Aero the Acrobat

So I decided to go with back to back SNES games.  I have been in a 16-bit kind of mood and don’t currently have easy access to a Genesis, so here we are.  What can I say, it was a great generation in gaming.

Of course, each generation has its quirks.  They all seem to cater to one genre more than the others.  In the current gen, its open world adventure games.  In the 32-bit era, it was RPGs.  In the early 90s, it was mascot platformers.

These things were everywhere, mostly because everyone was trying to replicate the success of Mario and Sonic.  The official mascots of Nintendo and Sega appeared in tons of games, ranging from good to all time classics.  It may be hard to believe with some of the Sonic games out there now, but there was a time where the blue blur could do no wrong.  It seems Mario still can’t.

Of course, that also meant imitators.  It seems like everyone was cranking out games with generic cartoon animals looking to create the next big merchandising thing.  Those that couldn’t come up with a character of their own would license big name IPs like Disney and simply slap Mickey Mouse into a platformer.  The results were mixed.  Some of these games actually turned out great (Sparkster/Rocket Knight Adventures, Ristar, Bonks Adventure) while others turned out....not great. If the name Bubsy doesn’t illicit horrible nightmares, consider yourself lucky.

That brings us to Aero the Acrobat.  Introduced in 1993, he’s now a footnote in gaming history.  In case it isn’t apparent, his eponymous game is a mascot platformer where you are tasked with doing, well, something.  There are four levels with five stages each for a total of 20.  These are pretty long levels, so there’s a lot of content here.  Aero can jump, glide and flap his wings to stay afloat.  He can also collect stars to use as ammo, but they only work when they feel like it and really don’t do much.  Also, in true Days of Thunder fashion, the game doesn’t tell you how to do any of this, so you have to figure it out for yourself.

The visuals are technically proficient, but uninspired.  The Aero sprite is great and has lots of personality, but the backgrounds are bland and there is very little to differentiate each stage.  The fact that you are in each area for five levels causes it to get old really quick.  The music is similarly generic, although it could be much, much worse.  The level design is okay, each one tasks you with an objective, usually to find “star platforms.”  It is nice that the stages aren’t super linear and there is some variety.

Unfortunately, this game has three huge strikes against it that keep it from being worth a playthrough today.  The first is the control.  On a positive note, it is pretty response.  With the exception of throwing the stars, Aero usually does what you tell him to when you tell him to do it.  The problem is that it all feels very slippery.  Aero always seems to go careening out of control, especially when you dive bomb.  This is frustrating at best and devastating at worse, as the game has no shortage of spikes, which are a one hit death here.  At least enemies don’t kill you instantly.  

And that is very good, because the hit detection here sucks.  At no point could I ever consistently hit enemies or avoid spikes.  I would look like I had a direct hit, only to take damage.  Ground spikes usually weren’t a problem, but it always looked like you were going to be safe from the sideways ones until you weren’t. I often found myself falling through platforms when it looked like I was going to land flush.  That gets old faster than you can say “I wish I were playing Super Mario World right now.”  It made an already difficult game unbearable.  

Which is a huge problem because this game punishes you brutally for failing.  Aero has five lives with three hits each.  You can find more health and  its relatively common, but its balanced out by the amount of spikes and blind pitfalls.  Losing all lives take you to a continue screen.  Pretty standard.  Except you can only continue from the start of a level.  Not a stage, a level.  So if you are on level 1, stage 4 and you die, you go back to the 1-1 and have to complete the others again.  Basically, that means the continue screen is essentially for show and the game only has four checkpoints.  That sucks.  A lot.  There is a level skip code, which, full disclosure, I used liberally to beat this game.  Without it I probably wouldn’t have finished this game.

Aero the Acrobat is too generic, too boring and too artificially difficult to recommend.  It’s technically a fine game and there are a few things going for it, but, like Legend of Dragoon, it falls victim to having so many superior contemporaries.  

5/10

Play this game if:

You are all in on mascot platformers

You love circus themed games about bats

You don’t have a better option

Avoid if:

You are impatient

You can’t adjust to slippery controls

You hate clowns