Which Aero the Acro-Bat Games Are Worth Playing Today? - SNESdrunk

The first two are blah, but Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel is pretty good...
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[@VGGBrayden]

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel is the most insane 90’s gaming mascot. They were all like “Let’s make a bat’s rival a squirrel that’s also a Japanese Soldier who commits die by crashing his plane into enemy planes”

[@RappingNinja]

Zero crashes *himself* into enemies. It’s his main attack. But by that logic, isn’t Aero ALSO a “kamikaze”? Aero the Kamikaze Acro-Bat.

[@gonzalot.605]

OK, seriously, Rebel Taxi had no business framing Zero that way! 😆 Zero is a way better mascot than any other character in that list.

[@TopSpot123]

"they know the words but not the music" - I'd never heard this adage before but it's such a perfect way to describe a middling game that checks all of the same boxes as a good game but never gels into anything special.

[@ankd956]

I love Aero the Acrobat 2, the music and atmosphere are great, one of my favourite SNES games

[@oscarzxn4067]

SNES Drunk:"I'm sure you recognize Iguana for.... Me: Turok of course SNES Drunk:..... NBA Jam" Me:... oh

[@Imorajna]

This was me lol

[@jwcarteryt8809]

South Park on N64 for me.

[@palladialism9815]

I always think of the Iguana from the Iguana Entertainment logo dodging hatchets and arrows in the boot sequence for the first Turok game for N64. Big time nostalgia!

[@punchabunchabuttons]

Man, when i saw the Iguana logo im not thinking NBA Jam, im thinking Turok! That game was big when it came out. Thought, it faded away into its own mist...

[@lonewolffang]

I remember when my mom gave me and my brother $40 a piece to spend on games. I got this and Super Alfred Chicken while Mt brother bought a madden game. I enjoyed my choices for years for what it was worth.

[@phillydreams25]

Thats because you had to lol

[@brownstickwetfoot4247]

@Boco Corwin Curious, why would you pick out a game you already had?

[@tivvy2vs21]

​@@brownstickwetfoot4247 i think he means his parent bought a game he already had

[@LolaliciousSmiley]

​@@brownstickwetfoot4247 gifts

[@i.m.evilhomer5084]

Interesting note about Aero the Acro-Bat is that it shares some DNA with Crash Bandicoot. The former's director & producer is David Siller, he would later produce the first Crash game & design some of its levels. In hindsight, that would example some things... Siller also did Aku Aku's "ooga booga" sounds.

[@christophersmith2068]

Aero really needs a comeback, and I would like to see him meet Crash.

[@ProfessM]

You know 90s me would be yelling and that's why Crash is so boring but the adult me is like huh good them not giving up with making platform games for some reason Crash is beloved and with all these games it is clear someone tried.

[@SwiftSmashGamingZone]

😯

[@GreatMewtwo]

David Siller also produced "Maximo: Ghosts to Glory" for PS2 with Capcom, through Capcom Digital Studios in America. As the head of the studio, he wasn't expected to have it be more than a throwaway project inspired by "Ghosts 'n Goblins" and "Ghouls 'n Ghosts", but it did pretty well.

[@theangrypeter]

Some of the character designs and music in Aero 2 reminded me of Crash Bandicoot, and now I know why. I think 2 is a decent game actually, nice level design and music, though Aero himself is a little annoying.

[@mcdonkey500]

Aero the Acrobat 2 is really underrated. Still fun today and has great music

[@grongy6122]

My favorite thing about the Aero the Acro-Bat 2 is the music, the majority of the soundtrack sounds pretty okay, but there are 2-3 songs that are REALLY GOOD and they sound so drastically different compared to others tracks, like different composer made them or something.

[@gabrielloko30000]

Boarding Zone - Act 2

[@eduardonajera8535]

​@@gabrielloko30000 I was about to say the same best one out of all the soundtracks and it's in the final stage's theme song too👌

[@ModelJames13]

I know JUST what you are talking about: Boardin Zone Act 2, Dr. Dis Industries Act 1, and Performer's Dungeon Act 2! But the GOAT is Forest 1 from the Zero game.

[@gabrielloko30000]

@@ModelJames13 Forest 1 and Beach 2

[@ModelJames13]

@@gabrielloko30000 Agree!

[@xxxmachoman96xxx]

I loved Aero 2 as a kid and find that it holds up pretty well. Really good control, solid level design, looks and sounds good. When I finally gave Aero 1 a real shot past the first level I found myself so bored. I couldn't make it through it and got so frustrated. Couldn't believe how bad it was lol.

