Aero the Acro-Bat is a 1993 platformer developed by SunSoft for the SNES and Mega Drive. We recently reported that Aero’s anthropomorphic jumping shenanigans were heading to modern consoles. The four games will be released over the next few months with the first avaliable now.

This emulated release has been published by Ratalaika Games with LLC Shinyuden taking care of development of the extra features. You can buy Aero the Acro-Bat on Xbox, Switch and PlayStation for about £5 and we’re playing the Switch version for this review.

Aero is on a mission to take down Edgar Ektor who was banned from the Amusement World following a prank that goes wrong. This is a typical mid-90s platformer that was cashing in on the boom in cool mascots. Aero was SunSoft’s attempt to do-a-Sonic and he is a pretty cool guy that destroys enemies with his diving attack and leaps higher by boosting into the sky. This is a tough game and takes time to master the mechanics. However, this also makes Aero a different proposition with unique gameplay.

Aero feels as though he is stuck between trying to be Sonic with the cool rocket abilities of Sparkster but sadly isn’t as good at being either. There is a real challenge here though once you spend some time perfecting the dive attack and learning the best way to use Aero’s abilities. The level design is great in places but lacking in others although the actual platforming is solid and tough.

Aero’s graphics look and feel similar to many other platformers of the time. The colourful pixel art pops even though some of the sprites are a little on the small side. The visuals are detailed in places with some excellent backgrounds but at other times the world feels a little empty. This is a harsh criticism though, the overall game looks great and everything is clear on screen.

The music is exactly what you want from this type of game and is one of the better aspects of the overall presentation. It bumps along at a great pace so you can get into a rhythm as you improve controlling Aero. It’s a tough genre to stand out from in the presentation stakes when you think about Sonic, Mario and Donkey Kong Country all released around this time, but Aero holds his own and is a memorable character.

Aero also has many modern features added. For starters, you can turn on lots of cheats that include infinite lives and health. If you make a mistake you can simply rewind or use a save state. You can change many of the display features such as CRT shaders and aspect ratios. Also included is a gallery filled with promotional material, design documents as well as a manual and box art images.

Aero the Acro-Bat is a good platformer and value for money with extra emulator features that give some longevity. Any platforming fan who enjoys a tough challenge should be giving this a go. Those that might be new to the genre, may find this very hard to finish without the cheats. Aero comes recommended and we’ll look forward to the next game in the series.