While there has obviously been an explosion of indie games this generation, there’s also no doubt that retro titles have also been abundant, whether in the form of glow-ups of various kinds or straight-up ports. While I played a ton of games on my SNES way back in the days of Blockbuster and other rental chains, and would walk by Aero the Acro-Bat often, I actually can’t recall ever renting it, and I’m not positive it was by reputation, I guess it just never jumped out at me. Now, all these years later, having played it on Switch, I can’t necessarily say those instincts were incorrect.

Who knew that when I loaded it up and expected some alternative form of a classic mascot platformer, that it would sort of work in that direction, but with what feels like a foot firmly planted in some classic arcade sensibilities as well. I must say that I found the combination a bit odd, though I suppose you could say it at least was on the more challenging side, but not necessarily in a good way. 

Ignoring the fact that back in the day games weren’t always inherently intuitive in their control styles or even structures, and often didn’t feature in-game tutorials of any kind, I decided to leap right in and figure it out as I went. Yeah, that was a mistake. The first oddity is just the jumping attack which Aero uses, working either diagonally up or down, which absolutely was a choice. It works, and can be effective for both attacks and some traversal, but it did sometimes feel dodgy going up or down when I was trying to do the opposite. The objectives and how they work was an entirely different matter, as right on the first stage I was baffled trying to figure out what I could be trying to do. It turns out the platforms I’d thought just disappeared to make it tougher to get to items up high were actually all tied to what I needed to clear the level. Again, the developers made some choices here, but I can’t say they feel sensible, even in the light of the game being from an earlier time.

All together, while there’s no doubt that the game looks quite good with detailed characters and a colorful overall look, its gameplay can be baffling. Sure, we’ve been spoiled with modern games giving us in-game tutorials and on-screen hints for critical items, but this feels like a game that went out of its way to provide no help or guidance whatsoever, I suppose to keep people playing longer, covering the same territory repeatedly rather than just moving to the next stage and having more fun. For folks with nostalgia for the title, I hope it scratches that retro itch, but for everyone else I’d say it’s a pass other than simply appreciating a name from the past with its own unique approach to gameplay.