by Sometimes, you don’t want things like “depth” or “complexity” from a game. Sometimes it’s enough to control something very fast as it fills the sky with explosions, and in that regard, After Burner Climax delivers beautifully. An iOS port of a 2006 arcade shooter, Climax keeps it fairly simple: as the pilot of one of three high-end fighter jets, your job is to target and destroy everything in front of you until it is no longer in front of you. And even if that doesn’t sound appealing, the ridiculous speed and raw destructive capability Climax offers may be enough to draw you in.
More an on-rails arcade shooter than a flight sim, Climax keeps your plane moving in one direction — forward — while enemies glide into view on the horizon. Moving the jet around with a virtual thumbstick lets you “paint” your targets with a lock-on cursor, at which point you can try to take them down with machineguns or — and this is far more enjoyable — simply hammer the “missile” button to unleash fountains of explosive ruination at everything in front of you. Unsurprisingly, your enemies have similar ideas, so you’ll also have to dodge incoming missiles (and walls and other hazards) if you want to stay alive long enough to keep shooting at things. If things get too hairy, you can activate “Climax,” a brief window of slow motion that lets you leisurely get a bead on enemies — which is especially useful during missions that set you on the trail of an elusively quick target.
