0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Aironauts

        

Aironauts is a 3rd person flying aerobatic, stunt action game, developed by Red Lemon Studios for the Playstation 1, the game was released exclusively in Europe on the 10^th of August 1999, the game was published by Take 2 Interactive and Red Storm Entertainment, the game was released in English, German and French.

The game an aerobatic stunt action shooter for up to 2 players, with players having the choice of 8 characters, with each characters having distinctive weapons and looks, the levels which are called battle area consist of several different challenges for example destroy a certain item or a checkpoint style race, ending in a one on one boss fight.

During the course of a level the player earns a type of currency called Angel Wings, at the end of each level the player is able to trade in these Angel Wings for power ups to improve the characters abilities for example speed or armor.

In a dystopian future society, prisoners are pitted against each other in arena battles to the death, while their death matches are broadcast to the public on SKP-TV in a gladiatorial game show in which contestants battle for supremacy over the skies of some of the world's most infamous prisons.

Not a huge amount of review for this game but enough, starting with Adrenaline Vault, who sadly closed their doors in 2013 after 16 years, they rated the game a solid 4/5 with their review conclusion reading, Once I sat down and let the game get under my skin, I couldn’t help but be impressed. This is a very solid title that a talented group of dedicated people has poured a lot of work into, and that effort shows in nearly every aspect of the game.

More important than all of the spit and polish, though, is the pure enjoyability of the title. Aironauts was simply a joy to review, and I look forward to playing it in the future. This is one game that will be staying on my PlayStation shelf for quite some time.

The remaining four reviews are from France, Germany and the Netherlands, starting with the first of two German reviews, and the next two highest scores for the game Mega Fun in their 70/100 review had this to say, I have to admit that I initially underestimated Aironauts a bit. Clearly, the game can not keep up with the genre's best, but it does provide some fun with it’s shooting mechanics.

Fellow German publication Video Games praised the game in their 69/100 while Dutch publication Power Unlimited criticized the games as being too easy and having mediocre sound and graphics in their 54/100 review, the most critical however was French publication Player One who had the following to say in their 35/100 review, Technically, the game holds together well,t he graphics are of good quality, and the game is not subject to any clipping problems, But the lack of fun is quite unacceptable.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit five online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,  eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, I will also be including Ebay.com as well

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, who along with eStarland.com unsurprisingly don’t stock this European only release so we head off to Retrogames.co.uk where they do have a copy in stock, a used copy in excellent condition and is priced at £5, this converts to $6.43 in the US, in the Euro zone countries it will set you back €5.47 and in the Bahamas it will cost you 6.43 Bahamian Dollars, Please note you will need a PAL console to play this game.

Moving on to Amazon.com, who don’t stock this game either, so we head to the co.uk version of the site where the game is on sale, not a huge number of copies but even so fairly cheaply priced, with a good quality complete copy of the game costing just short of £4 once shipping is added in.

A very good quality used copy of the game is available for a fraction more at £4.66 once shipping is added in to the price, this converts to 6.00 Bahamian Dollars, in the Euro zone countries it will set you back €5.10, while in the US you will be looking at a cost of $6.

Two new copies of the game are available on Amazon, with the pair very differently priced, one is available for a few pence over £7.50 while the other copy which ships from Italy is up for £27.67, it gets worse however this copy comes with a £25.28 delivery charge to the UK, pushing to total over the £50 mark, I think this one even makes EBay’s shipping fees look reasonable.

Speaking of Ebay.com a copy of the game that comes with the disc, case and manual is up for sale at a price of $6.42, this comes with free international shipping, for only slightly more you can get a complete copy of the game for $7.65, this copy only comes with a 64 cents shipping fee.

Beyond here prices do start to jump up with the larger shipping fees, a new copy that is on the market, this comes with free international shipping however like the second new copy on Amazon is pricey not quite as costly as the Amazon copy , coming in at a price of $57.85 which converts to £44.97 in the UK.

Written by

P J Gibbon