Aaero 2

I've always liked these semi-futuristic music/rhythm games like {Amplitude} and {Thumper} - and it all really came together with the fabulous {Rez}. And then there's the on-rails music shooter {Aaero}. The first game was released back in 2017 and probably went under most people's radar, but like Rez, it's a music game with shooter elements - although you can't directly compare the two games.

Now {Aaero 2} has been released on Xbox Series X/S (a Steam version is planned for later) and has been in development for close to 5 years. It largely follows in the same successful footsteps as the original, which means that the gameplay is still two-fold; there is a music component and a shooter component. In the music part, you follow a luminous track with your small spaceship that winds and positions itself according to how the music plays, and the more precisely you follow it, the higher the multiplier you get and the more points you earn. If you get off track, you lose energy and the game can quickly be over.

In the shooter part, Aaero 2 is similar to Rez. Here you have to move a sight around the screen and launch either missiles or projectiles at a number of nearby enemies. This typically takes place in more open areas than the music part, but all tracks are on rails and you follow a fixed route through them all. The shooter section is the weakest part of the game, however, as you feel disconnected from the experience in these sections - there is a lack of feedback from the game in the form of clearer sound effects or joystick feedback here. Therefore, these sections can get a bit frustrating as you can suddenly die almost without realising it.

Music is of course a central aspect in both components of the game. This is obvious in the music part, where you have to follow this glowing track to get the music to play correctly, but music also plays a (slightly smaller) role in the shooter part. Here you can fire missiles in time to the music, which means that the missiles are both faster and more effective when they hit. Even though the two parts may sound like the game is quite fragmented, it still works well as a whole, as the two elements sometimes blend together, especially in the higher difficulty levels.

Aaero 2 delivers one of the most intense and delicious soundtracks we've heard this year. Music taste is of course subjective, but for a game like this, the soundtrack here just works well. It's provided by Canadian music company Monstercat. The music ranges from drum'n'bass and dubstep to house and something akin to trance, and if you know anything about these corners of electronic music, you'll recognise names like Stonebank, Muzz and Proff. It's a really nice and intense soundtrack and it's really quite impressive how a small developer like Mad Fellows has secured a licensed soundtrack like this - and not least can finance it.

Aaero 2 is not an easy game. However, you have the opportunity to just experience the tracks and music in the game's Chill mode, where you can't die and your spaceship almost sticks to the glowing track. In this mode, there is also no requirement to earn the necessary stars to unlock the next track, of which there are 18 in total. If you want a steep challenge, just choose some of the higher difficulty levels - and then good luck from here.

As something new compared to its predecessor, Aaero 2 features multiplayer, where you can play in co-op or PvP both locally and online. In both co-op and PvP, there is a glowing line for each player and a number of common enemies to take care of. In PvP, you have to be greedy and take care of as much as possible before your opponent does, pushing a small marker on the screen further and further towards your opponent, like a kind of scale. You also have to earn a number of crowns, which act as multipliers at the end of the course, so even if a player comes out of the course with fewer points than the opponent, you can still win if you have earned more multipliers than your opponent during the course. These are two quite simple but also well-functioning multiplayer modes.

The visuals in Aaero 2 are all over the place. They range from incredibly boring menus and somewhat questionable boss art to really nice boss design, very nice futuristic environments and nice visual motion design when you follow this glowing track through the tracks and the environment flashes and lights up in time to the music and as you connect with the track. Overall, it looks pretty good.

Aaero 2 is definitely not a game for everyone. It has a fairly narrow audience and you might be a little worried that it's going to get lost in the crowd of games coming out these days - because it deserves better. It's not quite up to scratch, the shooter part is poor, but it's still a pretty good music shooter, created by a small team who have secured a heavy and effective licensed drum'n'bass/dubstep soundtrack. When the music, graphics and your ability to stay on the glowing track through a futuristic factory come together, especially alongside a friend, it just clicks.