Aero the Acro-Bat

Aero's another one of those jump-a-lot company mascots, be he won't drive you batty. This bat's got more tricks up his sleeve than a sideshow magician. Tow wins up for Aero!

It's big fun under the big top with Aero the Acro-Bat, a bodacious, high-flying bat in an above-average platform product. Sunsoft converted the Genesis version to the SNES, enhancing the graphics and sound, and adding a mod Mode 7 bonus stage.

The graphics are very simple but very effective, with some lovely touches. Aero's buggy eyes when he dies are worth watching out for, as are many of the well animated mobile baddies. The graphics improve vastly the further into the game you get, with such levels as the roller-coaster and the woods looking very nice indeed. Overall verdict: A strange one, but once you give it a chance you'll be hooked. Aero handles well and you'll learn to live with the tricky, but cavernous, early levels. What puts it in the "very good" league is its sheer size and variety. Just when you're bored with a game-type, it's gone and there's something new there.

It's very difficult to come into the market with a great platform game, but Sunsoft's Aero is a rare gem. This has some of the most impressive graphics I've seen. The near-perfect calliope music really sets the tone of the game and get you into it as well. There are tons of out-of-the-way areas to get to and find. The gameplay is very good and responsive with his double-jump-spin attack. I dig this game!

Aero the Acrobat proves to be one of the better platformers released for the Game Boy Advanced. It has solid controls, good graphics, and most importantly it is a blast to play. Even though the game is on the easy side, it still has enough challenge to keep the players coming back for more. This is a great game that any person would be proud to own in there expanding collection!

The game even features the famous Mode 7 high dive bonus level, which really makes you wish Nintendo would get up off their duff and make Pilotwings for the system. The level isn't anything more than the parachuting freefall from Nintendo's SNES flight simulator, but it's still a bit of fun that shakes up the action between levels, and looks pretty impressive on the Game Boy Advance screen as well.

Sunsoft's mascot character is a daredevil bat who performs amazing feats while fighting off foes in the Big Top. Great graphics and animation are the highlight.

Sunsoft's mascot character is a daredevil bat who performs amazing feats while fighting off foes in the Big Top. Great graphics and animation are the highlight.

The absence of the excellent music found on the Super NES version is a drawback. The levels are huge and challenging.

Aero the Acrobat plays like your basic platformer. As Aero, you must traverse through various levels while collecting power-ups and disposing of various baddies. Two basic methods can be used to take out the Edgar Ektor's minions: the drill attack and shooting stars. By double tapping the "A" button, Aero contorts his body into a drill position and can take out anything in his way. Stars are also dispersed throughout each level, which Aero can throw in order to rid himself of other pesky critters.

Aero features some sharp animation and bright backgrounds, all of which show up well on the GBA screen. The music is appropriately whimsical, though the sound effects are sparse. Your objectives, from collecting keys and jumping through hoops to riding roller coasters, keep the game interesting, and Aero has a good repertoire of attacks and abilities. Aero does provide a fun ride, albeit one you’ve taken many times before.

Aero the Acrobat is a good platform game. It’s worth buying on the cheap, but there are several better platformers available for the Genesis.

I'm not disappointed that I missed Aero back in the early 90's. The game's concept is good and all, but I want to be able to attack more often, and have the option to tone down the difficulty. This is a solid, colorful, platformer, but it by no means will knock off Mario or Sonic, as you can already tell.

I'm not disappointed that I missed Aero back in the early 90s. The game's concept is good and all, but I want to be able to attack more often, and have the option to tone down the difficulty. This is a solid, colorful, platformer, but it by no means will knock off Mario or Sonic, as you can already tell.

If you're a fan of action/platforming and are looking for another mascot based game (in all honesty, Aero is one cool mascot animal) that will have you playing for weeks, give Aero the Acrobat a try.

The GBA is hardly in need of another platformer, especially when it's been ported from an ancient 16-bit game. Lead Aero across circus-themed levels and obstacles such as cannons, trampolines, high wires and hoops of fire. It's not exactly terrible, but you've seen this kind of thing many times before. Unless you're strangely fond of circus folk, you'd do far better with one of the Mario Advance games.

Aero the Acrobat is a cut-and-dried platformer that was originally released on the SNES and Genesis back in 1993. If you don't remember the original, you're not alone, since the game didn't make much of a splash when it was first released. So it seems a little odd that Metro 3D would pick such a game to port to the Game Boy Advance. Little seems to have been lost in the translation, but then again, it was a mediocre game to begin with.

Overall, Aero the Acrobat is not very good. This is a title that was made in the heyday of companies wanting a mascot to make a quick buck. The controls all but kill this game, as well as some of the weird game play and level design choices.

Aero's controls are erratic. Mid-air "dashes" allow you to defeat enemies much like Sonic's spin. However, while you can direct you in-air dashing diagonally up or down, Aero often heads in the wrong direction - and usually at the worst time! The stage designs are uneven as well, exemplified by a lot of "holes" in the walls you can only discover through trial and error. Cheap hits abound as some enemies appear from out of nowhere. Aero the Acrobat is extremely difficult, and there's no password feature. When you choose to continue, you have to return to Act 1, even if you've progressed several acts into a stage. It's not awful, but extended play with Aero the Acrobat helps you realize why you love Sonic so much.