[@strayingwill]

Aero the Acrobat was the very first game my parents rented for me at a Blockbuster. It has a HUGE nostalgia spot for me. I never played it past the second world.

[@EdmondDantes224]

When I was younger I actually somehow managed to beat the game without using cheats. I almost wonder if I could still manage it as an adult. I do remember though that Aero was one of those games where you wanted to collect as many 1-Ups as possible early on because you were gonna be dying a lot (I swear there's some levels where its impossible to complete them without dying at least once).

[@justicator]

That first level theme song in Aero 1 earwormed me so bad

[@FoxMan_FF]

I love the jaunty little strut they gave Acro in the second game. It really feels like they wanted to improve on the character and it gives him a lot more personality.

[@SSBFreak85]

I have a soft spot for the cartoony mascot platformers of the nineties. Even if they weren't all that good I still have fond memories of a lot of them. I loved Rocky Rodent and Super Widget. I enjoyed Bubsy's first game and played a lot of Claymates. I even thought Aero's first game was fun even though I found it real hard as a kid. Even now, thirty years later, I'd 100% take a cartoony platformer that plays well over a cookie-cutter, dark-and-gritty FPS.

[@GordoFreakmanFail-Life]

Me too. I love Mr. Nutz, Do Re Mi Fantasy, Magical Pop' n, Claymates, and Congo's Caper, very underrated SNES cutesy platform games.

[@SwiftSmashGamingZone]

Rocky Rodent was really cool!!!😁

[@mainstreetsaint36]

Same. With the the gritty world we live in, colourful fun loving platfomers add some nice colour to gaming.

[@Rhubarb120]

The soundtrack to Aero the Acro-Bat 2 is so great. Loved that game as a kid.

[@m.f.m.8290]

That sand level iin Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, coupled with the throwing stars, really reminded of the first level in CoolSpot.

[@jonpower9728]

I'm getting the impression Zero is like the Knuckles of the Aero-Verse

[@nuclearphish8051]

"The ruler of the fort, Boris the Beast made me his, umm... his slave." Yikes. That's some quite unexpectedly dark implications for an SNES game about a cartoon bat. :I

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

The uum part seems to imply something a little different. Or maybe I'm just reading into it.

[@RoninCatholic]

Note that the squirrel can fly (presumably being a flying squirrel) while the bat can double jump and sorta limply flutter in place sometimes. Aero is _less_ acrobatic than a normal bat, not more!

[@felixlucius5052]

9 years? dude thanks fer what ur doin. been a fun ride

[@pablofmc]

i remember aero the acrobat from posters advertising it back in the 90s. Other than that, i havent seen mentioned anywhere online. The best thing we got of his games is this video from snes drunk

[@gabrielloko30000]

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel is something that i honestly i'll keep playing. Mostly because it's such a breeze and it's perfect to decompress and the sountrack...The soundtrack is from the mastermind Fox Productions (Or Rick Fox) , who did the very relaxing Side Pocket soundtrack

[@DichotomousRex]

Wow, that's niche, good catch

[@dan47483]

I'm used to playing RPGs that get better in several hours so getting better in 30 minutes sounds pretty efficient to me.

[@tivvy2vs21]

But twhen the game is annhour long...

[@diegosotomiranda4107]

Obviously Aero the Acrobat 2 imo, specially that ost is timeless and way better than the rest of games

[@christlevania5933]

Turok was the first time I saw the iguana logo.

[@thecunninlynguist]

always saw this, zero, bubsy, rocket knight on rental shelves. Never really been intrigued to rent them myself however (did emulate Rocket knight years later and was pleasantly surprised)

[@keith8758]

Bubsy tends to get a bad rap, but the first game is actually pretty good if you know enough to use the glide button to avoid fall damage.

[@Ipazc]

The music and the style (plus my age on these days) makes me loooove the first aero acrobat. The music... my god. The circus theme right at the start hook right away. Later the bought me the second one (my family really knows how much I rented the first one) and I loved it too. I really like the overall dark theme that this game has, while keeping the cool factor. That is why I hated the GBA version of the first game. They try to make all more cartoony. Zero was an awesome game to, all that I loved by the previous games where there. It`s supposed to be a second spin off with Batasha going back to Russia (according to what was explained on the Aero the acro-bat 2 ending) but it never came out.

[@jerryannihilatorgamer8262]

a game that I enjoyed a lot in my childhood and it brings back good memories 👍🏻😁💯 super like friend and excellent work✌🏻🏆🎮

[@LanEXHikari]

So Aero had a spin-off title? Thanks for the video, it always baffles me so many things I missed back in the day

[@gjergjaurelius9798]

It's a solid game. I loved it!

