Action Fighter

"Standard shooter fare which could have been more"

Phwoar!!!! Action Fighter was obviously a hit for Sega in the arcades, as it has achieved a birth for the home consoles. While Action Fighter may appear to be your average shooter, there are a few things to set it apart from the competition. Starting off as a bike speeding its way through the city, with only a basic gun, you can upgrade to a car, complete with twin machine guns and mine launchers, then, add some wings and take the action to the skies.

Well, the above may sound sorta cool, but in all seriousness (without my Sega-biased adverts like above), Action Fighter is just a generic shooter. There's no redeeming features, and it's overwhelmingly difficult. It is also severely lacking in levels, with only four levels to beat. The transformation of vehicles is necessary to proceed through the missions, taking away most of the novelty. It obviously didn't perform too well at home, as I never saw any sequel.

My first experience with Action Fighter would probably have to had occured in the middle of 1990. The Master System was the hottest thing around (most Aussie kids didn't give a rat's arse about Nintendo). My brother's friend, John, had a copy of the game, so we'd usually go to his place to play it. Being 7, it was pretty impressive to me, but the novelty quickly wore off when the cheap difficulty tactics were unveiled.

The story centres around you, a hotshot rookie just discovered by the government. You are on a mission to destroy certain enemy vehicles and bases, and save the innocent people in the cities.....or something. I don't actually have a copy of the manual handy, so I can only assume. Probably just your usual shooter plot though.

A phrase from the legendary Sam Pettus (The Scribe) describes this game well...'This game is a great looker, but I am in doubt as to its other qualities'. For a 1986 Master System game, Action Fighter doesn't look half bad. The scrolling is one stand out feature. Instead of the usual dodgy look most shooters have while scrolling fast, Action Fighter keeps the same visual quality in the backgrounds as when you are standing still. The sprites are all well drawn and well coloured...almost a little too well. The bright colours can get on one's nerves at times. Explosions look a little ugly however.

The sound is pretty dull. You are treated to the one constantly looping soundtrack, and it doesn't really vary at all, not even throughout the track itself. Get a CD, turn the volume down on the TV, and avoid this travesty in video game music while you still can. If worst comes to worst, it will become stuck in your head, causing your brain to explode. Sega were pretty scunjy when it came to sound effects this time around, with most objects being limited to simple 'blips and bloops'. Explosions, again, are a stand-out offender. Bit of a disappointment from those who know better, but satisfactory considering the limited resources.

The gameplay is generally quite fast paced during the motorcycle and car bits...with the background whizzing by you. Drive into the back of the Sega trucks to collect upgrades, and also collect the letters, which will enable you to enhance your motorcycle, upgrading to a car, and upgrading the car to a plane. There is no shortage of enemies during the levels either. On the ground, you can attempt to ram the cars off the road and into barriers, as well as shooting at them. In the air, you must knock out wave after wave of flying enemies, as well as turrets on the ground. Once you manage to get through the hordes of difficult enemies plaguing the levels, you get to the end boss. The only problem? The bosses are relatively easy. Oh, you also have unlimited lives for exactly 99.9 seconds. Use them as best as you can, for when that timer runs out, you have only 3 lives. You'll need them too.

Control is quite an easy task in Action Fighter. The D-pad will move your motorcycle/car/plane around the screen, whilst Button 1 will shoot. Button 2 doesn't really do anything (to my memory), but when combined with Button 1, you can change between the car and the motorcycle, for squeezing in between those tight gaps. Collision detection can be quite worrysome too, especially in the air, as the enemies move at least 1000 times quicker than you do.

In the long run, Action Fighter won't serve you well. It's arcade like nature is a curse, allowing for a complete lack of replayability. The game does have a quite fearsome difficulty level, so it may take some time to get through it, but there is nothing that will make you stage a repeat performance. Too simplistic for it's own good. Most people might end up breaking controllers over the insane difficulty, but you are being warned, after Level 1, it just gets harder. For the price you could get it at these days, the length isn't really that much of an issue.

Onto the breakdown (oh no! the review is almost over! *cries*)

Graphics: 6.6

Not entirely that bad, considering the time it was released (1986), who designed it (Sega, who weren't exactly graphical gurus then), and the Systems it was released on (System 8 arcade board, and the Master System/Mark III). Backgrounds stay fairly focused at the high speeds. Sprites and backdrops are well drawn, but too brightly coloured.

Sound: 4.2

Just the one dull, continuously looping soundtrack, which isn't really all that good. Turn the sound off and whack on a CD. Sound effects are severely lacking. Sega can do (and did) much better than this.

Story: 4.0

Typical save the world junk. This time, the enemy have nice super weapons at their disposal, and ridiculous amounts of troops. Boring. Marge, change the channel.

Gameplay: 6.0

Standard shooter fare, with a few vehicle upgrades chucked in for good measure. The game plays fast on the ground, and slow in the air, which is a little bit of an annoyance. Plenty of tough enemies during the level, but the relatively easy bosses disappoint. Infinite lives for 99.9 seconds don't really help you with the insane difficulty factor. Controls are good, except for collision detection niggles.

Quality of Port: N/A

I wish I could tell you, but I have never seen, nor played the arcade original, but I have been informed of its existance.

Lastability: 4.9

Only 4 levels, but 4 insanely difficult levels. Heightened difficulty factor might lead to broken controllers. Overall, the game is a little repetitive. Not bad if you find it cheap.

Pro's

- Upgrade you car
- Fast gameplay
- Graphics are okay

Con's

- Yucky Music
- The plane sucks, it is too slow
- Bosses are too easy
- Game is insanely hard
- Only 4 levels
- Typical shooter
- Bad sound
- Boring story

Does it belong in my collection? Depends

Just because I'm giving it a low rating doesn't mean it should turn those few shooter fans away. If vertical shooters are your thing, go for it. The rest of us you stray away, and play Power Strike.

Overall: 5.2 (With adjustments to the score made to suit GameFAQ's reviewing system)

Standard shooter fare which could be easily improved upon. Everyone knows Sega can do this. Because they were using games like this to attempt to sell the console, it's no wonder they were trounced by Nintendo back in the day. Too average for its own good.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/15/01, Updated 08/07/01