Having played a lot of After Burner growing up, and my original Sega Master copy on a shelf nearby, I was intrigued at the opportunity to play another Sega jet fighter arcade that had never seen an official home console release. In fact, I’m not sure I had ever heard of this game much less played it. That game is G-LOC Air Battle; and thanks to the wonderful Sega Ages collection and the skilled developers/curators at Team M2, owners of the Nintendo Switch can now pick up this title on the eShop.
G-LOC, a cool way to make a pseudo-acronym out of the phrase ‘loss of consciousness by G force,’ is an on rails kinda-3D (scaling and layered 2D sprites really) shooter played from the first person. It certainly has the look of After Burner at first glance, but the gameplay is different in a couple of key areas. First, the game is played in the first person instead of the third person, and secondly, G-LOC is much more about the player being the aggressor. By that I mean each mission has exactly two goals: destroy x number of enemy aircraft (or ships at sea) in y number of seconds. The faster you’re able to do this, the more bonus time you have to carry over to the next mission. There are three difficulty settings, which weren’t part of the original arcade version. Beginner has nine stages, Medium has thirteen, and then Expert has sixteen. How quickly you work your way through this is dependent upon how quickly you can get a target lock on enemies and take them down.
There is typically no shortage of enemies to shoot at. A limited (though generous) number of missiles are attached to your ship, as is an unlimited stream of bullets via your vulcan cannon. The cannon can do a pretty good job at taking out the enemies, but the real efficiency comes in using your missiles. That said, landing those crosshairs on the enemy gets harder as you advance through the missions. Most enemies don’t actually take a shot at you, but they do move quickly, and other levels have you dealing with canyons that can end your flight real quick.
In Beginner mode, the speed of the aircraft and nearly all of its movement is restricted, but as you move to Medium and Expert you’re given more and more control over your ship. This makes the game more challenging, but also a lot more fun. Nevertheless, the experience is pretty short and can be fairly frustrating and unsatisfying. Like most arcade experiences, its best played in short bursts, and once you’ve beaten it, there is very little reason to go back other than competing in the Online Rankings, if you’re into that. Then again, like most Sega Ages release, there is an Ages Mode. For G-LOC, this entails a whole new batch of stages — sixteen I think — and it’s set at one difficulty and offers no continues. It’s tough, but if you’re mastered Expert mode in the normal game, the Ages Mode will give you a good bit of extra challenge and play time.
As always, M2 did a superb job with the overall package of this Sega Ages release. Cool borders, screen filters, a clean and concise online manual, online rankings, and just all of the top quality production we’ve come to expect is included here. Still, I can’t say G-LOC Air Battle is a game I will play very often at all, but I am really glad that it got the M2 treatment and finally has arrived in a home release, decades after its original arcade debut.
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