I love the fact that we’re getting so many remasterings and re-releases of classic video games as of late. From classics like the upcoming Gex Trilogy to all the titles Nightdive Studios put out, we seem to be living in a golden age for this market and I’m all for it. However, not all games hold up well and, sadly, this is one of them: Aero The Acro-Bat. First of all, I don’t ever even remember hearing about this game’s existence. I mean, outside of a small blurb in an old Nintendo Power magazine, I don’t recall ever seeing anybody talk about it. Heck, I never even saw it in any YouTube videos on the subject of forgotten mascots, so you’d think that means this is a hidden gem, yes? If we’re talking about the original console versions, then maybe, but not in this game’s case.
Firstly, I do think the plot and setting for the game is unique. Playing as the titular Aero, an acrobatic bat (hence the title: Aero The Acro-Bat), you are part of a circus that is now under siege by a evil industrialist named Edgar Ektor, who gets some points for an interesting last name, and now it’s up to Aero to traverse the circus, rescue his friends, and defeat Edgar. While it won’t win any awards, it’s still unique enough to make it stand out and get potential players attention to maybe check it out. Although, I have to be honest here, when I first heard of this game via the Nintendo Power article? I thought the story was about a kid who turns into the Acrobat and the circus was an evil circus (Didn’t help that the blurb in the magazine didn’t have any info about the story, outside of a few scant screenshots from the intro cutscene). Which, I have to admit, would be an interesting idea for a game. Speaking of the circus, the game takes place within the titular circus and I did enjoy it. Yeah, the environments do tend to repeat themselves but, overall it’s still an under-used setting and, again, I enjoyed it. If anything, it reminded me a lot of the Big Top level from the arcade game CarnEvil. Graphically, it’s not a bad looking game and the designs give it this 80’s Saturday Morning cartoon feel. But, only when it’s not in motion and that brings me to my issues with this game.
I don’t like being negative about games, but when one comes along where the negatives far outweigh the positives, I need to bring them up. For starters, even though this looks good graphically, in motion it’s very chaotic and eye-strain inducing. It might just be because of the color-palette chosen but I’m not kidding when I say I had to look away from the screen a few times because of how the colors blended in with each other. The cutscenes, which are basic comic book panels, don’t fare well, either, as they are just too blurry. Not too blurry that you can’t make out anything, but blurry enough to make it look like you’re looking at a zoomed-in 240p image in 1080p resolution. Now, the game does include an option to tweak the graphics to different styles, but that surprisingly made it worse. I feel like the game’s artstyle wasn’t actually made for today’s crop of HD and 4k TVs and was more built for old CRTs from back in the day, cause I feel like the game would be easier on the eyes and better to look at if I was playing on said CRT or, specifically, the Game Boy Advance.
Yeah, let’s address the elephant in the room: This isn’t a remastering of the SNES or Genesis title, but, rather, a port of the 2002 GBA remake which, from what I gathered as I had no idea this version even existed, is a poor port unto itself. Normally, this isn’t a big deal, but in this case it kinda is. When I was on the store page for this game on my Xbox, it was listed, in the small blurb at the top of the page, as a remake of the original classic. But if you scroll down to the main description section, that’s where you see it’s actually a remake of the 2002 GBA title. I’m kinda confused as to why they chose this version and not the original console versions, or at least included them, as those would have benefited better from a remastering then the GBA port.
The gameplay doesn’t fare much better here and is the weakest part of this ‘remaster’. Each level has certain tasks that must be completed in order to progress, like stepping on the various star platforms or finding a key to unlock a friend’s cage. Interesting idea, but the problem is that the game is a straight up maze that is easy to get lost in, even with the in-game map. Half the time, I kept backtracking over the same area because I couldn’t find the one platform I needed to reach. Once you figure out how to progress and beat a level, you get a points tally telling you how well you did, which is typical for games of this era, and if you get enough, you can play a bonus minigame where you dive through rings on your way into a pool, which it’s utilization of Mode 7 Graphics was pretty cool. By the way, there is a time-limit, but it’s only purpose is to add to your points, so if you run out of time, no bonus points.
Of course, there are enemies to beat and you have two modes of attack: Diving from the air or shooting stars at them, the former rarely seemed to work and the later was the most efficient when I had the ammo. You have a maximum of five hit points and, once those are gone, you lose a life and have to restart. Not really a problem, as it is pretty hard to get hit by enemies. No, most of your hits and game overs will come from the various obstacles on each level, like insta-kill spikes and flaming rings. I will admit, I am not a fan of anything insta-kill and these do hurt the game greatly to the point where I can see many players getting frustrated.
Lastly, there’s the music and remastering on a whole. Normally, the GBA can pull off some good tunes but here? I had to shut the music off on the first level as it was the most ear-grating thing I’ve heard in a while, even with its circus-theming. In fact, that was one thing I’d hoped the remaster was going to improve on, like other remasterings. But, alas, that was not the case here. In fact, if I could sum everything up: This is barely a remastering, but more of a simple port with a few additions to try to entice you in buying it, like savestates and a rewind and turbo function. I do like how it includes a sprite viewer and allows you to look at and read the original box art and manuals, but I would’ve loved if the remastering, you know, actually fixed up the game and improved its many short-comings. In fact, I’m not kidding here, the only really ‘new’ thing is the first menu you see when starting the game, which grants you access to the aforementioned extras, along with cheats to make the game easier (like infinite health and a double jump). I’m not asking for a Wayforward style remastering here, but I would’ve thought there’d be some modicum of effort put forth here.
I hate being negative to any game, but sometimes I have to be and this is one of those cases. Back in the day, I probably would’ve liked this game and would’ve enjoyed seeing it get a re-release on modern systems, if it had put some effort in but that isn’t the case here. It was an odd choice to remaster the GBA port in the first place, and Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge is, frankly, like those circus peanuts: Bland.
