Depending on who you ask, Burning Force is either a hidden gem or mid. Maybe even bad. The bad side of mid I guess. Mid-bad? Bad-mid? I'm 35-years-old I don't know how the hell to use words like "mid"!

Personally, I love it. But at this point I think I've just come to accept that I'm a big fan of on-rails shooters in general. Easily impressed by them, you could say. I did jump into the arcade version for a bit, and it definitely has some strengths over Genesis Burning Force, but I think each is its own distinct flavor and worth checking out independently. That said, I only put serious time in with the Genesis version of the game.

Of course, this game has an 80s anime aesthetic, which I've been told is very "Weatherby core." That's another big check in Burning Force's favor, but it's also a sign that you shouldn't take me as any kind of authority on it, because I have been programmed to like it regardless of how good or bad it actually is. That's just the way it goes sometimes, but hey, at least I know what I like.

I played this mostly because one of my favorite animes as a teenager was Megazone 23, a cyberpunk with a red bike and the front cover to Burning Force absolutely gives those kind of vibes. In fact the cover is easily the best thing about this game. It's amazing. The rest of the game though, not so much.

You play the role of Hiromi Tengenji, a 21-year-old cadet at Earth University, she must pass a six-day final examination of fighting enemies to become a Space Fighter Pilot. She pilots a futuristic hover bike called the Sign Duck, which can transform into a small fighter craft.

It plays a bit like Space Harrier with a usage of line scrolling making the game feel more 3D than it is. On each day there are four areas to clear. the first two you are riding your hoverbike and can only move left and right firing at enemies that come towards you. The third area is a boss stage where the gameplay suddenly shifts as you get a fighter plane attachment and can now move around the whole screen. The fourth area is simply a bonus round for collecting points. The game has the same issues as Space Harrier and I imagine any Shoot em' up from this perspective, especially in stage 3 where you simply can't see if the enemies are firing at you. Add in that some enemies get so close to you that by the time you see them fire you've been hit, then add dodgy collision detection on top and it's just a bit of a mess.

Visually it's kind of ugly though it is a fairly early Mega Drive game. The ground below you scrolls in colour blocks representing water, desert, Alice in wonderland purple black Chess Board ( I never saw further than day 3) and while some of the backgrounds are nice I found the enemies and Hiromi herself fairly basic and blocky.

Overall not really for me this one. Still, it has made me want to go watch Megazone 23 again so I guess I should thank it for that?

+ Awesome cover.
+ Music's not bad.

- Levels aren't that interesting.
- Perspective makes seeing some attacks at times hard to dodge.
- Some collision detection issues.

Had the chance to try the (MUCH PRETTIER BUT MUCH HARDER) arcade version recently and it got me to go back to the Genesis port. Became a much more fun experience once I looked the manual over and learned the acceleration system and invisibility pickups. Even if the object pop-in is kinda dated, it runs super smooth for an early title - better than Harrier II and Panorama Cotton tbh. I'd call it my favorite of the console's rail shooters, but I don't like the full-movement spaceship sections: It's hard to see incoming fire and the collision feels completely fucked. Oddly the best strategy tends to be dodging w/o attacking enemies back - just focus on evasion. Thankfully the boss fights remain pretty sober throughout.