After Burner II (German)

After Burner II is a combat flight simulator that Sega unleashed on arcades in 1987. It is the second entry in the After Burner series and runs on Sega's X Board hardware. This particular version includes German text, so menus and in-game messages appear in German instead of English or Japanese. The game originally appeared both in a standard upright cabinet and a deluxe motion simulator that physically tilted the cockpit as you banked the jet.

You fly an F-14 Tomcat through a series of stages, gunning down enemy fighters and helicopters while dodging a constant stream of missiles and gunfire. The view is behind the aircraft, and the action scrolls automatically forward. Your crosshair follows your movement; you lock onto targets and fire with the main weapon, and you can also launch limited homing missiles. The core loop is straightforward: survive each wave of foes, avoid eating too much enemy fire, and reach the end of the route. The motion cabinet version made the experience more intense by tilting the seat in sync with your on‑screen barrel rolls and dives.

Today After Burner II is worth revisiting because it captures the pure arcade thrill of high‑speed dogfighting with no complex simulation overhead. The graphics are colorful and the sense of speed still holds up, especially in the motion cabinet version if you ever find one. It sits comfortably alongside other Sega arcade classics from the mid‑80s like Space Harrier and Out Run, offering a focused, pick‑up‑and‑play challenge that many modern shooters lack. The German version does not change the gameplay; it just localises the text, so it is otherwise identical to the standard international release.