The Wonder Years 7.31.08: Week 66 - Aero the Acro-Bat
Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 07.31.2008
The pantheon of anthropomorphic characters is stretched to breaking point.
Welcome to the column where all gamers of a certain age come to wallow in 16-bit nostalgia. I'm your host, Owain J. Brimfield, and I'll be discussing some of the hidden gems and instant classics of gaming's golden era. Some of these games may crop up in downloadable form at some point, some may be consigned to the annals of history. Either way, they're worth tracking down if you missed them first time round, or replaying if you were lucky enough to catch them. Let's take a trip to:
AERO THE ACRO-BAT
(Iguana, Genesis & Super NES, 1993)
You have to blame Sonic, don't you? Before he came along, "mascot" characters in video games followed the Mario / Mega Man template - strong, silent, occasionally mustachioed, and willing to let their games speak for themselves without imposing any "attitude" onto things. And then one bad-ass hedgehog changed turned things on their heads, and for the rest of the 90s every game company worth their salt rushed out a game featuring some anthropomorphic character or other, oozing attitude and inevitably adopting a cross-armed, sunglasses-wearing pose on the box art. Damn you, Sonic, for you were essentially Crash Bandicoot's illegitimate father. Ah well. That's not to say that all the games released under such pretenses were bad, just that with Sonic and his benign counterpart Mario dominating the scene, most of them tended to fly under the radar. One of those was now-deceased Iguana Entertainment's Aero the Acro-Bat, and if you think about it for one second, a bat is a far more feasible proposition for a protagonist than a hedgehog. Silent vampire killer of the night, or silent roadkill of the forest?
The plot of the game was most likely thrown together from the same generico-storymachine that decided on a bat as the central character - the gist of it runs that Aero is a bat, who's also an acrobat [ah, now I see what they did there!], trying to save his circus from evil clown (is there any other kind?) Edgar Ektor, who apparently harbors a grudge against said circus after they booted him out, and now wants to see it shut down and/or destroyed. Of course, the 2D worlds in which these characters live seem naturally pre-disposed towards providing a platform game, and thus Aero sets out to do the usual and save the day. Hey, he's a bat with attitude. He doesn't play by your rules, and if he chooses to play his own game by convention, he's surely only doing it in a post-ironic way. Unfortunately, I don't think the concept of post-irony was around in 1993, so what we have here is a pretty straight-up platformer, albeit one with a credibly original atmosphere.
So anyway, to the gameplay. Aero's adventures take course over a decently prolific twenty levels, spread across four themed worlds. Perhaps in hindsight referring to them as "themed" is slightly overstating things, given that the Circus and Funfair worlds are, maybe not unexpectedly, largely similar, and the Forest and Evil Clown Lair worlds are equally predictable; although it's worth mentioning that "predictable" in this game thankfully doesn't equate to "generic". Levels are cleared through completing set tasks rather than simply making your way to the exit, and while there's the usual gamut of uninspired achievements to pass (jumping through hoops, rescuing allies and so forth) there're also a fair few set pieces that add a bit of variety to the mix, from diving off a highboard into a tiny pool to rolling barrels and tackling rollercoasters. Aero himself, while certainly being diverse in the area of acrobatic entertainment skillz, is pretty lacking when it comes to actual abilities, being capable of hovering (although, strangely not actually flying - I guess the attitude weighs him down) and delivering a corkscrew attack onto the baddies. He can also fling around ninja stars with impunity, which seems a little incongruous to say the least.
For a tween-oriented game there's a surprisingly hefty difficulty curve to the game, with the barrel rolling level in particular being a source of much frustration.. Unfortunately, what satisfying challenge the game might have is somewhat dampened by its propensity to give out 1-ups like an army officer snaffling up malleable young boys at a recruitment drive. Still, the sizeable levels and multiple save points do give you undeniable bang for your buck, or bang for your bandwidth as is probably more likely to be the case these days. Graphically the game impresses with its palette, and the diving sections in particular look great on the Mode 7 assisted SNES version. The Genesis game comes off looking somewhat second-rate when compared to the SNES cart, but then you always seemed to have a trade-off between the two consoles when a game was released for both. Of course, said differences are pretty redundant in this day and age when it comes to obtaining a copy of the game.
