Aaero2 Review - Let The Rhythm Hit ‘em

If there’s any genre that showcases an immense variety of talent and dedication, it’s rhythm-action. From Thumper to Crypt of The Necrodancer, Invector to Hi-Fi Rush, the creativity is staggering, and the rush? Unequaled. There is one game not mentioned however that finally gets its time in the spotlight with the release of its sequel: Aaero2.

This is the follow-up to 2017’s underground rhythm-action hit Aaero, developed by UK-based studio Mad Fellows, composed of former Harmonix developers Paul Norris and Dan Horbury. Your adventure as a little ship has you traveling through abandoned worlds and alien architecture while fighting off against hostile droids and creatures through the power of melody.

If you’ve never played the original Aaero, you’d be doing yourself a disservice for missing out on one of rhythm-action’s shining jewels, and personally, one of my favorite games of all time. It’s an audio-visual experience whose closest comparison – the aforementioned Thumper – occupies a diametrically opposite space across from Aaero. Whereas Thumper induces innate rhythmic fear, Aaero resides in untamed melodic bliss.

Gameplay in Aaero involves your ship being placed on a cylindrical highway, where you must connect to ribbons of light in order to attain a high score. In moments of intensity, enemies will begin to attack you, and in response, you lock onto them with your heat-seeking rockets, with grace periods and a bonus score attached if you manage to do it in rhythm with the beat of the song.

Aaero2 sees the stakes amped up, but not without a few quality-of-life additions, like a secondary machine gun to quickly take care of overwhelming amounts of enemies, at the cost of a smaller score. At first, you’ll feel as if you’ve been conned, but Aaero2 manages to make the rhythm more accessible by providing a beat timer when locking onto enemies with the rocket launcher.

As a sequel, Aaero2 goes above and beyond to commit to expansions while still feeling like a continuation of times past. The songs are more difficult, the environments are more varied, and the threat is doubled, even tripled at some points. It’s a miracle that barely any of it is at the expense of deterring newcomers or alienating veterans, a great example of that being in the tracklist.

While the original Aaero was largely dedicated to dubstep, EDM, and jungle, Aaero2 experiments with a few more genres, namely on the metal side of things. When a guitar solo pops up for the first time early on, you’ll be shocked if you’re familiar with Aaero’s aesthetic, but the execution is fantastic, tapping into Mad Fellows’ past with Guitar Hero & Rock Band flavors, and it synthesizes brilliantly with the aesthetic.

When comparing the two soundtracks side-by-side, Aaero2 excels over its predecessor due to variety, both in sound and in chart structure. With the aforementioned guitar leads, there is an unmistakable vision of clarity on Mad Fellows’ behalf, where they’ve begun to fully realize exactly what’s possible with their central mechanic, which Aaero always felt like it was on the cusp of.

The combat also excels with the same parameters as enemies no longer feel like filler, but the beat reincarnated as an adversary. However, on harder difficulties, the higher number of enemies and their frequency tend to come across as a kitchen-sink approach, and flow feels like an arbitrary sacrifice of demand rather than one that comes from a natural extension of ability.

It also doesn’t feel as fast as the previous Aaero, but this feels more like a conscious decision to improve on the formula. While it’s still devastatingly difficult, neither game promises perfection as an attainable goal, even with Aaero2’s new “ribbon magnet” for lower difficulties. With 3 difficulties available to earn, alongside a “Chill” mode where you can simply vibe to the audio-visual experience, the new leveling system attached to a profile helps progression flow whether you’re a master or not.

Still, if you want to put your skills to the test, then you can with Aaero2’s new co-op and PvP functionalities, which is a make-or-break angle for the game. With both modes, your ship will be paired alongside an orange variant, with each of you having color-set ribbons of light to score points from, sometimes swapping between song sections to score points separately.

It shouldn’t work. At its peak, it feels busy, even bloated when enemies are thrown in large droves and progress flashes up on the middle of the screen to notify who won a particular period of the song. Yet that peak also shares player synchronicity, and you will never feel more in tune and alive than when you and your partner rotate in perfect symmetrical balance; in dances of light and fire.

In regards to its busy nature during high-speed and quick-tempo sessions and sections, Mad Fellows have done well to reduce the noise inside and outside the central gaming area. Whereas the original Aaero was brighter, shinier, and spikier visually, the direction of travel itself would become an obstacle in discerning upcoming information. In Aaero2, the game has a lot more moving parts, but integrates them into the environment and that changes how it feels to interact with the world more positively.

Honestly, Aaero2’s biggest flaw comes from constant UI issues. Sometimes, the game will simply forget which menu you’re on, and what you’ve unlocked, and catch itself in an inescapable loop that can usually only be solved by a full reset. This isn’t an issue exclusive to Aaero2 either, as the original Aaero also suffers from this, so old habits die hard.

Aaero2 Review | Final Verdict

Still, it’s those old habits that got Mad Fellows to make Aaero2 begin with, and it spawns a newfound creative angle for which their gameplay can soar. Not only is it an upgrade far above whatever Aaero could achieve in median, but actively replaces it as one of rhythm-action’s most prominent examples of creativity, involvement, and sheer joy. Per aspera ad astra.

Aaero2 was reviewed on Xbox Series S with a copy provided by the developer over the course of 8 hours of gameplay - all screenshots were taken during the process of review.