Often-overlooked SMS shmup - Arial Assault

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:21 am

I was going through my SMS games the other day and decided to give Aerial Assault another try. Most people are aware that this game exists, but since level 1 is quite bland most people don't bother to play much farther. If you have this game (or access to it via a friend or something) - give it a shot! (Pardon the bad shmup pun

)

It turned out to be a pretty fun game. You end up going into underground bases and outspace and such later in the game, and there are some pretty neat bosses and such in wait too. (Yes, you fly through space in your standard attack fighter plane, don't ask...) If you like 8-bit shmups, go back and try it. Quite fun.

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 7:38 am

Sounds cool....I think I'll give it a try.

D · Post by D » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:56 pm

I had actually bought that game back in the day.
Chose it over Scramble Spirits, because Scramble Spirits has ALOT of slowdown.

I especially like the fifth level, which few probably ever got to see, not because it's that hard, but because some level demotivate to play on.

I play the GG version too sometimes, really funny to compare the two.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:26 pm

Yeah, I'd go so far to say that it's better then most Genesis shmups I've played! The power-ups remind me of Compile; it's an awesome hori.

nullstar · Post by **nullstar** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 11:38 pm

The lot of you are on crack. :P (In seven years here, don't think I've ever heard a good thing said about the SMS Aerial Assault.)

Excepting the Power Strike and Fantasy Zone games and R-Type, SMS was hardly a shmupper's friend. But the fact that Aerial Assault isn't widely regarded as the worst SMS shmup ever is that nearly all the rest of them are jaw-droppingly mediocre, too.

It had: power-downs; a bunch of uninspired weapons (that horrid 8-way shot); a plane that was almost too slow to maneuver; and I recall from the space level that the missile field was either entirely random or memory based. OK...It had a few solid moments -- the bomber on level one; the vaguely Gradius-style (heh, more like NES Batman stage 2) fortress at the end of, what, 3 or 4...the wide gun, exploding shot...but as a package, the SMS version is not worthy of much note. Thankfully, they seemed to come up with at least a decent, different AA game for the GG...

But to compare it with a Compile game... <shudders>

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 12:13 am

nullstar wrote: It had: power-downs; a bunch of uninspired weapons (that horrid 8-way shot); a plane that was almost too slow to maneuver; and I recall from the space level that the missile field was either entirely random or memory based. OK...It had a few solid moments -- the bomber on level one; the vaguely Gradius-style (heh, more like NES Batman stage 2) fortress at the end of, what, 3 or 4...the wide gun, exploding shot...but as a package, the SMS version is not worthy of much note. Thankfully, they seemed to come up with at least a decent, different AA game for the GG...

Yes, the power-downs are EXTREMELY annoying, but you can avoid them. The junk weapons are also a problem, but there are lots of weapon powerups available on each level, so I didn't find it to be an issue unless I accidently grabbed a bad one before a boss. Your plane is slow before you get any speed-ups, but I didn't find it to be "too slow to manuver" in the least. In the later levels, I actually found it easier to be moving at low speeds for the more hectic parts. And the missile fields... lots of shmups use stuff like this. I see no reason to hold it against this game.

To each his own of course.

I'll have to go take a look at the GG version now if it's a different game...