Developer: Kaneko Publisher: Kaneko Released: 1991 Genre: Shooter
Aero Blasters is one of my favorite Turbo Grafx-16 games. At a time where I had few games for the system it was a bright spot. It would be years later that I learned that it was a port of an arcade game and that there was also a Genesis version. Air Buster is a great game in the arcade and on the Turbo Grafx-16 and is just as incredible on Sega’s platform. Even on a system blessed with many great shooters Air Busters stands out.
Air Buster has a huge number of weapons. By default your standard shot has rapid fire and is pretty strong on its own. There is no shield in the game but you do have an unlimited smart bomb that needs to be charged. It won’t destroy stronger enemies but can eliminate bullets. The other weapons come in two flavors: boosts to your Vulcan cannon and six secondary weapons. These are two kinds of missiles, the reverse shot, a six-way shot and two satellites. Sadly most of these are useless or highly situational. The good news is the game is extremely generous with power-ups as the massive containers drop almost everything at once, allowing you to pick and choose. They also appear multiple times per level, reducing the penalty of death.
Compared to most shooters that stick to established shooter tropes Air Buster is different in its level design. Every level features some element that makes them unique. The Seaside Cave is the most traditional and serves as a good introduction. Stage two’s Mechanized Cave features a number of high speed sections that are rough if you do not collect the specialized item for that stage. Once in space zero gravity adds an extra element of danger to the action. The final level….I’ll go into that later. Air Buster could easily have coasted by having your standard fire, water, and forest stage. I like the overall industrial look of the game; it makes it feel unique.
The difficulty curve in Air Buster is sharp. The first half of the game is median in challenge. Enemy waves are spaced out fairly well and power-ups are frequent. If you die chances are a round of weapons is only a minute away. Even the bosses are nothing more than massive bullet sponges. There are one or two tricky areas but otherwise you will build up a nice supply of extra lives.
You will need them as things change after stage three. Stages four and five feature anti-gravity that slides your ship around. It is a frustrating mechanic to deal with; I can see what they were going for but I do not think it works well in practice. This is on top of the insane number of enemies that relentlessly assault you at every turn. Air Buster has no shield and the smart bomb is near useless. If you can survive these stages the difficulty is through the roof on the final stage. There is an extended sequence of small tunnels and moving walls that is near impossible to navigate without dying. It is frustrating to the point you are better off sacrificing a few lives and using the temporary invincibility to cheese it. That only works if you have any continues left which at this point you probably do not.
The Sega version of Air Buster compares favorably to the arcade game. Air Busters is a varied and beautiful game that largely avoids your typical gaming tropes in its levels. The Genesis version has a slightly lower resolution and the color loss is noticeable but otherwise looks great. Compared to the Aero Blasters there are some stark differences. Background detail is significantly higher; some levels in the TG-16 are missing the background entirely. There are more layers of parallax scrolling at every turn and the sprites are larger. This version has worse music and actually has load times before each level. I guess they had to make a trade-off somewhere. You can’t go wrong with either one but from a visual standpoint Genesis owners are in for a treat.
In Closing
Air Buster is a great game and one of my favorite shooters in general. It has high production values and a steep difficulty curve that still remains fun regardless. For an early release Air Buster has held up extremely well and for the few bucks it goes for is an easy buy in my opinion.
