Aero Blasters/Air Busters (MD, 1991)
Graphics-7 Sound-7 Control-7 Challenge-7.5 Story-?
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8.5/8* Fun-6.5/7* Originality-5
Overall Score-6.5
*2-player
+
2-player
Difficulty options
Homing missiles
Good enemy variation
Speed tunnel sequence
Some good bosses
Respawn on the spot even when losing a credit (you lose all shot power though and it's hard to recover later on)
Decent art direction
+/-
Collect money for no other reason than extra points
Sometimes hard to differentiate between everything in 2-player (most parts are a bit easier though)
-
Some control issues (sloppy hit detection (mostly too forgiving), vertical ship speed is slower than its horizontal speed, can't adjust ship speed (and it's too slow), the controls in levels 4 and 5 lead to difficulty spikes (can't stop - whichever direction you push the ship keeps moving in))
Heavy trial & error (enemies/attacks are sometimes too fast to dodge – sometimes need to know when to use a bomb beforehand, boss patterns)
Hard to recover if you should die later on
Smart bombs need to be charged (can't shoot during this time) and only take out small projectiles and small enemies
Very hard to get the power ups you want (most of the time) since they drop off screen
Somewhat short (6 levels), uneven difficulty curve (boss 2 goes down too fast, pretty easy final segment and boss)
Mostly weak (PSG) sfx
Sometimes hard to tell if you're damaging an enemy
Some distracting backgrounds
Lame ending
Doesn't use the MD sound chip to its fullest (no drum samples, no PSG harmonies, some abrasive instruments)
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8.5/8* Fun-6.5/7* Originality-5
Overall Score-6.5
*2-player
+
2-player
Difficulty options
Homing missiles
Good enemy variation
Speed tunnel sequence
Some good bosses
Respawn on the spot even when losing a credit (you lose all shot power though and it's hard to recover later on)
Decent art direction
+/-
Collect money for no other reason than extra points
Sometimes hard to differentiate between everything in 2-player (most parts are a bit easier though)
-
Some control issues (sloppy hit detection (mostly too forgiving), vertical ship speed is slower than its horizontal speed, can't adjust ship speed (and it's too slow), the controls in levels 4 and 5 lead to difficulty spikes (can't stop - whichever direction you push the ship keeps moving in))
Heavy trial & error (enemies/attacks are sometimes too fast to dodge – sometimes need to know when to use a bomb beforehand, boss patterns)
Hard to recover if you should die later on
Smart bombs need to be charged (can't shoot during this time) and only take out small projectiles and small enemies
Very hard to get the power ups you want (most of the time) since they drop off screen
Somewhat short (6 levels), uneven difficulty curve (boss 2 goes down too fast, pretty easy final segment and boss)
Mostly weak (PSG) sfx
Sometimes hard to tell if you're damaging an enemy
Some distracting backgrounds
Lame ending
Doesn't use the MD sound chip to its fullest (no drum samples, no PSG harmonies, some abrasive instruments)