Air Buster

Before I begin, let me say that any game that has a level with the name "Death Circus" sounds promising. A level with the name of an 1980's metal band is always promising... (A quick Google search revealed that there is no such album with the name Death Circus. I feel like this is an opportunity missed...)


Air Buster (also known as Aero Blaster in Japan) is a side-scrolling arcade shooter.

There seem to be a million of these games out there, all pretty much the same as the rest. You fly a plane, shoot a bunch of bad guys, and face a gigantic boss at the end of every stage. That being said, Air buster was pretty enjoyable. It tended to be easier than a lot of other arcade-style shooters, and only had six stages, so it was a pretty short game. It was also not as fast paced as many games of the same genre tend to be, and it had much to be desired in terms of graphics. However, it was enjoyable because of the easy stages, and the lack of levels actually kept the game from becoming too repetitive.

Weapon variation was good too, as the player's plane could be upgraded with secondary weapons that included homing missiles, companion guns that followed the plane, or even a bumper on the front of the plane that kept it from crashing into the ceiling or the ground. This last upgrade became especially valuable in later levels, when the landscape would change to trenches ala Star Wars. The main weapon of the plane was a basic arcade-style auto firing gun, that could be upgraded by collecting power-ups.

Since this was an arcade-style shooter, you pretty much died after being hit once by any enemy or their fire, so the game required quite a bit of fast maneuvering on the player's part to avoid the constant incoming missiles, lasers, and other various fire. However, conveniently, you always revived at the exact moment that you died, instead of having to start back at the beginning of the level like in many shooters of the time.

I played the Sega Mega Drive version of this game, but it was also released on other consoles of the time. Apparently, the Mega Driver version was closest to the original Arcade release, in keeping close to the original graphics and sound effects. Which brings us to the next feature, the sound and music. Sound effects tended to be pretty repetitive, but the music was quite good. Up-tempo and dramatic, the music fit each stage well. And of course, there was intense boss music to go along with the boss fights. As for the sound being repetitive, the game was released in 1990, so it shouldn't be expected to stand up to today's standards, so the lack of variety in sound effects is forgiveable.

All in all, this was a fun game.

Oh, I do have to say something about the atrocious Japanese to English translation. For example, the characters are part of an Earth defense group called the " Trouble Specialty Raid Unit." and the game has other pretty blaring typos.

One more little gem... Apparently this game was supposed to be shipped with a bonus item in the box. Each game was supposed to come with a "Kaneko Power Glove" which was pretty much a cloth glove to wear while holding the controller... Pretty cheesy... From what I have found on the internet, there was actually a shortage of the gloves, and many of the boxes ended up not carrying any gloves, and consumers had to send in a letter by mail to the manufacturer to get their glove. In my opinion, this was a gimmick that was not needed. The game stood by itself, and shouldn't have needed the glove to encourage sales.

Til next time, stand tall nerds!