Reviews

• 

  Acey

  Apr 12, 2017

  Aaero is amazing. If you have had the pleasure of playing REZ, then just imagine that but with a bit of a twist on it. The game REQUIRES a controller to play so have your Xbox/PS4/Whatever has two analog sticks ready. You'll be chasing ribbons of light to keep the music flowing, dodging incoming objects, and shooting baddies to the beat of the electronic soundtrack consisting of artists such as Noisia, Flux Pavilion, Neosignal, and many others! I can't wait to see what tracks might be added in the future!
• 

  Line

  Apr 16, 2017

  A must-play for the rhythm game fan. tl;dr great wub wub soundtrack, fight a giant sand worm, tight controls, fun gameplay, fight a giant robot spider, worth buying Trace ribbons of light with one stick, and shoot enemies with the other - all to the beat of an outstanding soundtrack - Aaero is an intensely exciting experience that is both accessible and has more than a bit of challenge to the dedicated player. At the time of writing, I'm one of 5 people to have accessed and completed all difficulties in the game, having taken me 8 hours to achieve this. While the limited amount of people to reach this stage demonstrates the difficulty involved in the game, it also highlights a lack of content; while what is in the game is intensely fun, there isn't a lot of it, and it can be completed in a few sittings. This is not to say the game is easy at all - Aaero is, indeed, a rhythm game at heart - to beat higher difficulties, a lot of perseverance is required to master the nuances of each song. However, the difficulty change between the levels - Normal, Advanced, and Master - are minimal, only adding a few more enemies and hazards to the level. I'm not sure if there actually was a difficulty change between Advanced and Master, other than only having 1 life in the latter, but to achieve a competitive score at the Advanced level, it is necessary to stay alive the whole time anyway. As a rhythm game, one of the most important aspects are the controls, and Aaero really shines in this department. Controls are tight and responsive, and easy to learn. When something goes wrong, you know that it's your fault, and this helps make sure that failing to complete a level or achieve a certain score feels like your own fault, and not one inherent to the game. The soundtrack chosen for the game is excellent - a fine selection of music in the vein of dubstep, electronic, drum and bass etc. Following the ribbons of light will add layers to the music, and every sound effect in the game - target locking beeps, weapon impacts, enemy spawns and so on - is quantised to the beat of the rhythm, achieving a state where the game is as much a part of the music as the music is the game. The shooting aspect is simple enough to understand, and has a little more depth to it than first seems. Attacks will always land on the 1st or 3rd beats of every 4/4 bar, and you are rewarded for hitting these exactly on time - in attack efficiency, as well as score. Understanding this mechanic is crucial, but skipped over in the game's tutorial, which can lead to some amount of frustration when your shots seem inconsistent. When these two main mechanics are combined, Aaero comes to life as a fantastic rhythm rail shooter in the long-empty void of Rez. A lack of content will disappoint the most dedicated and skilled players, but in spite of that, Aaero is not an experience to be missed.
• 

  Mark

  Apr 17, 2017

  I highly recommend this game for anyone that likes fast phased rhythm games. The controls are awesome. The graphics look great. And the music is amazing. It brings me back to the break through of good and amazing dubstep partys. The whole package just ailings with each other. It's tens and makes you feel good.
• 

  s y n t h b e n t

  May 10, 2017

  I'm a sucker for rhythm games and this one is really fun. Personally I'm not a huge fan of dubstep but it works perfectly for this type of game. I could do without some of the shooting sections, some of them feel quite cheap and can really mess up that "in the zone" feel you start to get after you pull off some sweet multipliers. Some of the shooting sections are great and actually ADD to the overall vibe, there are just a few that are out of place and annoying. The "follow the line" mechanic of the rest of the game is pretty awesome, nice feedback on the controller too, really gives you a sense of impact as you hit it just right. Most of the stages are really fun, but there are a couple that are a bit boring, I think it has a lot to do with preference though. Really hoping for new stages to be added, I'd gladly pay a few bucks for some DLC, the game was pretty cheap as it was. I've spent a few hours trying to beat my high scores and its pretty addictive.
• 

