REAL GAMES - AERO THE ACRO-BAT 2

 Real Games - Aero the Acro-Bat 2

Remember all of my complaints with Aero the Acro-Bat?  Apparently, Sunsoft felt the same way.  But instead of abandoning their failed attempt at a mascot, they tried to fix him.  And for the most part, it worked.

At the end of the original game we were given the lamest excuse for sequel bait that I have seen.  The End!  OR IS IT!?!  dun dun duuuun!  Seriously.  That game did not deserve a sequel.  Thankfully, instead of Sunsoft giving us another game of the same shit, they decided to put some effort into this time.  What you get is a sequel that is vastly superior to the original in just about every way imaginable.

You know what else ended with shitty sequel bait?  The Super Mario Bros Movie.  Fortunately, they were smart enough to know when to quit.

The game starts off immediately after the first one ends, except the animated cutscene looks about 100 times better than what really happened.  The story is a bit confusing, but you find out that the boss from the first game did not fall to his death as you assumed, but instead was saved by Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel.  And yes, there was a spinoff game based on this character, but it's about 700 games down the list.  You find a magicians box that you travel in, and thats about it.

The controls are the same, but they still managed to fix a lot.  For instance, you don't have to come to a complete stop before you can shoot your fireball stars.  That alone is a tremendous step, but they also fixed the corkscrew physics of your main attack.  Now you can actually attack the enemies without constantly dying cause of shitty controls.

The best change overall, however, is the music.  They dropped the repetitive circus music and replaced it with above average music that you would expect from a platformer.  It's not great, but it's a whole fuck load better than circus music.  They also took out the Michael Jackson scream, and added your typical sound effects.

The graphics were also an improvement over the original.  The stage design and sprites throughout the game look great.  Instead of polished turds, we get polished gems.

I may have spoken too soon.  What the fuck is this?

Another extreme and yet necessary change can be found in the gameplay.  They got rid of the gimmicky shit and put in actual platforming challenges.  Sunsoft decided to focus more on the acrobatic bat aspects of the game and less on stupid circus elements.  They also got rid of the hidden exits for the stage that made the first game damn near unplayable.

Aero the Acro-Bat 2 is what the first one should have been.  It earned 4 surfing Aeros out of 5 and is a pretty good example of what a mascot game should be.  As for the whole mascot thing, Aero lasted as long as the Super Nintendo and then disappeared into gaming history.

The ending hints at the spinoff game and ends with fireworks in the sky.  Pretty decent.