Aero The Acro-Bat

"At Bat and misses...."

When perusing the various platform games for the SNES system, one finds that there are many games that tried to create a new hip ''mascot''. Aero the Acro-Bat is one of these games. Sunsoft sure did their best to create a good platform game, but it is a mindnumbingly average game. Too bad, I would have liked to see this be a better game.

Just to see how this differs from other mascot platform games, Aero cannot stomp on enemies heads, he has to kill them by either hitting them with stars, or doing a corkscrew twist move into them. His corkscrew move is probably the most original part of this game. If only Sunsoft had put more innovative ideas, then this would be hailed as an SNES classic. Aero also has to do various things to pass levels, such as jump on X platforms, or turn on the light switches. There is a nice Rescue the Bat-girl level, however. And the whole nasty clown, and amusement park theme is campy, and almost works to make this a fun game. (6/10)

Bright colors, and somewhat detailed characters populate this game. It sure does look nice, and this helps to cover up how average the game is. Although, the garish bright greens and reds wear on you after a while.(5/10)

Musically, you hear a lot of music you would expect to hear at the circus, which gets annoying after fifteen minutes. But then again, we all know that circuses are a breeding ground of evil, vile creatures that haunt our nightmares, so it does have a spooky quality to it. (3/10)

Evil clown goes off his rocker, and you, Aero, must stop him. Basically, that is the plot of Aero. Along the way, you dive into water tanks, go neat unicycle tricks, and generally amuse the public. The whole circus and various amusements theme is somewhat original, and saves it from being a horrible game.(5/10)

Dying is somewhat easy in this game, as the big clown bullies are hard to kill as they deflect stars and you have to try and corkscrew them over and over again to get them out of the way. The dancing elephant and the flying rocketmen also are very annoying to deal with. Basically, the second Amusement park stage is the furthest I've gotten, and this game consistently kicks my butt in Stage 5 of Act 1. So, the difficulty is slightly too high, but not as bad as say, Actraiser 2. The clown music and basic medicority of the game hurts the value of replaying this game much. (5/10)

If you want to play something that will make two hours go by quickly, then buy this game. It is an average game, so you won't be inspired to play it often, but you will be somewhat amused.

Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 5/10
Music: 3/10
Plot: 5/10
Replay: 5/10
-------------
Total: 23/50=4.6

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/24/03, Updated 05/24/03