[SEGA] Afterburner

the wikipedia article is revealing:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Burner#References

you'll note there's a bunch of links to contemporaneous reviews. Basically all of them talk about how fast and pretty it is, and how impressive the cabinet is, but you'll see very little mention of strategy or anything like that (one does wonder whether that means much though because games journalism was kinda already the propaganda arm of the industry by that point. Basically all the 'reviews' in that Top Score magazine are pure hype, for example). The Sinclair User one, which was a bit more circumspect, also made the same point I did about the excessive similarity to Space Harrier (actually in some ways Sega's 3D games follow the Call of Duty/pornography model of being a series of escalations of essentially the same content).

OK so since arcade games aren't noted for their depth you might be thinking that it's unfair to demand strategy from them, but the better ones do require a little thought. Raiden and Gradius (I think shmups have aged the best out of all arcade games, as a general rule) allow you to choose the upgrades that you've earned in one way or another so you have a small element of customisation there. Going back a bit further, Defender has a radar screen showing the location of the enemies and allows you to turn around so you can make choices about how to approach the level you're playing (iirc Fantasy Zone also has this and is probably Sega's best arcade game, although I've mostly only played the Master System version... which omits the radar. Sigh). Actually a few of those magazines also mention Xybots, which I guess came out at about the same time, and that I discovered recently and is a sort of proto-Doom in that you've got exploration and dodging while coming under attack from all sides as the meat of gameplay, while also incorporating purchasable upgrades for some character customisation between levels. Meanwhile all Afterburner has is ammo management -- I don't think it even has powerups? You've played it more recently, obviously, so tell me if I'm wrong.