Sky Target

Sky Target was negatively received by critics. Reviewing the arcade version, Next Generation called the game "a fancy-shmantzy remake of After Burner, and a lot less fun". The reviewer praised the visuals for their cutting edge level of detail, lack of draw in, and strong design, but said the gameplay is so simplistic and repetitive that the average player will have mastered it by the end of the first two levels. He noted that the game was even simpler than its predecessor After Burner, since it lacks a means of controlling acceleration. In spite of the negative reception, Japan's Game Machine listed the game on their December 1, 1995 issue as the fourth most-successful dedicated arcade game of the month. The Saturn version was also primarily criticized for its generally shallow gameplay, and limited controls, which a Next Generation critic summed up by saying that the player's plane "acts more like a targeting icon than a pilotable craft." GamePro concluded, "Sky Target might have made a decent arcade game a decade ago, but it certainly won't do anything to calm all those Saturn owners worrying about the system's future." In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 26 out of 40. Most critics also disapproved of the Saturn version's graphics. GamePro described them as "only marginally better" than After Burner (which was by then a decade old), and Ken "Sushi-X" Williams of Electronic Gaming Monthly said they "are fast and furious, but look rough and blocky in spots. Although it isn't a big distraction, it gives the game an unpolished feel." Sushi-X's co-reviewer Crispin Boyer and Lee Nutter of Sega Saturn Magazine both said the huge bosses are impressive. The music was derided; Nutter described it as "standard soft-rock tunes occasionally interrupted by a deranged keyboard player on speed" and EGMs Dan Hsu and Crispin Boyer called it "corny" and "ridiculous".