Easily accessible old-school Sega goodness.
After Burner pits you in a jet fighter plane, doing barrel rolls, engaging in dog fights, the occasional bonus stage, all the while a killer soundtrack plays in the background. Let’s get the bad out of the way right here and now: of all four games on this cart, After Burner is the one that really suffers. Barrel rolls are rather tricky to perform, it’s difficult to tell when enemy fire is headed your way, and you can’t attack enemy targets during bonus stages, which is just inexcusable. This particular version of After Burner isn’t terrible even with these faults, but these shortcomings really do keep it from hanging with it’s three siblings in this collection.
OutRun. It isn’t a racing game, but a driving game. Against the clock in a sweet, red sports car, girlfriend in the passenger’s seat, you drive across the country through five different stages. There’s a total of 15 different stages, but you’ll only drive through five of them every time you play. You actually determine what five stages you drive through whether you veer left or right at the fork in the road at the end of each stgage. This was some pretty unique stuff back in the day and it still makes OutRun one of the best arcade games out there. The other thing that made OutRun a winner was the awesome, highly memorable soundtrack. Before you hit the open road, you get your choice of music to cruise to in Splash Wave, Passing Breeze, and Magical Sound Shower. OutRun’s gameplay and fantastic soundtrack make it arguably the best game in Sega Arcade Gallery.
Space Harrier thrusts you onto a planet dubbed “The Fantasy Zone.” This is not your typical shooter. You don’t fly in a ship, but instead control Harrier (the pilot) who fires at enemies with a cannon under his right arm. Unlike most shooters, your in-game persona can actually touch ground level. Not only are enemies disposable, some of the scenery can also be blown away. Like any good shooter, Space Harrier will test your reflexes… and then some. There are eight stages and after stage 2, the difficulty really ramps up. There’s also a bonus stage where you ride on a dragon, destroying obstacles.
Super Hang-On is similar to OutRun. You race against the clock in different countries, you can select a song before each race, but that’s where the similarities end. You drive a motorcyle that has a nitro boost that can be used once you’ve reached 280 mph. There are four different courses to choose from and each course has a set number of stages. The beginner course consists of 6 stages, junior course, 10 stages, the senior course, 14 stages, and the expert course has 18 stages. The game uses the same parallax scrolling system that OutRun does and the sense of speed is very convincing, making it just as addictive as it’s four-wheeled cousin.
Consoles get compilations by the dozen, so it really is nice to see that portable gaming hasn’t been completely left out in the cold. All four games look and sound great and mimic the arcade versions extremly well with the exception of After Burner. You can switch between all four games easily, and if you desire you can listen to the soundtrack of all four games through the options menu. Along with an only decent version of After Burner, the other mar in this package is that the game doesn’t keep track of your high scores. Even with these hiccups, Sega Arcade Gallery is still a fine compilation. When you’ve got those old-school Sega jones, this baby will really hit the spot.