Aero the Acrobat (GEN)

When I mentioned this game in class way back at the beginning of the year, no one really knew what I was talking about. With that in mind, I figured I'd give poor Aero some exposure. I'd call his game a lost classic of the Genesis, but while it is lost, it's not that much of a classic. It's not completely terrible though, and it is pretty cute and surprisingly fun at times, especially for something you'll find for $1.99.

Our first introduction to Aero is on the Sunsoft logo. He puts on some shades and then moonwalks across the letters, which is pretty awesome. (He also does this routine after you finish a level.) As the title may or may not imply, Aero is a red bat with attitude and wears a circus suit that looks like a super hero costume. It helps that I love bats, but I still think Aero is cool in his own little way.

Like a lot of Genesis platformers, Aero does scream "Sonic clone!" every now and then, but there's also a surprising amount of originality. The A button lets you throw stars at enemies (which you can collect throughout a level), the B button lets you do a little torpedo attack (which also works in mid-air), and C lets you hover. The levels are somewhat like missions, except the missions in this case are to perform tricks, like jumping through a certain number of hoops or on platforms. Sometimes this is actually pretty demanding, and also seems irrelevant depending on how difficult a level is otherwise.

The level design in Aero reminds me a lot of the casino zones in various Sonic games. Because he's a performer, one world is a circus setting, and another is an amusement park. There are other areas too, like a forest and a dungeon, but they still have a wacky feel. The music, however, can be absolutely grating, particularly with the circus stages. Think of the most annoying, repetitive, and stereotypical circus music there is (aka merry go round kind of stuff), and transform that into sound for the Genesis, which isn't that great to begin with.

Even though Aero isn't exactly one of those obscure gems, it's still a fun little platformer that's at least worth a look, especially since game stores will practically give it to you for free.

Title screen. How can you say no to that face?
Totally ugly EGM cover. I'm actually surprised he got an EGM cover.
Apparently there's a sequel.