After Burner Climax

After Burner Climax introduces two new flyable aircraft to the series: the F/A-18E Super Hornet and F-15E Strike Eagle. The iconic F-14 Tomcat from previous games has been replaced with the F-14D Super Tomcat. The player selects the aircraft at the start screen.

While choosing their plane, the player can use the throttle to choose between four different paintjobs for each of the three planes. These paint jobs consist of a "Standard" scheme, "Camouflage" scheme, "Special" scheme, and "Low Visibility" scheme. After choosing their plane, the player can also choose to listen to After Burner Climax's music or the original soundtrack from After Burner II by holding the throttle back and hitting the missile button.