Aero Fighters (1992)

Aero Fighers, for SNES

Rating: 7.0/10; Good

Played: Mar 2019

A vertical scrolling shoot em up bullet hell type of game where you fly a modern military jet against a variety of modern military units, and some sci fi elements. It has fairly simple gameplay where you die in a single hit and the focus is on dodging enemy bullets, which move relatively slowly. There are powerups to improve the power of your main attack, and bombs which are super weapons. The most interesting aspect of the game is that there are 4 different planes to choose from, each with unique weapons and dialogue. On top of that, there are 4 entirely different planes for 2 player mode; that is some significant extra content that would never be experienced if one only plays solo.

I did not like how the standard attack is unrealistic; some even look like laser or plasma weapons. It does kind of hurt the immersion when you are not shooting the real world weapons that these planes would use, and what minimal story there is says nothing about why the planes would use these weapons. It is annoying to be unable to attack to the side or rear and be forced to continue scrolling vertically instead of looping back. I also noticed that the levels seem to be designed for 2 players, so if you play solo it will be impossible to kill everything (especially at later levels), and you will be forced to dodge the attacks for the enemies that you cannot possibly reach.

Platform:

SNES version.

Graphics/Sound:

The graphics look great, as good as 16 bit gets. The style is a bit more down to earth many shooters, which doesn't mean that there are no wacky things happening. It's just that most of the enemies you encounter are actual planes and tanks, and not something as weird as a flying robot cat in space (see Gun nac). The graphics, although nice looking are also very clean, it's easy to distinguish what you have to shoot and what you should avoid.

It's a vertical shmup. Pretty standard gameplay for the most part. The powerup system is simple, you have your onboard weapon when you choose a character, and you keep it till the end. There is upgrades, the maximum only stays for a limited time though, and you have to grab a powerup again if you want to get back to max. Additionally there is a bomb move, which serves as an emergency escape for a second when you get overwhelmed by enemies on screen. What's special about this is that the stages don't seem to come in a specific order, it's kind of randomized where you land first. The difficulty ramps up depending on when you get to a certain stage, not on the stage itself.

Difficulty:

It's a shmup so it's got no mercy. One hit deaths all the way, if you die you lose all your powerups (you can pick up one again after you respawn). In the beginning it's not too bad, bullets fly at a speed you are usually able to dodge, enemies take a few hits but not too many. Later on it really gets hard, when the bullets fly so fast you can't possibly dodge unless you know before where they will turn up.

Conclusion:

It's a nice shmup, nothing too special, but with a good variety of enemy patterns. I also liked that it came with a sense of humor.