[9][10] The player controls an American F-14 Tomcat fighter jet and must clear each of the game's eighteen unique stages by destroying incoming enemies.

At the start of the game, the player takes off from an aircraft carrier called the SEGA Enterprise on a mission to destroy enemy jets over 18 stages.

Both cabinets contained a grey monitor frame with flashing lights at the top that indicated an enemy's "lock" on the player's craft.

After Burner was designed by Yu Suzuki of Sega AM2, with assistance by programmer Satoshi Mifune and composer Hiroshi "Hiro" Kawaguchi.

[13] After Burner was intended as Sega's first "true blockbuster" video game; as such, the project was kept as a closely guarded secret within the company during the entirety of its development cycle.

[13] One of the biggest challenges the team had to overcome was researching and implementing sprite and surface rotation, which for the time was considered a milestone in video games.

[13] Unlike their earlier game Out Run, which featured real-world locations in its levels, Suzuki lacked the time to visit any specific places or landmarks, so he and his team made up their own stage settings.

[13] Suzuki toyed with the idea of having the Soviet Union as the antagonists to potentially increase sales in the west, but decided against it later on after struggling to tie it together with the game's level designs and settings.

The review called it "one of the most beautiful and realistic shooting games ever produced" with "somewhat shallow" gameplay that is nevertheless "definitively worth the price of admission" especially in the "cockpit simulator" cabinet.

[10] Robin Hogg of The Games Machine called it the "hottest Sega release so far" with praise for the graphics and gameplay, but with some criticism towards the £1 UK price.

The game was ported to the Amiga, MS-DOS, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, X68000, FM Towns, Commodore 64, Master System, PC Engine, Sega Saturn, MSX, ZX Spectrum.

[54] Computer Gaming World reviewed After Burner on the Master System, citing aircraft depicted in "remarkable detail", "spectacular" scenery, and excellent explosions.

[19] Zzap!64's reviewers were unimpressed with the Commodore 64 version which was described as "incredibly disappointing" with "laughably bad" graphics and sound.

[23] After Burner II has been translated and ported to numerous home systems: PC Engine, X68000, Mega Drive/Genesis, Famicom, FM Towns Marty, Atari ST, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and Sega Saturn.

Although the After Burner brand was long dormant, Sega created a number of aerial combat games centered on the F-14 Tomcat with many similar features, which are frequently regarded as part of the series.

After Burner Climax was de-listed in December 2014, leaving the game no longer available for purchase, only to be brought back in March 2019 to digital mobile platforms for free, with ads, under the Sega Forever brand.

This version is faithful to the original arcade game with additions, including Touch Controls and screen layouts that resemble the Upright as well as the Commander and Deluxe cabinets.

An unlockable new Special mode was also added, which used a time-slowing "Burst" system similar to After Burner Climax, and featured a different story and altered stages.

This mode has no stage select or continues, and instead depends on frequent acquisition of extra lives over the course of the game in order to complete it.

[61] The music from After Burner appears in a remix in Chapter 8, entitled "Route 666", of Bayonetta (developed by PlatinumGames and published by Sega).

[65] A remix of After Burner appears in Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA on both the arcade & console versions, complete with Vocaloid vocals.