"Me thinks I've played this before.."

There is a virtual sea of shooting games, all of which take from one and put in another the same thing that you’ve played before. Acrobat Mission is nothing different, in which you take control of one of two different fighter pilots and take on a massive army of aliens. Through several stages of play, you can collect weapons of mass destruction and blow away the enemy forces with wild attacks. Challenge is high and the game is familiar, the question is, are you ready to play?

-The Game Play-

Acrobat Mission is a shooting game that you’ve played before in which you take control of a fighter and roll through several different stages blowing everything out of the sky. What you’ll find here is that the weapon collection and the screen clearing weapons are something that you’ve seen in other shooters like Raiden and Twin Cobra. Part of the game play is dependant on how good you are with your timing and you may find that unless you can guess where to be at the right time, you’ll be looking at a destroyed ship within seconds.

The fact that you can choose one of two different players really doesn’t do much to change the way that the game is played. With either a male or female hero {Jet and Nova}, you’ll find that the challenge of the game will be increased if you simply play the two-player game with a friend. More enemies, more items and more points to attain will be your only difference between the one and two-player laser-fest. Boss characters will come every so often, and they aren’t pushovers by any means, so be prepared to learn the patterns as you would in any other shooting game!

Control isn’t difficult either, in which you use the joystick and the firing button in order to get through the game. As with most shooters, all you have to do is learn the patterns of the different enemies and get through the seemingly endless lines of bullets and projectiles coming at you. Anyone with enough shooting game experience will find that the game doesn’t have anything too exceptionally difficult to learn and master and anyone of any skill level can pick up on Acrobat Mission.

-The Visuals-

The visuals that you find here are pretty much the same as you would find with any overhead shooter. The backgrounds and environments that you have to look at aren’t anything too exceptional, though the weapons effects are rather interesting. Enemy designs seem to have a bio-mechanical theme to them and the huge explosions really do keep you on your toes. However, after a couple of stages of essentially looking at the same designs and the same weapons, you might be longing to see something a little new and exciting.

-The Audio-

The audio theme of the game is pretty much the same technical march of robotic ships and adventure. With plenty of highs and lows throughout the theme, you’ll find that it matches and keeps the pace of the game without giving you anything else to listen to. The boss battles do have a slight variation to the theme, but nothing that you’ll remember. With the sound effects being premier, you’ll find that the game has some pretty cool weapon sounds, and the explosions are both first rate and speaker rocking, much like the old Raiden games!

-The Verdict-

Acrobat Mission is your average shooter that has some pretty cool effects thrown in just to make it interesting. However, if you’ve played one particular shooting game, then you’ve played them all and you’ve played them with better looking displays. The audio works for the first twenty minutes and the game play is dependant on your mode of play with either the one or two-player option. Both of these little problems make to pave the way into average lands and make the game only worth a buck or so to play until you find a better looking and more innovative shooter!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/02, Updated 08/04/02