Released on August 1993 the game follows a red bat named Aero who works and lives in a circus. An evil ex-clown named Edgar Ektor who used to work in the same circus wants to have it shut it down. Follow Aero as he passes through 20 large levels with loads of hazards (i.e. spikes) in order to complete numerous objectives in order to beat every level. Apparently there is also a sequel. Go figure.
Best time: Single-segment 0:36:35 by 'Shadow Jacky' on 2014-06-03.
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Author's comments:
I just want to say this was something I wanted to do since 2009 at least and got my target time after coming back to this every so often just due to my life heading in ways I didn't expect and me losing interest for quite some time. Got to grinding this down to the sub 37 min. time earlier this summer and finally got a run I feel is worth to finally put up on SDA for people to see. This is a game straight out of my childhood when I heavily got into gaming and my very first game I beat in one sitting. While streaming, I wouldn't run into too many people that knew about this game or even played it. It kept people entertained (among doing other things) and when I finally got this down, it was sort of a relief. Some people miss it, but it was about damn time to move on.
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Overall tidbits;
Drilling: primary source of attacking and traversing through levels. Sorta acts as a double jump to cross gaps and gain higher ground. Also used to land faster on occasion. There's an item I get called Lightning which allows me to perform two drills in midair without landing. Another thing, after drilling off of certain enemies, I'm only invincible for a certain number of frames. Drilling also helps with gaining speed from a neutral position instead of slowly gaining it from walking on the ground. For some reason, movement is faster heading right than left. It might not be that clearly shown, but playing this game enough, it seems to be the case. Drill speeds also seem to be random, but it's more complicated than that.
Stars: I use them as projectiles to nail enemies futher away from me for clearance.
Wings: Another powerup which allows me to fly temporarily. Used in certain locations to speed things up.
Enemies: Just to note, enemies usually have a fixed location, but have a random pattern to them. Not always in ideal locations for movement which is why you'll see me kill someone when I could've (at most times) jumped over them.
Stages;
1-1 (Jump on 7 Star Platforms): Pretty straight forward. There's these star platforms you have to jump on until they disappear. This stage acts as a beginner/tutorial stage as it has most of the aspects of future levels along with star portals (which I never use), stars, ladders, hidden paths (never used as well), basic enemies, food, and at least 1 powerup. Ladders you can climb up pretty fast just by jumping in a neutral position and pressing up to grab the ladder again. Sometimes you'll see me drill before hitting the very top of the ladder, it's a bit faster for movement, but situational at times. Once the objective for the stage has been met, the end star portal will appear. All levels have a defininitive end to them so as not to throw anyone off of where to finish the level.
You'll see I hesitate at the Stage Results screen a bit before I press any buttons to bypass it. I do this to avoid any soft locks this game like to give me. I've had it happen many times with some other odd occurrances.
1-2 (Find the key and rescue Aerial): Aero has a girlfriend and this will be the only time you'll see her. You'll see me drill downward from climbing down ladders. There's a way to slide down ladders, but most times, you'll want to head in a certain direction after climbing down and drilling off of a ladder is much faster. I skip the 2nd checkpoint I come across as to avoid going back to it after I kill myself. I death abuse to speed things in certain stages as it's much faster than going back the way they want you to.
1-3 (Jump on 15 Star Platforms): Same as stage 1-1, except there's 15 to find in a much larger level. After coming off of the first unicycle, I jump as soon as I land on the incline. Inclines will slow you down upon landing, but not from running before reaching one. Messed up the trampolines near the end there. During the 2nd one, I didn't have enough height to bounce cleanly. For some reason, I thought I could get away without drilling first, but that's not the case. I don't like to try and experiment during runs and that ended up being the case during a really good run >_<. It might not be that noticible, but when using the cannon at the end, I make sure I hit the underside of the platform above me. Might sound odd, but upon doing so, it seems my momentum and drilling speed is reset to where I can get enough distance to land on the bubbles. Another note as you'll see me drill up against a ledge. I do this to gain that drill speed after I land where as I'll be noticibly slower if I hadn't.
1-4 (Jump through 25 Magic Hoops): Not like star portals or even the normals hoops/fire hoops you see through the stages, these don't give points or transport you, they just disappear. Only used as the stage objective. First appearance of teeter totters. They work as they should, but there's some things to note. It actually does matter at what height you're at before landing on the opposing side to launch the ball into the air. There are set heights for the ball to launch you, but there also isn't (if that makes sense). First one I use, if I just simply jumped up it without drilling, I wouldn't have gained enough height to reach the above area as I demonstrated. You'll see me also positing myself on them in such a way as to be higher off of the ground and jumping before the ball launches can be advantageous. Can my first lightning powerup to speed up swimming across the pool. Aero can swim, he's just not very fast (or tries to swim fast at least). I try for a damage boost off of the last spinning clown, but it didn't pan out like I wanted. Rather I wait than to get hit and go in the wrong direction losing time.
1-5 (Turn on all of the Lights): There's 4 light switches to turn on. Really big stage with find them all, but not that hard. First cannon I use, I position it to clip through the bubbles. Normally, you'd have to clear them out by hitting them once and then proceeding, but not if you hit on of the side bubbles first. Only hit one, hit both sides and only try to clip past the center one will not work. Also the cannon is quite nice for clipping into walls, but nothing substantial has been found for that use (unless you count embedding yourself into said wall to use as a platform, but eh). Near the end, I use the Wings to go through the tightrope sections faster. At points you can't use the unicycle to keep going, so with using the lightning that I reobtained, I use double drills until I need another Wings powerup.
