Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge

Aero the Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge is the bland and melancholic end to the franchise ports. This title in particular would have been better if accompanying the original game port, as it, as an originally handheld title, doesn't offer enough features to justify buying it alone, unlike the others.

Unless you have a fond spot in your heart for Aero The Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge, it’s hard to recommend the game. Even as a remake of a 1990s game released in the 2000s, it feels a bit sluggish and archaic. It’s a decent trip down memory lane for older gamers, but it’s a hard selling to the younger gamers out there who were spoiled with all the nifty quality of life improvement gameplay mechanics.

Aero the Acro-Bat: Rascal Rival Revenge is a solid retro platformer with its own unique quirks and moments of frustration. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those who enjoy nostalgic games or have fond memories of Aero, it’s worth revisiting. The preservation of classic games on modern platforms is always a win in my book.

The improved speed and slight QOL make the game more fun to play than the original version, yes, but the smaller screen and weird controls sorta offset those gains, and even the QOL doesn’t do much to help the fact that the first Aero is an incredibly tedious series of chores that aren’t all that fun to play around with.

These ports aren’t at all expensive, but I see very little to absolutely zero reason to buy this by itself outside of nostalgia for the GBA port.