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SUMMARY:

Sky Target is basically a follow up to Sega's highly successful Afterburner series, although it is not considered to be a true sequel. It is good thing that Sega doesn't call Sky Target a sequel to Afterburner, because it just does not live up to the high standards of gameplay that we have come to expect from with Afterburner name.

For those of you that for that are unfamiliar with this game, Sky Target is a 3-D shooting game that takes place on a pre-set flight path. Do not mistake this for a flight simulation because there is not a single simulation aspect to the game. It is your classic 3-D shooter where you have unlimited machine gun bullets, unlimited missiles and more enemies that you would ever see in any flight simulation.

The background story to Sky Target is your basic, "you are a member of a secret military operations unit and you must stolen a stolen aircraft before it reaches the enemy." It is very cliche and really has very little bearing on the missions, as there really are not any true missions, but it does give a background to the game and it really does not hurt the game because a story is not as important to a shooter as it would be for something like a RPG.

PLAYABILITY: 4/10

Sky Target offers two different modes of gameplay: The Arcade Mode and the Ranking Mode. The Arcade Mode is the main game where you must fly through a series of missions that will take you to your end goal. In the arcade mode you need to complete seven missions to complete the game, but after certain points of the game you get to choose different paths, so in reality there is a total of 13 different missions in the Arcade Mode. With the Ranking Mode, you have four missions to choose from at the start, but once you complete on of them, you will be rewarded with the ability to compete in a more difficult mission.

In both modes, you have four different advanced fighters to use: the Grumman F-14D Super Tomcat, the Dassault Rafale M, the General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon and the McDonnell Douglas F-15S/MTD. Each plane does look distinctly different, but do not really affect the gameplay, which is a shame.

The control is extremely simple, you move the plane around the screen with your d-pad and you have a fire buttons for your Vulcan machine gun and for your missiles. The game is compatible with Sega's Analog control pad, which offers much smoother and faster control, but it still does not come close to saving what is ultimately a game with very poor control.

The main problems with the game are the choppy controls and repetitive gameplay problems. Your plane basically jerks around the screen and it can be difficult to avoid enemy fire because so much is going on at times that it can be hard to see what's coming. The gameplay mainly consists of you constantly firing your machine gun and missiles at an endless amount of targets that are firing back at you, always ending in a large end Boss that is simply defeated by continuing to rapidly fire your machine guns and missiles. This is actually quite fun for the first hour or so, but it lacks the depth and difficulty to make it over the long haul.

REPLAY VALUE: 3/10

Even with the different mission paths, the ranking mode, and the variety of air craft that you get to choose, Sky Target has virtually no replay value to speak of. And to make it even worse, the game can easily be beaten in one sitting.

GRAPHICS: 5/10

It looks like we have another 32-bit game that is high on graphics while neglecting gameplay, right? Hell no! The graphics in Sky Target are every bit as disgusting as the gameplay and replay value. The textures of the backgrounds are ugly and lack any detail and the enemy aircraft don't look much better. Also, there is a lot of pop-up and because the detail of many of the objects isn't too high, it can be hard to tell what's coming, thus hindering gameplay. One positive note is that there is constantly a ton of things on screen and the game really moves fast with very to little slowdown. But, the Saturn can handle games as beautiful as Panzer Dragoon 2, I don't see why they couldn't do better with Sky Target.

SOUND: 4/10

As if the having bad graphics and gameplay were enough, Sega saw fit to put it a horrible sound track. The music for a game like Sky Target should inspire you to become Tom Cruise and throw on some shades, a flight jacket and take on the enemy with reckless abandon, but the only thing the music in Sky Target inspired me to do was turn down the volume on my stereo system and TV. The sound effects aren't nearly as bad as the music, but just don't quite cut it, either.

OVERALL: 5.0/10

Basically, if you want to re-live the glory days of Afterburner, do not even consider getting Sky Target and just get Sega Ages with Afterburner II. This game is a rental at best, but I do not really know if I'd even recommend that.