Aero the Acrobat Review

Flash back to the early 1990’s. During this time period, every company needed its own platform character or just a character to identify who they were. Nintendo had Mario, Sega had Sonic, Capcom had Mega Man, and Namco had Pac-Man. Sunsoft, a now defunct publisher, tried to follow the same formula by releasing a character to the world that wasn’t as well received as the others named.

You play as a bat by the name of Aero. You must stop a mad scientist who is trying to rid the world of everything fun. You’ll jump through the circus-themed levels, using different items and machines to reach your goal, usually getting to the end of a level, finding platforms, or freeing something.

Your three main moves are: run, jump, and fly. Using the control pad, you move Aero. From there you can jump, and dart at a location like a torpedo. Unlike Mario, you don’t jump on enemies to kill them. Instead, you must either use stars, which you throw, or you torpedo dive into them. Some enemies can’t even be injured, so avoid them.

Jumping across platforms, and killing enemies isn’t the main goal. At the beginning of each area, you’ll be instructed what you are supposed to do. Be wary of the number of hits you take; once your hit counter runs out, you’re dead. Checkpoints are spread liberally throughout levels, but if you run out of lives, and it’s more than likely that you will, you will have to restart from the first area.

Aero is different from other platformers in the way you kill enemies, how you reach your goals, and how difficult it is. Cannon balls will help you reach higher, and one-wheeled bikes will help you plow down enemies on a tightrope. You even have a trampoline in this game. One word of advice though: avoid the lethal obstacles at all costs.

I’m not disappointed that I missed Aero back in the early 90’s. The game’s concept is good and all, but I want to be able to attack more often, and have the option to tone down the difficulty. This is a solid, colorful, platformer, but it by no means will knock off Mario or Sonic, as you can already tell.