  Mr_Quorvis

  Jun 15, 2017

  There is nothing out there like this game, a blend of concepts brought together to create a truly original IP. I have recommended this game to every try-hard completionist I know who really wants an immense challange and a fun game to play. Its a simple concept, follow the lines and shoot the flying machines... but it really isn't as easy as it sounds. A great initial debut from this studio. This game gets a rock solid 7.5 out of 10 from me.
• 

  hey_guys_its_nyck

  Jun 28, 2017

  Great game, worth the money! However, get ready for arthritis... But seriously great game!
• 

  Moon TF

  Nov 4, 2017

  *Note: Before you look at hours and just write this off as me kissing up to the game, realize that it was spread over a good amount of time after completeing the game to 97% achievements* Let me start with the goods: -Great music (if you're into wub wubs) -Aesthetically pleasing -Chilled out game that you can use to wind down and just relax for a night VERY easily -Challenging if you decide to go for top scores or GREAT acc, but not impossible for people who don't care too much about the competitive aspect! -Completing bosses is VERY pleasing, as well as getting great pass accs and so on. Now for some of the bads, but with being in contact with Madfellows, I can say I know they will change and do what they can to improve on these: -Somewhat short song list -Replayability is kinda small, as theres only the harder diffs but no new songs in addition to the harder difficulties -Not KB+M compatible but it makes sense as to why it isnt, it'd be hard to nail with that. -Music can get monotonous if you don't appreciate the flow or genre~ -Kinda a suggestion, but maybe something like a proper rank leaderboard as opposed to JUST song leaderboards that we can see in UI? Idk, and community mapping if possible!- Now for one that I think should be brought to attention to anyone who achievement hunts this game like I did. To get all secrets, you must have your top play be the one that unlocks all in a level, so if you get ALL secrets but lower score, you have too retry it. I find this VERY inconvienient because if you don't go for secrets WITH top scores to begin with, it takes HEAPS of time to get a new top score with them (if you get high ac % on your non-secret run, that is) A work around for this is doing the song on a lower diff, but you MUST know where they are if you intend on doing it this way as the leniency for acc is alot lower and you can easily top yourself without realizing. All in all, I'd recommend this game ANY day of the week to rhythm gamers, it's fun, it's challenging, and it's a nice change of pace in rhythm gaming compared to the bigs like Osu!, Guitar Hero (or Clone Hero), and Step Mania, and the Pros REALLY outweigh the negatives, most of mine are just nit-picky but they should be known. If you enjoy trying out all types of rhythm games, it's worth the buy, and especially for the price you pay for this.
• 

  Dojomojomofo

  Dec 30, 2017

  It's a must have. It has obvious elements of Rez with the lock and shoot, though this calls for some conscious timing to maximise returns on it. Others might try the ribbon mechanic and feel nostalgia for Gitaroo Man, or dodge obstacles in the tunnels and think of Star Fox - but it's not just an homage, this game makes these mechanics its own and maybe even surpasses all three... When I got into stage 7 I was dancing in my seat with tears of joy while playing because I couldn't believe someone nailed the fun, look, sound, etc all at once like that, and I wasn't even through the game yet! It's the clearest case of "want to call it an homage, but it's too original in the way it does everything." It really takes the best parts of the games it almost surely borrows from, and it seems to just give you what you'd want from all of them. I can't believe it myself, but if you ask me about it, I'll rave about this game. It works. Soundtrack is heavy on the dubstep and glitchhop end of the spectrum - some would want to avoid that, but I think it fits great and makes a lot of sense for the mechanics. The sound of each song varies a fair bit within that broad umbrella and they're not only well curated but surprisingly well known. I have some issues at times with the incoming missiles - they're very visible, but if there are other things in the area, I can sweep and shoot and sweep and shoot and still never get the lock to lock onto them, so losing a ship is inevitable. I've saved replays and watched myself track over the same missile 3 times to no effect. This gets worse at higher difficulties where the screen will very soon start filling with them, and to compound it, you can't shoot anything down while you're blown up, so you can come back just in time to blow up again. It can all be solved with the right approach, but it can be tricky. Still, this is the kind of game you won't even find every several years, if even in a decade. The fans of this type of thing are probably already interested, so all I can suggest is don't sit on the fence or pass it up - if you're wondering about it, go for it! There are good reasons to be skeptical, but this one nails it, I promise.
• 

  ZULU ISLAND

  Jan 1, 2018

  Visually stunning. Great song choices. All around such a great game to chill and vibe to
• 

