Aero the Acro-Bat (Genesis/Mega Drive)

How does a bat end up in the circus anyway?

What the hell is that sound? Is that... supposed to be a guitar? Oh fuck now it's turning into clown music.

He's put on sunglasses and he's dancing on the logo and there's clown music, this is horrific. Can't skip it, have to sit through it.

Is that a crowd of demons back there? Why do they all have glowing yellow eyes, (except for the ones with only one eye) it's creeping me out.

And why does it have a really annoying version of Sabre Dance (youtube link) for the music?

Aero the Acro-Bat (SNES)

Apparently I'm supposed to be finding 7 of these star blocks, and jumping on them until they disappear. The number of stars left on them indicates the number of times I have to jump.

Tapping the jump button twice however, makes Aero fly off in a diagonal spin attack.

Which is kind of annoying when I'm trying to jump up and down on the spot but whatever, it's my fault for not getting the hang of the controls.

Though even when I do want to spin, I often misjudge it so he comes out of the spin just before reaching the enemy and I take damage instead.

I'm just glad I've got plenty of hit points.

Fall through hoops for bonus points!

Misjudging my descent through burning hoops is punishable by instant death. I'm starting to think that the points aren't worth it.

Oh he dances on the level complete screen too? Man, that mascot character sure has a lot of attitude.

Ah, this is better. I'll run all the little bastards over. It's nice to find a part of the game where I can race forward for a while.

On foot Aero tends to build into a run as he goes, like he's determined to close the gap between himself and the right side of the screen, so that I can't see a damn thing coming.

A checkpoint directly in front of a path of balloons floating over a pit of instakill spikes. Why do I get the feeling I'm going to be seeing this place a lot?

Oh shit, I screwed up the jump... fucking spin attack.

Huh, I'm not getting impaled on the spikes. I must have grabbed a flying power up. Well, uh, maybe I won't be seeing that checkpoint again after all!

Fucking Keith Flint is kicking my ass. My spin attack seems to be useless against him (shockingly).

I'm feeling a little trapped at the moment.

I need to get out to push the cannon, but I can't do that with that clown sliding across the floor. There must be a trick to kill him I just haven't figured out.

He's figured out the trick to kill me though.

And I'm back at the checkpoint again. And the spikes.

I finally pushed the cannon across, fired myself up to a ledge, and skillfully spin attacked this mini-clown. Spin attacked myself right into instakill spikes.

Back to the checkpoint again then.


LATER.

Awesome, I did it! Zero lives left, two hit points remaining, but I have reached the end of the level!

Now I just have to get this cage open. Oh right, I have to jump at the front of it where the door is. No, that's not working either. Maybe I need to spin attack the cage. Maybe I have to spin attack the chain? Maybe... I'm going to have to go find a bloody key aren't I?

Well fuck that, there's no way I'm going to backtrack all the way through this huge sprawling level to find a hidden key, then go all the way back here again.

I'm done with it, I'm turning it off. It's off now. I can play something else.



HOURS LATER.

Okay I turned the game back on, and replayed up to the point where I think it branches off towards the key. And now I'm getting harassed by another evil clown while trying to push another cannon.

Aero the Acro-Bat (SNES)

Here's another look at the SNES version. It's brighter and has more colours, but it seems to have identical levels and gameplay. And I'm equally bad at both of them.

Wow, that is a really shitty move. I finally launch myself from the cannon to get the key... right into instakill spikes on the ceiling. Back to the checkpoint.

To be fair they do provide an extra life as a reward for getting to the key, but I still don't forgive them.

Guess what I just did again, in the exact same place in the exact same way. Back to the checkpoint in front of the balloons again.

There, I saved her!

Aww, I have to find 15 star platforms now?

Wow this level background really makes it hard to see what I'm doing.

At least he's dealt with. That's one trapeze artist who should have used a net.

I really wish he'd used a net. Does that count as a blind jump, or should I have been smart enough to figure out that I needed to use the trapeze?

Yeah, I think this spinning jump dive attack and I just aren't compatible. I keep triggering it accidentally and when I do mean to use it I either miss, fall short of the target, or dive the wrong way into spikes.

Though to be fair it's hard not to run into spikes in this game. They're all over the floors, they're even on the ceiling.

He's even dancing on the continue screen. Can't stop that bat from dancing. Except I just did by turning it off again.


I don't know, maybe I was biased against it from the start because of the clown music, but I really don't like this game. I don't like the spin attack, I don't like the music, I don't like the squeak his shoes make when he turns around, I don't like the way he turns his head from side to side when he walks... I just do not like this game.

The art looks pretty nice though. Next game.