The most special games are those which, having not played it for 10 years and forgetting it ever existed, still bring a massive smile to your face. This was the case years ago when my copy of Action Fighter arrived in the mail. It's case was unfamiliar and uninteresting yet, this was one of the most important games I had ever purchased. This game schooled me on what gaming was. Hard.



To a Nintendo fan this game would best be described as Spy Hunter and Xevious cartridges taped together. It consists of 5 different missions each with a different objective. Every level shares a similar format, driving and flying sections with a boss battle at the end. The differences between Action Fighter and Spy Hunter become quite obvious early on. The game begins with you taking the roll of what is apparently the motor bike for "Hang On" but with more guns. These guns are there for the reason everyone expects them to be there for. KILL EVERY CAR ON SCREEN. Spy Hunter punishes your destructive streak and expects you to show some restraint, Action Fighter rewards you for destroying ambulances. With every vehicle you destroy there is a chance of it dropping a letter. These letters represent car parts which must be collected to progress through the stage. A - D will transform the motorbike to a car and E - F will add wings.



There is a SEGA labeled truck which shows up randomly which can be driven into to receive an upgrade to your weapon which is very welcome. Adding to the chaos on the roads is a helicopter which follows you around as if to taunt you, willing you to drive into a barrier. If this doesn't work he will just start dropping land mines. Later stages introduce more vehicle types.Once the car is completely transformed the shmup part of the stage starts. You must compete with waves of air-based aliens and fighter jets along with ground-based tanks and turrets. These shmup sections are quite primitive but still fun to play and can be deceptively hard.There is a timer that begins at the start of the stage which indicates the period where you have unlimited lives. Once this time runs out you have limited lives based on how many point you have scored.



Collecting the first four letters quickly is essential to completing the stage. Touching anything while still a motorbike will end in a fiery death and this happens A LOT. There is a huge element of luck to the game since a vehicle can spawn in an unfortunate place and push of the road in an instant. It's infuriating, but in a good way. The type of infuriating which makes you seek revenge. Over and over again. This is one of the greatest things about this game, it challenges you to try again out of rage and trying again is never a chore since the gameplay is so fun and addictive.



When putting the game on for the first time after more than a decade, the first thing that hit me was the music. It had been burned into my head. I had been humming it for years and yet I had no idea what it was from. It shrieks at you, its repetitive, and it is AWESOME. It's the perfect sound track for speeding up a highway shooting everything that moves.



So what makes this game so great? It appeals to the side of everyone that just wants to play. It doesn't muck around. It knows there is nothing more fun than shooting things. It's stupidly hard but it challenges you to try again and again because no matter how well you do in a stage it can always be bettered. It also makes you think, mostly about why it is so satisfying to drop bombs on people who are just trying try to get to work.