After spending most of my teenage years wanting to play the most advanced video games, I have now come to a stage of wanting to see what my older cousins played in the late 80's and early nineties; due to the fact it was all they had to do, because of lack of good music and rubbish TV. Anyway, I went to my friends’ house and played Afterburner.
I was first struck by its pace, the sheer speed of the game. Even though I could complete Golden Eye on the hardest setting, I was unable to control a little 2d fighter Jet which probably was made with the technology which my remote control would disregard! Still I persevered, and became engrossed with the atmosphere of the game and in the end it was the sheer speed and the end of level aircraft that ended up drawing me in! To be honest, I was not very good! But I played it at home.
The actual arcade version had a moving seat! Imagine that a kid from the early nineties, who were only collecting rings and jumping on poor unsuspecting reptiles as your entertainment, seeing a monstrosity of an arcade game! And it was in kind of 3d.
The one thing that was disappointing was the sound. I mean, I know its over 15 years old, but to be honest, it spoilt the atmosphere of the game! I became overwhelmed by the high pitched 2 bit sound squeaks. It was like constantly getting 1-Ups on Mario Bros which as we all know, is probably the most annoying sound ever even more so than Ruby Wax. But to be honest, I am playing this game only for nostalgia.
I find this game now more endearing rather than spectacular, like getting an old pair of shoes out and trying them on again, or seeing an old mate from years back. It invoked memories of how good some games were back then and also how luck we are to have such engaging games as FFVII or graphical masterpieces as Black.
So to conclude, I would say that if you need a good old semi 3D fix then go and have a go at Afterburner, because it will blow you away! I was there when this came out'. It’s nostalgia all the way, but with a terrible sound track!
