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Aero Fighters Assault Package Art
 GENRE
  Action
 DEVELOPER
  Paradigm
 PUBLISHER
  Virtual Systems
 NUMBER OF PLAYERS
  1-2
 CONTROLLER PAK
  no
 RUMBLE PAK
  yes
 RAM PAK
  no
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Aero Fighters Assault

Aerofighters Assault marks the first of its kind to come to the N64, slowly filling the gaps in the software line up. As a sort of simulation/action shooter featuring several real war planes and with the aid of a former pilot working with the development team, Aero Fighters almost sounded too good to be true. And, unfortunately, it is.

gameplay
There's very little to jump and holler about in AF in terms of graphics, if anything. It suffers a similar fate of the yucky Hexen, things just don't look convincing enough resulting in an unclear and unappealing appearence. The planes are nicelyt modeled but really don't stand out as anything special nor do the onscreen enemies or bosses. Moreover, the levels are quite drab and repetitive (especially in mulitplayer mode) with sparse detail in the early levels and a touch more later on. What makes AF unconvincing in the first place, is the constant slowdown and the total lack of a feeling of speed. Even with the afterburners on full blast (a cheesy flame effect that makes the SNES look like competition) there really is no sense of speed, first person view included. Enemies don't really attack you either, they just seem to move onward and fire along the way, though they occasionally get on your tail. There are some fairly nice explosions and other nice touches, however, the terribly slow paced feel courtesy of slowdown (and gameplay, later on) drag the game down a bit into murky waters.

gameplay
Certainly nothing interesting here. The music itself is merely generic audio, not really adding to the game just moving it along. However the sound effects, more specifically the voices, are notably a nuisance. What could've passed as modern conversation a decade or two ago in a videogame no longer cuts it. Using stereotypical phrases for the assorted pilots, such as "Whoa, bummer dude!" (or something along those lines) for an American pilot and gibberish for the Japanese pilot, etc. etc. along with the useless chatter of your co-pilots just really doesn't do anything for the title.

gameplay
Before one goes any farther, it should be clear that Aero Fighters has potential. Or that is, had. However, for reasons unknown, essential elements were left out for whatever purpose, resulting in a slow, confusing, and boring flight simulation. Aside from the lack of speed, the levels are simply an empty playing field where losing your enemies (they tend to flock) in your sight isn't too hard to do, and aiming is a bit of a pain. What ultimately makes Aero Fighters pointless is the way the levels are designed. Each level is, in essence, a showdown with the boss and a bunch of enemy fighters (planes, submarines, etc). There is neither need nor desire to take any of the opposing fighters down, as merely taking the down the roaming bosses down is your only real objective. After defeating the boss, you then continue onto the next sage and repeat. Of course, the levels aren't easy as your accompanying pilots are about as useful as Slippy, Peppy, and Falco were, there are constantly enemy pilots targeting you or firing at you from behind, and the bosses simply take a whooping to bring down. What bascially happens when you start a level, is you're thrown into a barren stage of sorts, locate the boss and enemies on your radar, and then proceed to take the boss out. Of course, constant fly bys are necessary as you avoid the boss' attacks (only when you're close in and random) and the tailing enemies. Control is responsive and fair, with the analog to move around, the buttons to yaw, fire standard weapons, special attacks, and to initiate your defensive attack. However, the game comes across as poorly balanced, being too slow for an action shooter like Starfox and too crammed and simply unbalanced for a siumulation.

multiplayer
Multiplayer mode isn't any better than the sinlge player experience, pitting two players in a bland setting in the attempt to recreate the excellent mulitpalyer matches found in other titles. Had only the game been a bit more fast paced and livened up so that players can more easily tell where they are, multiplayer could've been intersting. Instead, players can fly around and not see a sign of life for weeks (okay, okay, so I'm exagerrating a bit there.)

overall
Aerofighters certainly isn't absolutely horrendous, but it simply isn't worth more than a rental, if that. It carries potential, but none of it seems realized. If you're looking for a solid flight experience, it's probably best to stick to Starfox and avoid this middle of the line, average title.

final score 4.0/10




WRITER INFORMATION
Staff Avatar Aldo Merino
Staff Profile | Email
"To be or not to be? That is the question."


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