AUTHOR: Sanritsu Denki Co. RELEASE: 1990 TYP: Action SPIELER: 1 LEVEL: 4 SPRACHE: Englisch Partnumber: 7041 EAN: 4974365634414 WERT: 20 Euro

Die NAC, eine Terroristenbande, hat eine Laserkanone gebaut (mit der Bezeichnung „EL“), die die Welt in Panik versetzt, denn damit ist die NAC in der Lage, die Ozonschicht der Erde zu zerstören. Wir brauchen Sie als Piloten des „Freedom Fighters“, eines hochmodernen Kampfflugzeugs, das vielleicht die letzte Chance ist, den Feind zu zerstören!

The N.A.C, a terrorist organisation, has built a laser emitter- „EL“- that is causing panic, as it is capable of destroying the ozone layer. We need you to pilot the freedom fighter, and advanced fighter that may be the only means to crush the enemy!

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Cheat mode
At the title screen, hold Up and press 1, 2, 1 on controller 2. A letter T will appear at the upper right of the screen, confirming the code. Now during the game, use one of the following commands on controller 2:
Button 1 - 9 lives
Button 2 - 99 bombs and shield
Up - Skip level

An evil organization threatens the world and what's the best the „good guys“ can do? That's right chaps, one single plane (an F-15 by the looks of things, apparently re-branding it as the „Freedom Fighter“ makes all the difference) is out to stop them. It's your usual affair, smite hoardes of enemy planes the dimly fly straight at you then face off against a huge behemoth before ultimately saving the world. Best be thankful shmups are great fun really. All the basic shmup stuff is here - a range of air targets, ground bases and tanks, giant things to kill at the end of the level. But there's more to it, when high up in the air you face sudden assault from missiles flying out of the clouds, plus slow homing missiles coming from behind. And if that wasn't enough there are random lightning strikes to worry about! It's varied and it sure does keep you on your toes. The thing is, it can't decide what it is. Is it a „present“-based shooter like UN Squadron and Carrier Airwing, or is it trying to be R-Type/Darius? The first three levels are quite sensible - a fight across the ocean, then high altitude and finally over the desert towards the entrance to the mountain fortress. Then it goes utterly bonkers and puts you into a futuristic setting flitting through passageways and finally going into outer space (we'll leave the physics of how an F-15 manages with no air) complete with enemies straight out of every space shmup ever! Aerial Assault does suffer from one huge problem - the power up system. It's basically weapons, bombs, shield and speed. There are two weapons that are actually any good, a missile launcher and a laser cannon. As for everything else? Well you're pretty much better off with your standard spud-gun because it at least has a decent rate of fire and shoots where you want it to. The bombs, but they're little more than a novelty until you get the ultimate great balls of kill everything later in the game. Perhaps the biggest problem lies in the speed powerups - on harder difficulties you can't get to some gun batteries on the level 2 boss without at least one speed-up, and if you die at the level 4 boss you're boned because regular speed isn't enough to get between laser blasts. For all its flaws though, it retains the core element of fun. But it on hard though, because otherwise you'll spend much of the game with little to shoot and even less to dodge. […] A pretty neat horizontal shooter. The good just about outweighs the bad, but that power-up problem is really going to mean this is purely for shmup fans looking for something a bit different - and it delivers enough of that and, if you put it on hard, plenty of challenge. And I'm sure the hardened players will appreciate how not to get angry when you have to start the game over again once you die and lose all your weapons! Looks great, plays great - but has enough niggling flaws to keep it from being enjoyable to a wider audience. - www.smstributes.co.uk