Title: Aaero
Genre: Action, Indie
Developer: Mad Fellows
Publisher: Reverb Triple XP
Platform: Xbox One [reviewed], PS4, PC
Release Date: Apr 11, 2017
If you are a fan of rhythm based video games then Aaero is one you need to have in your collection.
I’m one of the bigger fans of the rhythm game genre here at GAMBIT, so it makes sense that Aaero came across my desk a few weeks back for review. Over the years I’ve had a lot of fun with games such as Guitar Hero, Rock Band and all sorts of rhythm based titles that required plastic peripherals to make work. And while those are all well and good, my rhythm days began back on the PlayStation 2 with a pair of titles that didn’t require anything but a comfy dualshock 2; Frequency and Amplitude.
While Aaero isn’t tied in any way to those two game, the title does draw heavily from them to create a techno-colored world of electronic sights and sounds. In a day and age where rhythm games are synonymous with over-sized plastic bits, Aaero works with merely a humble controller, making getting into the experience far easier. Oh, and it’s an experience you really, really want to get into.
As with most games of the genre there is no story to be had, instead you simply are tasked with completing various tracks by speeding through some incredibly stylized environments, while riding on ribbons of light to create the music around you. It’s a marvelous experience that not only offers up a challenging gameplay experience, but provides you with some pretty sweet tunes to boot.
Gameplay itself consists of you guiding your Tron-like sip through a number of stages, each based on a licensed musical track that pulls from current EDM and House style music. In this respect Aaero plays like a rail shooter with you in full control and the stage whizzes past. Your goal is to trace the light ribbons in the stages which activate the music and rack up your points that are tallied on the worldwide leaderboards.
This would be enough for me to love the game as it was as it’s pretty much how Amplitude (one of my favorite games of all time) played, but the team at Mad Fellows took things one step further than most rhythm games by adding death and combat. While traveling through tracks you’ll not only have to contend with obstacles that must be avoided, but also with baddies that really want to do you in.
The best thing about the combat is that your shots are timed to the music so that when you engage enemies in combat everything lines up musically. This also ads to the challenge as your shots need to be targeted before you can fire (up to 8 target per shot) so combat isn’t simply a case of shooting as it would be in something like a Shmup. On top of the basic combat Aaero feature some insanely huge boss fights that with keep you coming back for more. I mean, how often is it that you get to fight a giant sandworm that you can also fly through?
The base game itself won’t take you all that long to complete as learning the stages isn’t all that hard, but beating the game really ins’t the point here. Where the magic happens is in the drive to jack up your score and try your best to work your way up the leaderboards. I’ve never much cared for leaderboards in the past, but Aaero has this pull on me to keep coming back and doing just a little bit better each time.
What’s great about this is that you can have a perfect run and still not crack the top 10. This happens because killing enemies also counts toward your score, as does finding the secret items in each stage that need to be destroyed. Aaero is far more than simply tracing beams of light. In that sense Aaero is a really rewarding experience as there is a lot of joy you get from bettering your runs and moving up the ranks.
It’s hard not to play Aaero and not have a great time with it. It’s not going to take you all that long to finish the game, but unlike most, it will have you coming back again and again. This one is definitely a game that just might end up on a a few “Game of the Year” list later this year. I just hope they add some DLC track packs to keep things fresh for fans. And if you know me, I’m the last person you’d expect to want DLC.
Final Score:
4.5/5
“Great”
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