[@OSW]

0:20 I can't tell if you've photoshopped these or they're legit Corporate-produced Sonic rip-offs! Rocky Rodent?!

[@daynescott6104]

Ive been watching a bunch of your older videos and thinking id love to see more snes content. Then this pops up. Thank you for the untold hours of entertainment :D

[@BenWard29]

The thing that drove me crazy about games like Aero (or Bubsy or even that stupid Wayne's World game) is that the background just kind of statically stays behind you after a certain point of vertical climbing. Zero looks like they did a better job of indicating vertical movement. Not much vertical parallax or textures in Aero or grames like it that indicate how high you are. They just kind of seem like the background is really far away, which doesn't really make sense in certain levels, like in the Aero level where you are in the tent- the canvas just seems like it is miles away. You just see this game design style everywhere during the 16-bit era, especially in Western developed games. A game like Super Mario World did a great job of indicating vertical height and progress through a level with interesting background textures. It's very much a subjective "game feel" kind of thing. I just hate feeling like I'm lost in a giant world of "samey" background textures. You also lose any idea of trajectory or speed when doing any kind of blind jump.

[@Davtwan]

Sounds like the first two games could have used some fun enemy placement like a row of enemies to bounce off or devices that can launch you by using the corkscrew.

[@anactualmotherbear]

Seeing Aero The Acro-Bat act as Sunsoft's mascot when Gimmick and Hebereke are right there (Hebereke even having Super Fami games at the time) always bothered me.

[@ShujinPJ]

Man I love your videos. Always a great way to start the day, EST.

[@CarecaRetrogamer]

Hey, man! "3 in 1 Special" review, gotta luv that! I have played the Aero games, but not Zero's... gonna give it a go later on... Cheers and I hope u also have a great rest of ur day!

[@MrJohnlennon007]

Sylvester Stallone is the ultimate mascot

[@thecunninlynguist]

he is the LAW

[@senseicorey9979]

PHOENIX!!

[@mikesilva3868]

​@@thecunninlynguist agreed 📼

[@XZumex]

Zero is my favorite SNES game cause it holds alot of nostalgia value too me. I used to own the Aero games too, but I got really bored of them and would probably never pick em up again. Zero on the other hand has a lot of replay value at least in my opinion and the graphics are amazing. If I had to choose I would definitely recommend buying Zero and maybe the second Aero game. As the ending of the second Aero game basically dives right into what is essentially the third game of the series, the Kamikaze Squirrel.

[@ChicagoRetroGamer]

I never really played much of this game, but I always appreciated the graphics in it. It was definitely a bold game at the time. Thanks for sharing another great video!

[@charlieg6913]

When I see the Iguana logo all I can think of is Turok. I do remember it from NBA Jam as well but for whatever reason Turok is where my brain goes. Probably just because I played those games a lot. Good video!

[@kiryo24]

Worth commenting. I had Zero Kamikaze Squirrel for snes. At almoast end "Boss 05 Robot & Cyborg Butcher" If you did it little bit off you could softlock your self and Zero lands down to ground and you cant do nothing. This was so frustrating as kid. Otherwise it was one of my favorite games for snes.

[@chrisfall896]

Definitely Aero the Acrobat 2

[@outtacloud80]

NBA Jam . That's what I remember. You said it. I didnt play this game much.

[@matheusdesouza90]

2:26 Dude! Thanks for talking about this game I searched it for years and didn't know what the name was, thanks!

[@lessthankate]

Bubsy may be a chore to get through but at least you don't have literal chores to do every level like in the first Aero.

[@doublep1980]

Speaking about (modern) mascot platformers: any change for you to review ''Freedom Planet 2" for a ''Steam Drunk'' review?

[@Hayamaneko]

Sylvester Stallone was my favorite mascot character back in the day

[@brittislove]

9 years of videos! Congrats to you!!!

[@DonWafle]

Aero 2 SNES was the best, the others were meh. I love you man

[@diegosotomiranda4107]

It's the only worth and i hate that it's so underrated, i never liked the first one and most people remember that game

[@TheRandomLurker]

Man, on the "The game gets better after 30 minutes!" point, that's nothing. I remember when Final Fantasy 13 released and people were saying "Oh, the game gets good after *20 hours*!"

[@l1uchill]

Great game reviews! I've never played these Aero titles. I am grateful that you gave an honest review, some cool gameplay and gave us great content! Thanks Snes Drunk.

[@WhispyWoods.]

