Ah, 90s mascot platformers. Truly an era we can all look back on with a mixture of nostalgia and disgust. Sure, some success stories exist, such as the likes of Spyro, Crash, and Sonic, but for every Blue Blur, there are 50 Bubsies and Blinxes. Aero the Acro-Bat is a mascot platformer from the 90s that features a circus-bound bat who must help to save the circus from…someone. I’m sure the manual probably said who, ‘cus the game sure didn’t.
If you’re not interested in cartoon bats who are immune to motion sickness, consider reading our review of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. We’ve also got a review of the education management simulator Let’s School on Nintendo Switch.
What Is Aero the Acro-Bat?
Aero the Acro-Bat comes to us from the early 90s and the minds of long-defunct studio Iguana Entertainment, famous for 3D mascot platformer Vexx, and dying the death in 2004 after Acclaim crapped themselves. These days, Aero the Acro-Bat has been let in from the cold by Ratalaika Games, the publishing team behind indie titles like Outer Terror. Does this mid-90s hero still hold up to modern standards? Perhaps the better question is: Did it ever hold up?
Aero the Acro-Bat is a pixel art 2D side-scrolling platformer where you have to explore sprawling levels to complete specific objectives using your array of acrobatic manoeuvrers to navigate. As well as running and jumping, you have a spinning-dive move that can shoot you up or down and can pick up stars to throw at people. Aero also has access to a bunch of circus equipment, from trampolines and cannons to those pools of water performers often dive into.
Making My Way Downtown
At this point, I have to make a confession. Having been a big fan of the Mega Drive all of my life, I have already tried to play Aero the Acro-Bat many times before, and never once did I enjoy myself long enough to play beyond the first level. When I previously said that the levels are sprawling, I really mean it. Not only are they huge, they’re confusingly laid out, and since the objectives are different each time…well it’s not a shock that I didn’t enjoy myself previously.
Luckily, once I had forced myself to fiddle with the controls and figured out that each level had a different objective, I was able to breeze through the opening few levels relatively easily, and I’m almost 84% sure that it had nothing to do with the cheat options and rewind mechanics.
Modern Adjustments
Yes, as with pretty much any decent Mega Drive port, you are given access to visual filters, a bunch of different cheats, and of course, the option to rewind anytime if anything bad happens at all. While these sorts of enhancements are occasionally controversial, in the case of Aero the Acro-Bat, they do make the game feel more playable. Let’s be honest, lives have always been a bit of a vestige of the arcade days when gaming companies were constantly trying to fleece their customers, which is completely different from today, of course.
You’ll probably want to enable either infinite lives or make prodigious use of the rewind feature because every single level of the game is filled with one-hit-kill spikes. These spikes were the bane of my existence while I was playing cheat-free, but with use of the tools available, they became less of an obstacle overall. Then again, it’s not necessarily a mark in the game’s favor that I had to use cheats/extra features to make the game enjoyable.
Playable, It’s Actually Playable
Having now made my way through the game, I can safely say that this is a game for a hyper specific group of hardcore 2D platforming enthusiasts. There are one-hit kills around every corner, the changing objectives can be hard to track, and you often end up needing to backtrack until you’ve played a level often enough to know where everything is. On top of that, certain levels look the same all over, making memorizing layouts even tougher.
Then again, the new features help with some of these issues, and Aero the Acro-Bat does offer some unique gameplay. There’s a lot of verticality to the levels, and the changing objectives do actually keep the gameplay interesting. You can go from collecting rings or jumping on platforms to finding keys for doors and having to ride a rollercoaster or Hobbit-esque barrel-riding sequence.
Visuals and Audio
The visuals are arguably the most appealing part of the game. The levels do have a tendency to follow some weird tropes after a relatively unique start (seriously, Circus, Fairground, Woods, Lava Dungeon/Museum?), but they all have strong visual themes and some great animations and enemies to come across.
Even the animations for the unique actions Aero has in each world are a treat to watch, especially when his eyes bulge out like the classic Saturday morning toons he is inspired by. The music doesn’t quite match up to the same level as the visuals, but they’re decent enough. If you’re into the Mega Drive-era of chiptunes, you’ll get a nostalgic kick out of it, but you’ll probably also be bored of the distorted MIDI guitar riffs that play whenever you pick up stars.
Summary
Aero the Acro-Bat is a bit of a historical curiosity. It offers some unique gameplay and level design, both in a good and bad way, and if you’re already a fan, then this port will be a dream come true. Anyone who isn’t already a huge retro-head will probably find a more enjoyable experience elsewhere. Sure, it’s not linear, but if you’re taking sharp left turns into immediate death all day, then you’ll probably be wishing for that straight and narrow path before long.
Developer: Iguana Entertainment, Ratalaika Games
Publisher: Sunsoft, Ratalaika Games
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, Xbox Series
Release Date: 2nd August 2024
