After Burner II

Take a seat in an F-14 Tomcat fighter, lock onto your opponents and unleash a salvo of missiles while the screen tilts under the weight of the g-force. After Burner II is the peak of Sega's "super scaler" era – arcade aerial action that tried to bring the feeling of Top Gun right into the arcade.

The game was created under the direction of Yu Suzuki and his AM2 team in the late 1980s and follows on from the original After Burner. Among other things, the "II" added the ability to slow down and speed up the aircraft with the throttle lever, giving the player greater control over the pace of the dogfights. Just like with Space Harrier, there were luxurious moving cabinets whose seat tilted and rotated according to your maneuvers – a physical experience that was among the most intense in arcades at the time.

In terms of gameplay it's a rail shooter: the plane flies ever forward into the depth of the screen and you dodge enemy missiles, fire your cannon and lock onto targets for your own shots. The characteristic "lock-on" system let you fire off a whole swarm of missiles at once. The pseudo-3D sprite scaling created a dizzying illusion of speed and depth – enemy fighters raced against you and around you at a stunning tempo.

Technically it was the flagship of Sega's arcade hardware. It earned admiration for its smoothness and the number of objects on screen at a time when home systems could only dream of such a thing. The energetic music and constant onslaught of action made it exactly the kind of game that people lined up for in the arcade.

After Burner II saw many ports to home platforms and became a fixture of Sega's retro compilations. Along with Space Harrier, Hang-On and Out Run, it belongs in the pantheon of titles with which Suzuki and AM2 defined the golden age of arcade spectacle. Even today it's a pure adrenaline ride with no unnecessary fuss.

Why play: When you want pure speed, missiles and the feeling of a fighter jet without the complexity, After Burner II presses you into your seat and won't let go until the mission is over.