I remember seeing this one at my local rental place but I never got it and none of my friends had it. Great vid 👍

[@Taikina]

mastering zero's controls is a really great time, but man fuck that soft lock glitch before the second to last boss

[@boyla87]

Love the videos - came here to say that! And also the way you say Sprites 😂

[@xboXDarkHunterXbox]

When you mentioned Iguana Entertainment I thought for sure you were going to mention Turok 2 intro logo. Perhaps I will upload it for those who have never seen it 😎

[@Jabroniville]

I always found these games somewhat fascinating, because they were advertised EVERYWHERE when they first came out - Aero in particular was given a huge investment in ads, and the sequel & spin-off coming out made it look like they were a big selling series or something. But they looked so generic even in ads that I never checked them out, and game magazine reviews were around 65-70%. The "So okay it's average" rating.

[@hazardrider8317]

I do really like the design Aero had for the cover of the Japanese GBA port

[@animemaster4861]

Fun fact you'll see that same iguana logo at the beginning of pirates of dark water for the Sega Genesis. Arguably just as good as NBA jam. I say that because they're two games that I come back too frequently and play quite often

[@facerip2222]

I remember seeing ads in gaming magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly or Nintendo Power for Aero the Acro-bat. I was a kid, but even at the time I remember thinking that these "mascot" character games, that are like an anthropomorphic animal in a platforming adventure were getting way out of hand. We were at saturation point. It's weird to be an adult now and see what the game plan was, to try and make another Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and get mega popular. We have the same thing going on today with genres, it was just recently Souls-likes and Battle Royales. These game companies never learn, do they.

[@adampickard2734]

I always would see the Aero games at Blockbuster but I never gave them a try. It's cool finally seeing what I missed out on, even if it wasn't much.

[@Ratchetcomand]

Iguana Entertainment made Turok. I'm surprise you didn't bring that up.

[@Wolfburns]

Great triple pack of games. I remember seeing the box in Blockbuster but never did try it out. Seems like they are some decent games though.. speaking as someone who likes Bubsy 😅

[@emaheiwa8174]

I remember thinking back then these games were better than the Sonic ones

[@bigwaveyyy626]

I actually really enjoyed aero 2, I’ve beaten it countless amount of times. I loved the music, I think some of the attacking mechanics were fun and how some stages switches up the gameplay. I really enjoyed it a lot . But that’s also coming from my like 8 year old mind. I might have a different perspective if I play it now, but overall I had a lot of fun with it growing up.

[@fylosofyk5220]

Making Tuesday's Thursdays and mascot platformers great again

[@mikesilva3868]

Agreed 👍

[@ShinoSarna]

Pardon you, I recognize Iguana from Turok games.

[@MrRipper557]

God that sound track is like a ice pick in the nostalgic part of my brain... lot of fun when I was young but the style and bizzare circus sound track is all I remember about it

[@s.salazar6364]

An. Use that ice pick to pick that out

[@MrRipper557]

@s.salazar6364 hell no, might not be the best but I really enjoyed it growing up

[@BeardDaddyGrimm]

would love to see a video on james cod XD

[@CharlesWorkPPL]

I do like how the music sounds like it's played on a circus organ.

[@cubs2084]

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel was a definite favorite of mine as a kid. The flying mechanics was real fun.

[@DietBajaBlast]

Having Zero and Kamikaze both in the title is an odd reference to WWII Japan.

[@mattb6522]

Good reviews! I've played and completed all three games. Yeah, Aero 1 is a bit rough and generic, but I liked it well enough. It is infinitely better than the likes of like Bubsy or many of the other mascot platformers, though. I thought Aero 2 was pretty good. Again, it isn't a must-play platformer, but it did improve on Aero 1 and is a decent playthrough. I actually didn't care for Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, though. It seemed like a downgrade from Aero 2 and I honestly thought it was just as generic as Aero. I found the level design confusing and messy in some levels. Also, the enemy/obstacle placement just seemed really cheap at times. There was also a massive difficulty spike early on in the game for no reason that just hampered my enjoyment. The only thing that was an improvement over Aero was that it had unlimited continues.

[@HyperDefective]

One of those games where you play for a couple hours and you're like, "Am I having fun?"

[@savagegaming3313]

Whoever is on that keyboard WENT TO TOWN!!!!!! Honestly my goodness

[@Arjay82]

3:37 every JRPG ever.

[@Darule514]

The game is getting re release on modern consoles soon in August

[@AWMonopolyMan]

Same with the sequel, GBA version and Zero the Squirrel in the coming months

[@Mampersand]

The first Aero is very nostalgic for me, though I can’t remember if it was a rental or some adult’s hand me down. It was pretty generic back then too, but I still love that intro music.

