Previous Next

The world is in danger! Six elite terrorist groups are threatening to reduce the world to a barren, featureless planet. At times like this when danger is near and deeds must be done, the Aeroblaster "Trouble Speciality" Raid Unit are dispatched to save the day.

Two fighter pilots, Holly and Mike (no sexism here, although from the looks of their portraits, Holly could easily pummel Mike in a one-on-one fist fight) are sent in, aboard their trusty Buster-class planes. The object is very straightforward. The screen scrolls horizontally and your task as either Holly or Mike is to keep your finger jammed down on that trigger and blast everything hostile that gets in your path.

At the end of each of the six levels, the terrorists have left a little surprise for our airborne heroes. A whole host of very large (and very deadly) end-of-level guardians await before the reign of terror can be brought to an end and our heroes can be home in time for tea.

The terrorists have chosen gruelling terrain for their battle with the Aeroblasters. Level one is set at "Seaside Front", which is actually in a city (?). "Machanized Cave" (sic) is the next port-of-call, where our heroes face plenty more blasting and high-speed escapades in thin corridors.

Four more levels await, including the terrors of "Out Of Gravity" (in other words, Outer Space) and "Death Circus" (don't expect any clowns or high-wire acts though - just more blasting!).

Sometimes stray icons may enter the playing area which players can collect for extra weapons. Supply ships can also be shot to pieces in order to collect a whole host of power-ups. Here's an explanation of each icon and its abilities.

1. Power-Up Increases the amount of bullets your ship can fire. Awesome firepower is unleashed on collection of your third power-up.

2. Side-Arms Two multiples add to the destruction on collection of this icon.

3. Skids Not of the underwear variety - these skids come in handy for avoiding collision with the landscape, essential when flying through thin corridors.

4. Spray Fires bolts in six directions, covering a fair amount of the screen.

5. Missiles Forward-firing missiles with great destructive potential.

6. Homing Missiles Much like ordinary missiles, but these green killers track their target.

7. Rear Fire Pretty obvious really, isn't it?

8. Drone About as effective as Barbara Cartland in a pub crawl, this baby hangs around the rear of the ship, slowly shooting off mines in eight directions - one at a time.

Aeroblasters is one of the few Megadrive shoot-'em-ups to allow two players to play at once. This adds an interesting slant to the gameplay. Power-up icons are in short supply, so there's plenty of competition to get to the supply ships first.

Players' bullets cannot harm each other, so what one player may lose in the power-up stakes is more than made up for by your partner's covering fire. That's the idea, at least.

Like Hellfire, Aeroblasters wasn't an arcade hit due to its rather unoriginal gameplay and uninspiring looks. But it has translated to the Megadrive well, and provides plenty of double player death and destruction.

My only gripe is that it's easy to complete on the standard level because of the heap of continues, and to get a decent challenge you have to set the difficulty level to maximum.

Still, if you're prepared to do that, Aeroblasters is a thoroughly enjoyable and good looking (some of the parallax-backgrounds are superb) blaster which is well worth adding to your collection - as long as you haven't already got several games of this type already.

Why oh why are Sega insisting on flooding the market with scrolling shoot-'em-ups? Aeroblasters ust be the fifth (maybe the sixth) we've seen this month! On the plus side, it's a close conversion of the relatively unknown coin-op with great sprites, interesting backdrops and great simultaneous two-player laughs.

It certainly kept the Mean Machines team occupied for a while, but it wasn't long before we were all going back to Gynoug for our shoot-'em-up thrills. Hellfire and Gynoug are probably the best blasters to go for, but two-player action addicts should have a butcher's at this.

Presentation 76%
A nice feel to the game, though there are some very annoying pauses between each level.

Graphics 78%
Fast, smooth scrolling, reasonable sprites and nicely defined backgrounds.

Sound 61%
Unremarkable tunes compete in their mediocrity with the unexciting spot effects.

Playability 86%
Easy to pick up and play, with some nice power-ups to keep interest high.

Lastability 71%
Too many continues mean that some blasters will be able to complete this on their first go!

Overall 80%
A great two-player blast, but falls short in the thrill-stakes to compete with Hellfire or Gynoug.