Analysis of Aaero2 – Space arcade to the rhythm of electronic music

7 years after the first opus, Aaero2 arrives after a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Games that mix rhythm with the shooter genre have been a perfect combination for years. Games like Aaero, Metal: Hellsinger and BPM Bullets per Minute They are a clear example of good projects based on this scheme. Years after the series debut, Aaero2 is coming to Xbox consoles.

The first Aero took us to pilot a spaceship through desolate landscapes, accompanied by a soundtrack based on electronic music in sync with the action. Seven years have passed since the launch of this first tranche and now, thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, a second tranche has been funded. Although the basic concept is the same, The combat system has been expanded and improved after listening to players.

Gameplay

But at first it seems that little has changed. Our ship automatically accelerates and the movement is limited to following a blue line in the form of rails that appear on the screen. Perfect execution of these rails not only increases your score but also maintains the rhythm of the song.. Drone-shaped enemies appear rarely, sometimes even out of nowhere, and must be eliminated before disappearing from the screen, often requiring multiple shots. The ship is armed with a cooldown machine gun and lock-on missiles.but unlike the previous game, missile volleys require perfect timing to launch. Capturing multiple perfect shots in a row is not only incredibly satisfying, but also vital to surpassing the scores required of us.

Just because, This is a traditional arcade game where the most important thing is to get the highest score. Performance is rated five stars and each phase has an online ranking. Reaching a score of two or even three stars isn’t too difficult, at least on normal difficulty, but Getting four or five requires very precise movements when pilotingin addition to many perfect shots, 100% of enemies killed and no lives lost. Quite a challenge. Aaero2 does a good job of recording your scores and progress, displaying the total percentage on screen, while the online leaderboards are very competitive.

Additionally, a certain number of stars is required to unlock new stages.. The criteria are well balanced and ensure a consistent unlock rate. You may occasionally have to restart a stage and aim for a better score, but often a three-star score will unlock the next stage. However, to see the final boss you’ll need a lot of four-star scores, which will undoubtedly cause you to replay most of the game.. Being music-focused, this isn’t as problematic as it seems, and this focus on honing skills and memorizing tricky areas is really what sets Aaero2 apart. Everything is structured around replayability.

The boss fights are also a strong point, increasing the complexity and difficulty slightly. The music is much more in tune with the enemy attack patterns during these battles. As before, we’ll need to make every shot and missile volley count to finish off a boss before the end of the phase, otherwise we’ll end up feeling his wrath.

Aaero2 is very designed for the long term, since from the start it only offers easy and normal mode, as well as two-player mode featuring online matchmaking. As many regular players will no doubt attest, the experience won’t flow as it should until Hard Mode is unlocked. This mode will test your mettle, with more enemies and no help establishing the line. Achievements are also closely tied to playing on the hardest difficulty. In case it’s not obvious by now, It’s an experience based on improving skills and chasing those elusive five-star scores.. If the scores are too low, you may need to stop and think about why and what you need to improve.

Graphics and sound section

Two of the boss fights take place underwater, showing off something we’ve never seen before. The murky waters limit visibility, so some hidden tiles (of which three must be found in each phase) are very well hidden. We’ll also fly over frozen tundras, lava zones, alien industrial complexes and picturesque forests. In fact, not all places are haunting and desolate. It is worth mentioning that later levels are much richer and detailed than the first, which suggests that the developers honed their skills and began improving the game’s engine throughout production.. The first level is visually quite rough, almost giving a false impression of what awaits us. However, the music is excellent, with a wide variety of male, female and synthesized vocals. Some tracks are loud and strident, while others are much more emotional. Smart decisions were made when it came to combining the music with the boss fights, to make them unique and not just another stage to overcome.

Conclusions

The addition of a 2-player mode and other improvements elevate Aaero’s formula considerably, but ultimately, this isn’t a sequel that’s going to revolutionize anything. Aaero2 brings us more songs that will delight electronic music fans with which they can ride on rails and shoot alien creatures to the beat of their beat.. Of course, this could have been a slightly more ambitious sequel in terms of gameplay mechanics, progression, and variety. Anyway, Aaero2 is one of the most interesting music games of recent timesenough to make us want to continue “surfing” on the rails while moving our heads from one side to the other for a good while.

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