A couple of weeks back, I reviewed the recent re-release of Aero the Acro-Bat. I liked it, as bloody difficult now as it was three decades ago, but I still enjoyed it. Aero the Acro-Bat 2 has now been re-released and of course, I had to give it a review too.

“After managing to stop Edgar Ektor’s mad plans to destroy the world of amusement, Aero decides to investigate the madman’s museum of horror. There here finds a strange floating magician’s box. When he gets inside to investigate it, he is suddenly transported to a mysterious place. However, unbeknownst to Aero, Edgar has managed to survive after being rescued by his minion Zero, and has asked him to execute the plan B, but what could this mysterious plan be? Aero will need to escape the mysterious place he’s trapped in if he wants to stop Edgar Ektor’s new plan!”

Right off the bat (no pun intended), Aero the Acro-Bat 2 was one of the best 16-bit platformers when it was released back in 1994. 30 years later, it is still one of the best 16-bit platformers and quite a step forward from the original. Pretty much everything has been improved over the original here… pretty much. The graphics are better, the animation is smoother, the levels are bigger, and they got rid of the annoying timer so that you can explore at your own pace. But, there is one thing that has been removed that makes this sequel a little bit lesser over the original.

They took away the objectives that you had to complete to finish the level. I liked this as they added some variety and made the levels feel a bit more individual. Now, you just have to get to the end to finish a level. No having to find and jump on special platforms, no jumping through a set number of hoops, no having to collect keys or items. You just go to the end of the level. You can still nab collectables along the way, but with no objective fixed to them, they become a bit redundant. That is not to say that the game is not fun, it really is. It is just not as varied as the first one.

Aero himself has a few new moves, like now being able to attack directly below instead of only diagonally. This move comes in very handy during boss battles. Aero can also slide under low platforms. But other than that, he controls just the same. You can find the letters A-E-R-O hidden on the levels and this will let you take part in a mini-game where you can (quite easily) earn an extra life. All in all, Aero the Acro-Bat 2 plays very much like the first game, just with some refinements. This is not a bad thing at all as both are good platformers, but Aero 2 is definitely the better of them.

In terms of the overall package that you get with this re-release, there are some things that you can tinker with. There are a handful of extras like a jukebox so that you can listen to the in-game music, which is great as this was a Sunsoft game and they produced some great tunes over the years, Aero 2 is no exception. You can view some of the sprites and even read the game’s original manual. However, you can’t zoom in on the manual and this makes reading it next to impossible. As with the re-release of the first game, you can change the screen settings/filters, there are save states and you can rewind the action too. Very handy as, even though this is easier than the first game, it is still pretty difficult. Still, you could always use one of the cheats that come built-in and can be toggled on and off at any time. Just as with the re-release of Aero the Acro-Bat, this is a cheap buy at just £5. I think it is worth it too as this really is a great platformer.