Lightning will never run out until you die.
1-boss (Meet The Stilt Brothers): I hate every boss in this game. RNG up the anus as these guys can make or break my runs with their nonsense. They toss torches to one another and some of them will land in my position or close by. Can only attack their stilts until they are down to their bodies. Not too bad, but I've had better fights.
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2-1 (Jump on 5 Star Platforms): Yep, same shit, different stage. Funpark is pretty fun though, not going to lie, but it's definitely a step up in terms of difficulty. Those cloud platforms on the pendulum type ride start to move once you enter the stage they're present in. I make sure I get up to them pretty quick to make that cycle. Some odd bug with the teeter totters in the funpark as opposed to the circus, you can just run through them and launch the ball higher than from a single jump. Doesn't always work on the first one you come across, but the later ones always behave that way.
2-2 (Ride the Roller Coaster): Not that hard. I jump before inclines and pools of water as they'll slow you down.
2-3 (Keys Open Doors): Well, no shit >_>. I'll be dying here a lot, much faster then the intended ways of getting back to the elevators. 2 smalls mistakes within the stage, but they didn't mess me up as I thought they would.
2-4 (Ride the Rotor): Simpling pressing up or down will change your position when riding the rotors.
2-5 (Jump through 25 Magic Hoops): Same as in the circus, but colored this time. On the rotating rocket ship rides, I drill into the car as to not get hit by the clowns that will show up randomly in one of the cars. They can mess up a run pretty badly here. First time you'll ever see me get the Invincibility Star. Can't damage anything with it, but you'll go through anything that doesn't kill you in 1 hit. Cool thing about the rocket ships, they'll maintain whatever speed you had before landing inside of one.
2-boss (Meet Mr. Bubbles): Guy sucks so damn much. Can only damage him when his big red nose flashes, otherwise he'll just try to grab you. When you do deal damage, he'll start to cry and that's when things can go sour really fast. There's no fixed patterns to his crying, just dodge and hope you don't lose too much time. I try to stay close to him, but there's only so much you can do without getting hit (in which I do manage to, but no deaths). 8 hits total and he's down.
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3-1 (Find the Exit): The Woods are so straight forward. Nothing too huge, but it's nice to explore these areas. Really simple stage as I mostly just run through it. Tightropes without a unicycle are a pain, but they still can be crossed quickly. Just jump as soon as you land on the tightrope and no speed is lost since you won't enter the tightrope animations/speed.
3-2 (The Barrel Roll): Just me jumping over spikes and water.
3-3 (Do The Bungee): I makes sure I tag every checkpoint and die on every bungee jump sequence. Faster than waiting for it to pull you back up. I pause on the last two for visual cues.
3-4 (Ride the Rapids): Just logs with water in them. Not much else to say....
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4-1 (Explore the Museum): Just like 3-1, finding the exit and that's all. Objectives got thrown out the way if you haven't noticed by now. Guillotines are random as hell. No way of knowing when they'll drop, just hope for the best.
4-2 (Ride the Conveyor Belts): Just look at the footage...
4-3 (The Tower): My favorite level. Used to just replay this over and over again for the hell of it on emulator. Only thing I don't like is that when landing on the slime covered slopes, sometimes you won't duck immediately. That can throw me off sometimes.
4-4 (Explore the Secret Passages): Not too secret. Just if you happen to reach a dead end, drill into the wall. I drill close to the ground when drilling into a breakable wall to negate the drill recoil.
4-5 (The Laboratory): Only thing I'd like the say about this stage, that bullshit I do near the end crossing that huge fire pit is so worth it in a completed run.
4-boss (Edgar Ektor's Domain): Last boss and it's just as shitty as the last two. Unlike the other two, you have to first go through a course before reaching a rest area to actually damage Edgar. You also are timed a bit due to a killing laser coming from underneathe your starting position. He can be a nuissance after the first rest area since he'll start to interfere with your platforming. Getting a bunch of hit points is crucial for some unfortunate hits and for damage boosting in some parts. Problem going into the 2nd rest area. Apparently if you go too fast and reach it before Edgar does, the game will soft lock as he won't show up at all. Went pretty well until the last area in which the fight didn't go like I wanted to. Ended up losing time, but I ust wanted it to be over by that point. Resisted trying to rush things, but ugh, so hard when the fight is going so bad.
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Shoutouts to;
-MHC [Metroid Hunters Crew] (keeping me on my toes to grind these games out and get them PBs)
-my twitch followers (those who decide to stick around and watch this game get ran)
-Hiromi Uehara and Rei Harakami (listening to those two while doing the run. some calm ass shit)
-Goodcake (giving me his copy of Aero The Acro-Bat when mine was acting up and freezing on me during runs)
-Exxonym (created the TAS speedrun over at TASvideos.org for you guys to check out. used that as references and tips to get this time down to where it is. thanks for the help man)
-Ocean Spray (providing me with the quench-tastic Cran-Grape beverage to wet my whistle during the run)
If you got questions, hit up my Twitter @Shadow_Jacky and visit my twitch page for more runs/gameplay/music at http://www.twitch.tv/shadowjacky