Sega's 3D Classics series to the Nintendo 3DS eShop in Japan on 2013 and worldwide in 2015. This version is faithful to the original arcade game with additions, including Touch Controls and screen layouts that resemble the Upright as well as the Commander and Deluxe cabinets. An unlockable new Special mode was also added, which used a time-slowing "Burst" system similar to "After Burner Climax", and featured a different story and altered stages. This mode has no stage select or continues, and instead depends on frequent acquisition of extra lives over the course of the game in order to complete it.