Action Fighter

"Decent, but nothing out of the ordinary"

Action Fighter was originally found in 1986 in arcades, though it was never a very popular game and didn't get much attention. In the same year it was ported to the Sega Master System, and likewise, wasn't a great game. It's fun for some quick action and a little bit of fun, but it's basically just your average shooter.

Action Fighter combines a racing game and a shooting game in one. You control a motorcycle driven by you, the Super Rider. Your goal is to complete six assignments that basically include destroying a few enemy vehicles or bases. Your motorcycle must navigate through the quick and tight turns of the city streets while also avoiding (mainly by destroying) any enemies in the way, including the comically named PEE-POO 1000 ambulance. In order to complete your missions, you must first obtain six upgrades to your motorcycle in order to allow it to be airborne. These upgrades are simply red squares labeled A-F. Getting A, B, C, and D will turn your motorcycle into a more rugged car, and letters E and F will give your car jet engines that can make it fly. You can also get weapon upgrades by docking in the back of sparse SEGA trucks on the road.

This game has a pretty simple system of lives and scoring. You start with a timer with 999 units on it. Until the timer reaches zero, you have unlimited lives. Feel free to crash into walls and die as many times as you want, but once the timer reaches zero, you have limited lives. You get points for destroying enemy vehicles and also by clearing missions. You also get more reserve motorcycles by getting certain amounts of points.

The graphics in this game are probably the best part about it. The sprites are expertly colored, and the frame rate by which the background moves is pretty high, and even at very high speeds on your motorcycle, the animations still look very smooth. The sound is also a good point in this game. I really liked the background music played during each mission, but I really don't like how the track replays after each time you die. Something like that can get very annoying, so beware.

The killer for this game's score is definitely the game play. The game is incredibly hard to play. Even at low speeds you need keen senses in order to avoid enemies, and your motorcycle is very easy to be pushed around by other enemy vehicles. I find myself dieing after no more than twenty seconds of playing, with very few exceptions. Because of this, the game just gets very frustrating very quickly. There really isn't anything to set this apart from other shooters either. Sure, it's kind of neat to have to fight in both air and on land, but neither is really perfected as it has been in some games of the same time period. Both options are quite lack luster, and don't have enough features to keep it fresh and overcome the frustration of dieing every time.

I wouldn't say that Action Fighter is a bad game, and in fact, some people find this game quite entertaining, but it definitely isn't a game that can be played for long periods of time. If you are collector, or a shooter/racer enthusiast, then I would say this is a good game to pick up, but if you are looking for a great shooter or racer, this game is probably not your best bet.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/06