After Burner: Black Falcon

SEGA's legendary jet touches down on PSP.

	Version PSP	Developer Planet Moon Studios	Publisher SEGA	Genre Action

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Another 'three' crops up in the difficulty levels, with Easy, Medium and Ace being the choices on offer. Medium is probably the level most players will find challenging enough to be satisfying without being frustrating. The story is told through the use of comic style cut-scenes which, whilst entertaining, do not quite fit in with the realistic look of the rest of the game.

The dialogue is also sometimes quizzical - if air force generals really do say 'Deny assets at all costs' upon realizing that 13 of their top-secret prototype fighter jets have been stolen by the eponymous Black Falcon group, then one wonders under what circumstances they would also say 'All your base are belong to us'.

Your mission is thus to track down each of the 13 stolen jets and destroy them and their pilots, culminating in the final showdown with the leader of Black Falcon, a former CO called Colonel Robert Bruty, code-name Forge. Each mission has its primary objective as well as some secondary objectives and an objective specific to your pilot.

Despite the initial cut-scene, there's not much in the way of in-game movies, or end-of-mission rewards. Instead, you're unceremoniously dumped back to the main menu where you can then select the next mission, or one of the other options on offer, such as checking your pilot stats or visiting the showroom where you can use the money you've earned to buy new aircraft or upgrades.

These upgrades include weapon and performance boosts and other cosmetic upgrades, such as adding decals to your plane and completely changing its paint job. And cosmetic is how the changes to this is game could be described if one where to compare them to the original After Burner. Flying along a narrow path, destroying everything in your wake, barrel-rolling to avoid enemy missiles, it's 1987 all over again.

It's a shame we can't explore more of the levels, swoop around a rock formation and attack your enemy from behind, or fly high into the sky and attack from above the cloud line. Or just to bank all the way to the right to avoid an obstacle. Not to mention a lot of the levels being bland monotonous affairs such as flying over water or rolling fields. There are some interesting ones though, such as the snowy mountainous regions, but these only drive home the fact that you can't really fly around, explore, and devise attack strategies.

Not only are the levels samey and bland but they are also similar in design - using your rockets, missiles and cannon, you must simply shoot everything that moves. There is some limited variety such as somehow catching falling scientists whilst flying full speed in your F4.

Whilst this game has had a graphical make-over there's not really a lot else here to distinguish it from the original., so this PSP outing is a bit of a wasted opportunity. For some it might be a blast from the past, but for those without their rose-tinted Ray-Ban, it will be an indication of why gaming today really is better than it ever was before.

Graphics Sound Gameplay Depth Presentation OVERALL 6.5 6.5 5.5 5.5 5.0 6.0

THE VERDICT: Flying a military aircraft on rails can only be fun for a short time. Unfortunately that's the case here, and Black Falcon soon loses its appeal. After Burner fans might appreciate the update, but unless you played the originals the first time around, most will probably be aghast at the lack of interactivity and variation. Hopefully Sega will do us proud with a home version of the stunning After Burner Climax.

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