Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge first released way back in 1993 as Aero The Acro-Bat during the 16-bit era of gaming where the Super NES and Genesis were going head-to-head. It was developed by by Iguana Entertainment and published by Sunsoft; publisher of classic games such as Gremlins 2 and Batman for the NES. In 2002, Metro 3D remade the game as Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge Review and released on the GameBoy Advance. 22 years later, the game is now available on current gen platforms. So how does it hold up?
Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge tells the story of a poiled, rich kid named Edgar Ektor who was a regular attendant of the The World of Amusement Circus and Funpark until a prank gone wrong ended up killing a lion. This ban sent Ektor into his villain era as he sabotages funparks and kidnaps the performers. It’s up to Aero the Acro-Bat to save the day and his circus colleagues.
Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge is a 2D action platformer where you need to complete objectives; instead of the traditional go from point A to point B and fight a boss formula, here you’re tasked with objectives to complete levels. For example, you’ll need to find a set amount of star platforms or find a key to save your captured girlfriend.
In order to complete his objectives and survive, Aero has a few tricks up his sleeves. In order to defend yourself, you can shoot stars or do a screw jump to take out enemies. The addendum is your ammo is limited; you need to collect ammo. If you run out, you’re screwed. Aero also has a health “meter” represented by A’s in the bottom left corner of the screen; not really intuitive, but at least there’s something. You’ll also come across cannons and trampolines to help you reach higher platforms.
The game looks great; it holds up pretty well for a 22 year old game. In terms of environments, don’t expect too much variety as the game is heavily circus themed, you’ll see a ton of circus like settings. They are obviously quite colorful, but it’s repetitive. The soundtrack is one of the worst ones ever conceived; it’ll make ears bleed. It sounds at times like nails across a chalkboard. I can understand it sounding reasonable on a mobile console like the GBA, but being on TV, which is louder, isn’t doing it any favors.
Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge does have a few annoying quirks. While you can refill your health, you’d expect that all the food times would regenerate your health, right? No, it’s only for the score; which is a bit unnecessary in today’s gaming sphere unless you want to challenge yourself to beat your own score. Oh yes, there’s also a timer… which doesn’t even “game over” once it expires. Another 1990s-early 2000 staple. But yeah, you don’t die when it runs out; so it’s useless. While Aero controls fine as a whole, there’s a bit of slipperyness when you try to stop running.
Unless you have a fond spot in your heart for Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge, it’s hard to recommend the game. Even as a remake of a 1990s game released in the 2000s, it feels a bit sluggish and archaic. It’s a decent trip down memory lane for older gamers, but it’s a hard selling to the younger gamers out there who were spoiled with all the nifty quality of life improvement gameplay mechanics.
Overall
-
60%
Summary
Pros
- New life for an older game
- Nice nostalgia fill
- Non linear level design
Cons
- Ear-grating soundtrack
- Score focus; not really relevant in 2024
[…] Aero The Acro-Bat features the the titular character who needs to save the wonderful world of circus and his friends from the evil kid named Edgar Ektor who was banned from The World of Amusement Circus and Funpark and decided to take his revenge by sabotaging funparks and kidnapping performers. It’s a port of the original 1993 SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive game and Super NES. There’s also a remake of the game, Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge. […]