Air Buster: Trouble Specialty Raid Unit a.k.a Aero Blasters: Trouble Specialty Raid Unit is a horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up

Shoot 'em up

Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...

 arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

 released by Kaneko

Kaneko

, also referred to as , was a Japanese video game publisher founded in Suginami, Tokyo, Japan by Hiroshi Kaneko. It published a number of games both under its brand and other companies, such as Air Buster, Nexzr, Shogun Warriors, DJ Boy, Guts'n, and the Gals Panic series...

 in 1990

1990 in video gaming

-Notable releases:*Bonk's Adventure is released for NEC's TurboGrafx-16 and is the first US appearance of Bonk, the mascot of the TurboGrafx-16.*February 12 — Nintendo releases the NES game Super Mario Bros. 3 in North America...

, licensed to Namco

Namco

is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...

. The player controls a fighter jet also designed for space travel and shoots enemies, collects power-up

Power-up

In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...

s, and defeats bosses

Boss (video games)

A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...

 to advance levels. It was released for the NEC PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16

TurboGrafx-16

TurboGrafx-16, fully titled as TurboGrafx-16 Entertainment SuperSystem and known in Japan as the , is a video game console developed by Hudson Soft and NEC, released in Japan on October 30, 1987, and in North America on August 29, 1989....

 as Aero Blasters. The following year it was released on the Sega Genesis in the United States as Air Buster. As a console game this title had the distinction of being two player simultaneous. This was rare among side scrolling shooters on home consoles. All games in the Thunder Force

Thunder Force

Thunder Force is a scrolling shooter computer game released by Technosoft in 1983. It is the first game in the Thunder Force series. It was initially released for the Sharp X1 computer, and later appared on the Sharp MZ-1500, NEC PC-6001 mkII, and in 1985 on the NEC PC-8801 mkII...

, Gradius

Gradius

The Gradius games, first introduced in 1985, make up a series of scrolling shooter video games published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper...

, and R-Type

R-Type

is a side scrolling shoot-em-up arcade game produced by Irem in 1987. The player controls a space fighter named R-9a "Arrowhead" to defend humanity against a mysterious but powerful alien life-form known as "Bydo", which was later discovered to be not entirely alien in origin...

 series were only 1 player on the home consoles.
The Genesis version featured more detailed and larger sprites and backgrounds than PCE version.

Story

In the year 2021 a mysterious orbital space weapon appears and assaults the nations of the Earth. The players control the pilots Mike or Holly who are a part of the Trouble Speciality Raid Unit whose mission is to stop the invasion.

Gameplay

Players choose between one of the two Blaster fighters through scrolling six stages. The Blaster fighters can equip one of seven weapons. The weapons include the Striker weapon which adds additional firepower through vertically aligned Options, the Reverse shot which fires two diagonal shots from the rear of the ship, the Six Way Shot which fires semi-automatic shots in six directions and the Homing Shot which tracks enemies all around the screen.

The other three weapons are Missile based which vary from Red straight-firing Rockets and Green Homing Missiles. There is also the Border item which surrounds the front of the ship, keeping it from crashing into foreground objects. The only other Items include Power-Ups which increase the ship's standard shot power and Bonus Points that appear in the sign of Dollar signs.

External links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/air-buster
• Air Buster at Arcade History
• Contemporary magazine review at Solvalou.com ("Air Blaster")
• Aero Blasters Megadrive/Genesis review from Mean Machines Archive
  Mean Machines
  Mean Machines was a market-leading multi-format gaming magazine released between 1990 and 1992 in the United Kingdom. Its style was popular with gamers of the time for its irreverent humor, anarchic editorial tone and style, and its sometimes outrageously outspoken reviews.- Origins :In the late...
  
  
• Aero Blasters Logo at www.vnotesonline.com