  Hexie Lambent

  Jan 4, 2018

  I'd like to preface this with the notion of respect. I see something promising under all of it, I really do, but after completing all of the songs and bosses on normal, I'm just left feeling very unsatisfied. First and perhaps foremost, I think the soundtrack is awful. Not the songs themselves, many of them are decent and they're certainly popular tracks in their genre (which consist mostly of dubstep, some feelings of house, things like that) but holding my control stick in a direction to a grinding bass tone is just not exciting. Rarely did I ever feel like I was interacting with the music. I could mute the sound and probably play the game just as well as I did with the music. Along with that, the core gameplay is just not fun to me. That may be in part to the whole "glowing blue to a bass tone" bit, but again the interactions with the music consisted solely of firing on like... the 16th note before the beat of the measure, which was honestly just really kind of annoying, especially since they explained it very, very poorly in the tutorial. The shooting itself revolved around scrolling a large circle around to lock-on to enemies and pulling the trigger. It's as shallow as it sounds, really. The environments and aesthetics are just... dull. There's this vaguely low-poly sci-fi universe with plenty of glowing lights, and 90% of what you see is just brown and gray dodecahedrons? Is it to help the large, bright blue glowing line to stick out? I just feel there's a lot of missed potential here, especially considering the change in pace with one level that has these crushing traps timed to the music. They're pretty similar in color but they hold a different look. As a music and rhythm game enthusiast, I'm just left bored at the end of the day. Not insulted, nor do I feel like I wasted my time, but I find it hard to suggest to others.
• 

  Matti

  Apr 6, 2018

  honestly this is the best game i've ever played, the gameplay is challenging, but it always feels like its your fault when you muck up, bugs are almost non-existant, as in i haven't experienced a single one myself, and all the songs chosen are amazingly excecuted and feel smooth to play. its optimised so godamn well even my then mid-range laptop from 2005 can run it at 30fps.
• 

  Furtifk

  Jul 31, 2018

  Very good game and very satisfying to play. The difficulty is most certainly there. The only downside I see to the game is the lack of tracks and the DLCs costing too much for only 3 tracks. Although its only 3 tracks but 9 tracks to design in total due 3 difficulties on each track I think adding many more tracks for a lower price would drive this game to complete success. Drump and Bass, Electro, Dubstep, and all of those genres are awesome for this game and I believe the devs are clearly aware of this. Do not change the genre no matter the cost!!!
• 

  zebra

  Nov 24, 2018

  This game is incredibly good. buy it.
• 

  mhenryblack

  Dec 24, 2018

  This is one of those games that you have to play to truly understand. I don't believe I have ever been so amped up by a games sound track, which by design is perfectly paired with the game play in Aaero. I feel like this title will never get the recognition that it truly deserves. Best Music I have ever heard in a game. Play it with a controller, on a big screen, in a dark room, with the sound LOUD. Mindblowingly good. I can't believe I didn't know about this game until a few days ago. Buy It.
• 

  Xee Xee

  Feb 6, 2019

  Always a fun time playing this game. I've put many many hours into Xbox playing competitively for top spots on the leaderboards, no matter how many times I play all the levels are always fun. This is one of two games I found worth buying on more than one platform as well as one of my favorite games. I have never found a game more worth recommending than this game, tis the game that got me into rhythm games.
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  Prime Seeker

  Feb 19, 2019

  Awesome.
• 

  FietsNoob

  May 19, 2019

  The idea is pretty cool, but shooting the enemy ships feels unnatural. If I kill an enemy ship, it's usually more by chance than by being a good player. It doesn't matter what kind of controller, by the way. I've used both a Steam controller and a more conventional controller, but neither work well for me. (Though the conventional controller definitely better than the steam one.)
• 

  Mr Bumboclaat

  May 23, 2019

  Simple to learn, hard to master, fun to play. This game will draw you in with its initial appeal of great music and visually stimulating environments, but make you stay for the incredibly tight, precise controls and the tantalizing desire to keep improving and pushing forward. Taking the time to learn the mechanics is important but rewarding, and you quickly start to feel like you're improving with every run. I've sunk plenty of hours in just the base tracklist alone and I plan on grabbing the DLC song packs soon as well. Truly incredible game. An absolute hidden gem.
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  sasquatc4

  Jul 3, 2019

  good game, good soundtrack
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  nitroblast

  Jul 5, 2019

  yes yes very good must play