For all the original game's relative obscurity, it was single-handedly resurrected in 2002 by Metro 3D who took it upon themselves to release a port for the Gameboy Advance that, while obviously not featuring the neat carnival atmosphere of the original 16-bit version, proved a pretty serviceable adaptation, and is still relatively easy to get a hold of if you're into your handheld gaming. It's a definite reminder of a time when games were all about the cheesy pseudo-cool protagonists, but while that gimmick oftentimes tended to dilute the actual game's appeal, Aero the Acro-Bat is an exception to that rule and remains an interesting gaming experience. Although those sunglasses are still goddamn annoying.
Aero the Acro-Bat trivia
Aero's rival Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel featured in his own eponymous spin-off game, which is more memorable for its silly moniker than for the actual gameplay.
Although Aero was intended as a mascot for publishers Sunsoft, he didn't stick around for too long as the company was essentially defunct by 1995.
The game's creator went on to develop Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, and underrated hack n' slasher on the PS2.
The Videosphere
Let's take a look at this week's video highlight of Aero the Acro-Bat in action, courtesy of the amusingly-named YouTube channel "Gaming in the Clinton Years". Ignore the doofus-flavored commentary and take a sneaky peek at some of the game's set pieces instead.
Reactions and interactions
For every positive comment:
Posted by: Guest #2835
"Man I completely forgot about this game. I remember borrowing it from a friend a few times. Looking for the rom now..."
(...although we don't condone emulation...) there's a negative comment:
Posted by: Duncan
"I am going to start by agreeing with you. It is, in fact, too bad when a decent game is left by the wayside. Unfortunately, this is nothing resembling a decent game. sure, it may have seemed like it back in '93, but they fact is this game is a godawful mess. The level grinding is insane, and the game expects you to do it. Unfortunately, the grind is of no help against the game's bosses, who are always set exactly 2 experience levels higher than you! Winning is blind luck the way these boss fights are set up. Also, the twist ending, is more of a bullshit ending. The game completely glosses over it, and rips you off. There is no sense of satisfaction in completing it. This game is a bitch to play, the story is godawful, the only thing it has going for it is the graphics at the time were fairly pretty. Shame on you for putting such a positive spin on such a failure of a game."
Well, to be fair, I pointed out the level grinding in the column as a negative thing, and I did say it wouldn't be to everyone's taste. Unfortunately though, some of us do appreciate challenging boss battles. I know there are plenty of games out there in which you can breeze past the bosses first or second time, but frankly, if that's what you expect from a game then you've grown up playing the wrong titles. Besides, if you hated the game so much, why on earth did you waste presumably 20-odd hours of your life completing it?
General indulgences
Every week in this section I'll endeavor to provide you, the faithful readers, with a fascinating insight into the various forms of entertainment currently dominating my spare time.
This week, I have been mostly enjoying:
Guitar Hero on the DS. I'm sorry, I really don't get the point of this. It's confusing enough to me to have a game that simulates the guitar, but at least I find the original games enjoyable. This handheld hybrid really doesn't know what it wants to be, and as a result it ends up being ass.
Once, one of the most charming indie movies I've seen in a long time, that incidentally features one of the finest film soundtracks ever recorded and deservedly won itself an Oscar.
Suspended Animation by John Petrucci, an instrumental album by one of my favorite guitarists that due to its obscurity I haven't had the chance to get a hold of for a few years. Thankfully, a copy finally turned up in the post today and it was worth the wait.
and 5.1 surround sound, which has finally made its way into my bedroom courtesy of Creative. Once I got past the fact I was trying to plug the power supply in upside down, everything worked a treat. The bass is heavy enough to kill a small pig.
And finally…
Thanks for reading folks; as always, reader feedback and suggestions are welcome. Next week in "The Wonder Years" - if you thought a bat was an unlikely protagonist, get a load of this guy. Until then - keep it real, keep it retro.
