Whereas any remaster of a past-gen game is bound to carry with it dated visual qualities however good the added gloss, as is absolutely the case with the returning PaRappa the Rapper, Mad Fellows' brand-new Aaero is immediately cool on a cursory impression. It's packed with big, busy polygons, bright particles that pop and sparkle across the screen, and fantastical, futuristic landscapes to fly into. You're a little spaceship thing, impossibly small against the odds, locking onto and destroying enemies of all shapes and sizes—some of which shoot back, so you'll need to eliminate those projectiles, too, by sweeping a target around with the right stick, Rez style.It looks like a slick shooter, but is actually a rhythm action affair—your missiles impact in time to an array of bass-heavy tracks, and all the while a racing line of sorts must be stuck to, or else a substantial part of the song in question simply falls away to silence. So then, it's more than Rez in feel—when it's properly singing, tasking the player with navigating their ship on the left stick and lining up shots with the right, there's a rising whisper of Gitaroo Man to proceedings, just with more Katy B and Flux Pavilion, and less "Legendary Theme".Continue reading on Waypoint.
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