Live Magazine September 2017

Aero is a bat who is an acrobat at
a circus. He’s an acro-bat. Get it?
Okay, now try to forget for a second
that in actuality bats can fly and
that paying to see a bat performing
acrobatics would be a scam,
that was the basis for this would-be
platforming superstar’s character.
Similarly to James Pond, Aero was
tasked with protecting his home
from an evil industrialist and bla bla
bla.
At least the gameplay and level design
made sense in regards to the
game’s character, which is more
that can be said of even the great
Super Mario (has he ever fixed a
leaking leak?) as Aero actually performs
acrobatic feats in order to
complete a level. The levels, however,
are incredibly bland, and the
music is absolutely atrocious, both
in terms of its composition and
execution.
When you first boot up Aero the
Acrobat, you are welcomed by Sunsoft’s
logo splash screen. On the
Genesis/Mega Drive version, your
ears are torn apart from a MIDI
guitar effect’s shredding, followed
by an alternative take on the classic
circus tune ‘Entry of the Gladiators
(Thunder and Blazes). Aero
himself descends upon the Sunsoft
logo, puts on some glasses, does
some bizarre hip hop moves, then
moonwalks backwards whilst giving
the peace sign with his fingers. And
looking back at the game it’s easy
to see why it failed to have a lasting
impact: he acted and looked like
a Sonic the Hedgehog wannabe,
never having any unique characteristics
or gameplay of his own.
Sometimes ‘tude just isn’t enough.