[@marcelo20xxxx]

Bought Aero the Acrobat 2 and Megaman X3 on the same Christmas, Aero the Acrobat 2 is for me at least a pretty solid game, between the good graphics and great music is as good as I remembered back then, I even played this game more that Megaman X3 back in the day...

[@ryuli1]

I remember the commercials in happy you did the review thank you!

[@claudiosacchi3720]

I actually really enjoyed aero 2. Still have to play zero.

[@diegosotomiranda4107]

They should stick with that character and gameplay, wayy better than the others

[@moon_orbit]

The first level music from Aero the Acro-Bat is iconic.

[@Diablokiller999]

A dinosaur teaching kids about asthma? What the......

[@joeabernathy5402]

I know you don't you don't cover a lot of PC games but Jazz Jackrabbit video?

[@kreftmaker]

Aero 2 is honestly one of my favorites of the B tier platformer games of that era

[@neonshadow5005]

Plok was another attempt to create the next big thing. TV show, merchandise, etc. But Plok was an extremely good game IMO but it was too long with no password or save feature and it wasn't exactly easy, either which was it's fatal flaw. I still have fond memories of the game though and I still dig Plok as a character.

[@PabbyPabbles]

The music was crazy good. Compositions are right up there with DKC, minus the chip wizardry

[@rorz999]

Yeah, no password system really killed that game. It's not surprising that it's got more of a following since emulators with save states became a thing

[@goatbone]

​@@PabbyPabbles Top 2 British composers right there IMO

[@diegosotomiranda4107]

Imho his name and specially design was a Big part, compare that character with most adventure/platformer games of that era, has the personality of a brick wall, i remember seing some gameplay in a stores and never intrigues of playing it cause it's design was "ugly" for me

[@Jackrost01]

Plok designer made spinoff comic about what happen after game. It have funny humor

[@parrata]

It took me only 23 years (since I played the games) to learn Zero was an Aero the Acro-Bat villain. Also, I thought all of them were Megadrive exclusives

[@ManillaHeep]

Please cover Monster World IV for Sega Megadrive! One of the best 16-bit games deserving much more attention!

[@karasz236]

Those that actually play video games not sports ball video games remember iguana entertainment logo from the Turok games and Forsaken etc.

[@icetrey8662]

I always saw this game as a kid as was just like "Nah"

[@senseicorey9979]

Wise beyond your years

[@zero-theaveragegamer1159]

Awesome video. Hopefully console Wars will duke them out now. Anybody else find it a little strange how one KZbinr will make a video about a certain old game and then all the sudden five other channels are all talking about it also?

[@adventuretaco7140]

Dude how’s it going. ? Where you been!! Missed ya dawg!

[@Mankey619]

There so many obscure titles SNES games and Aero The Acro-Bat is one those titles. Glad to see that gets much attention as it gets,thanks to the powers of modern internet.

[@Bigbudd0045]

is it really obscure? It was covered in Nintendo Power at the time. If you were a middleschooler at the time you had heard of it even if you didnt play it.

[@JoeyJ0J0]

Zero is pretty good. I have this on the Sunsoft 2 collection for Evercade. The first 2 games are just okay

[@ShdwHg]

Iguana did other platformers this generation - they at least did _Pirates of Dark Water_ for the Genesis as well (which, as you know since it came up in your video on the SNES game, is completely different from said SNES game). (Also I think of _Turok_ and not _NBA Jam_ when I see that logo, and how much of that team went on to do _Metroid Prime_ later, but this has been brought up by multiple people already.)

[@et3737]

I remember this had a lot of advertisement space in GamePro magazine at the time

[@mikesilva3868]

Great review 📼

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

I remember getting Aero 2 and ocarina of time in 1998 Christmas... Good times

[@MerkhVision]

The movement in Zero actually looks super fun! Thats the type of thing u think they would focus on in a game about a character literally called "the acrobat" lol. Fun aerial movement that would set it apart!

[@ThellVallock]

I ended up buying a copy of the first Aero the Acro-Bat at a local game shop not too far back. Was mostly curious to finally see what it was like after having a grainy black-and-white picture of the game from an old cheat book from when I was a kid stick out in my head for some reason. I won't really dispute anyone who calls it a below-average platformer but for whatever reason Aero clicked with me in spite of how much it drove me nuts. Something about the character is really charming, like he's supposed to be super 90's-edgy dressed in black and red yet he's got a squeaky voice and gets flustered by Batasha in the second game, if memory serves. Also don't care what anyone says, level 1-3's theme from the first game is a bop even if it's only 40 seconds long.

[@MazterP28]

I have the first one, didn’t know about the squirrel game. Gotta look into that