Aeroblasters review - Sega Megadrive
The world is in danger! Six elite terrorist groups are threatening to reduce the world to a barren, featureless planet. At times like this when danger is near and deeds must be done, the Aeroblaster 'Trouble Speciality' Raid Unit are dispatched to save the day.Two fighter pilots, Holly and Mike (no sexism here, although from the looks of their portraits, Holly could easily pummel Mike in a one-on-one fist fight) are sent in, aboard their trusty Buster-class planes. What the Mean Machines staff thought
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Why oh why are Sega insisting on flooding the market with scrolling shoot 'em ups? Aeroblasters must be the fifth (maybe the sixth) we've seen this month! On the plus side, it is a close conversion of the relatively unknown coin-op with great sprites, interesting backdrops and great simultaneous two-player laughs. It certainly kept the Mean Machines team occupied for a while, but it wasn't long before we were all going back to Gynoug for our shoot 'em up thrills. Hellfire and Gynoug are probably the best blasters to go for, but two-player action addicts should have a butcher's at this.
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Retrospective comments
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One of my local pubs had an Aero Blasters arcade cabinet back in the early 90's and I pumped plenty of pocket money into it whilst my parents drank the night away. Imagine my joy at discovering that this fine blaster had been ported to Sega's 16-bit box of tricks. I think the guys were pretty harsh on this game (although that is forgivable when you consider the volume of MD shooters being released at the time). It's a fine example of the genre, with nice colourful visuals, toe-tapping music and some original level ideas. The 'tunnel rush' sections are exciting and really get the heart pumping! Some of the boss designs are really first-class, and overall it's a very attractive piece of software. Granted, there are better shooters on the machine, but if you've sampled them all and want to add another blaster to your collection, I recommend you give Aero Blasters a chance. |
Have your say about this review
Godpikachu - 09 Feb 2009, 17:30 GMT
Aero Blasters (or air busters as it is also known), isnt a bad little shooter.
The graphics and sounds are good, and the gameplay is nice and easy to get into, without any complicated shit like what some games get mired down with.
But along with every pink, there has to be a stink....
In this game, the stink happens to be that its FAR TOO EASY TO DIE!!....the screen gets ridiculously busy at times, and collecting powerups (which in some cases are pretty crap) becomes night on impossible...but the final insult is that after you die, you lose all your power ups, and in some levels, certain powerups are more or less a REQUIREMENT in order to get anywhere without losing lives.
Some of the bosses are nigh on impossible to beat without having certain powerups, and to make it more annoying sometimes enemies come in from behind you, usually committing a kamikaze in the process, thus killing you.
While im not opposed the games being challenging, i am opposed to games which are supposed to be shoot em ups being more like avoid-em-ups (see:- gley/grey lancer for a good example of an avoid em up). The ability to give yourself 6 lives and 6 continues on the options screen is a godsend if you want to be seeing the later levels in this game, but that doesnt make up for the business of the screen, especially if you fuck up and get killed and lose all your weapons.
If you cant get thunderforce, hellfire or guynoug, then this isnt a bad runner up game, but youre gonna be tearing your hair out a lot before you really start to appreciate this game.
Dan - 24 Feb 2009, 10:24 GMT
In a time where good SUEs where 10 a penny Aero Blasters had to do something special to stand out from the crowd, and unfortunately it didn't what-so-ever. A decent, if totaly forgetable game.
