Over the past few months prolific indie publisher Ratalaika has been re-releasing games in the 16-bit platformer series Aero The Acro-Bat, including spin-off Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel. We’ve duly arrived at the last entry in the franchise, and it’s something of a departure. Whereas the previous games were for Mega Drive and SNES, Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge was for GBA and released in 2002, handled not by Sunsoft and Iguana but rather Metro 3D and Atomic Planet. It’s based on the 1993 original but sees a slew of improvements, often referred to as a remake. This inexpensive (£5.99) re-release from conversion specialists Shinyuden features more improvements still, although calling it a remake of a remake may be off the mark.
What we have here is a circus/funfair themed platformer with a surprising amount of variety. Rather than featuring stages that scroll vertically with an exit to find, every stage here – with later locations including a forest, and a museum that closer resembles a crumbling castle – has a different objective. Some will have you searching for circus rings to fall through, while others have blue platforms to leap on or spotlight switches to flick. There’s a set amount of objects to locate, shown at the top of the screen, and the amounts are specific – i.e. if you’re tasked with finding thirty rings, then that’ll be the exact amount within the stage. This means some backtracking is in order, along with trying to find alternative routes.
Bonus rounds feature liberally too, with the first batch featuring a Mode-7 style ring dive (a la Pilotwings) and later stages having one-shot obstacle filled rollercoaster rides. This makes for an experience with plenty of variety, and that’s before factoring in the boss battles – of which there are only four, with the forest stage ending abruptly, making it remarkably brief when compared to the rest. Even by 2002 standards, most levels are surprisingly lengthy, although it can be deceptive in places –seemingly solid walls and floors can sometimes be passed through, resulting in aimless leaping around to see if there’s a hidden spot somewhere. Later, lava is introduced that can kill Aero in one hit. It’s a good job that it’s generous with extra lives.
The presentation is a mixed bag of tricks. I did initially worry how a GBA game would look on a large TV screen, but generally it isn’t much different to how modern 2D platformers look. This GBA version benefited from more colourful backdrops than the SNES original, and there are some fun flourishes when it comes to how Aero is animated. It controls well too, with Aero able to perform a multi-directional dive, swirling through the air. The music here did however need a bit more attention. It isn’t inherently bad, but it was clearly designed to be heard coming from the GBA’s tiny speaker, and not a set of modern TV speakers. Due to the fuzz and distortion, I spent the majority of this 2-3 hour adventure with the volume low.
In addition to scans of the box art and manual, Shinyuden has included a bunch of modern-day features. It has both rewind and turbo tools – with the latter coming in handy for the copious amount of ladder climbing – and obligatory save states. Best of all, it’s possible to activate an assortment of cheats, turning Aero invincible, making jumps endless, and giving the red-hued dude an infinite number of projectiles to fling at circus freaks. These come in very handy, and although they obviously make the game much easier, it still requires effort to see through to the end due to the mission objectives and maze-like level design. Kudos to anyone who finished this on GBA back in 2002 – even only a handful of worlds, it was clearly designed to be challenging.
The Aero the Acro-Bat series is a bit of an oddity, in that the difficulty level feels very unfair, if not brutal, nowadays. Even in the ‘90s, critics scoffed at the challenge presented. I tried to play through the three mainline entries on Evercade (available as part of Sunsoft Collection 1 & 2) but couldn’t make much headway, even with save states. With one or two cheats enabled (and the volume turned down) Rascal Rival Revenge is actually quite pleasurable, to the point where I had to remind myself I was playing a twenty two year old game and not a ‘modern retro’ 2D platformer. If you’ve ever been curious about the antics of Aero The Acro-Bat, forget the rest and dive into this. Sorry, Zero.
Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge was originally developed by Atomic Planet. This re-release is developed by Shinyuden and published by Ratalaika. Available now on all formats.