Aero The Acro-Bat Review

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.

Aero The Acro-Bat is a 2D action platformer with a unique formula: each level requires players to complete objectives in order to progress to the next level instead of the traditional go from point A to point B to complete an area. For example, one of the most common objective, is to find a set amount of stars within the level.

Our furry protagonist has a health bar that can be refilled by picking up items and can also defend himself, albeit a bit clunkily. Aero can do a diagonal screw attack in the air, but because it’s in a diagonal direction, it can be difficult to target enemies properly thus either missing completely or resulting in damage instead.

In order to reach higher heights in levels, Aero will come across trampolines that will help him bounce higher and also cannon from which he’ll be able to shoot himself in the air. Although the mechanic for it is similar to golf games meters. When in the cannon, pressing A will show a vertical meter on the left and you’ll need to press A when the bar is as high as possible in order to get maximum air.

The game looks exactly like it did in 1993. They wanted to keep the same aesthetic instead or updating it for current consoles. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The visuals still hold up well by today’s standards and it’s even more detailed than some more recent pixelated gaming experiences. If you have a phobia of clowns and/or circus, you might want to skip this because it’s everywhere. The soundtrack on the other hand hasn’t aged well. Some soundtracks from the 1990s now sound like nail scratching a blackboard; and it doesn’t help that’s the circus theme.

The game’s biggest hurdle is the controls; they have not aged well. At all. Jumping feels clunky, when walking around you’ll end up running going in full speed and possibly running into an enemy that pops up last minute, giving you absolutely no chance to dodge it. Trying to do the jumping drill attack feels random. And I don’t know if it’s Ratalaika that has a say in things, but every time they publish an older game to current generation platforms, the menuing is absolute garbage.

While there’s nothing overly problematic, Aero The Acro-Bat, port of the 1993 16-bit original, will only appeal to older gamers who played this during their younger times. It shows its age and it’s a product of a different time where games were difficult, borderline frustrating. Gamers familiar with only current generation of consoles will most likely be annoyed or bored within a matter of minutes because of the clunky controls. Unless you need this for nostalgia purposes, it’s an easy pass.