Acrobat Mission

Nintendo console exclusive

The players takes controls on one of two surviving fighters pilots, 'Jet' a male pilot and 'Nova' a female pilot and both flying the Icarus, a fast and powerful space-fighter, which comes equipped with a Standard laser. Two more weapons are available throughout the game - the wide shot (W) which spreads out in front of the ship and the Hurricane shot (H) which fires clusters of rotating balls of energy. Holding the fire button charges up a special attack and each weapon features a different energy blast and damage factor. The ships can also hold a maximum of two smart-bombs, one under each wing - although they can be activated by the players, they also do fall off easily and can be detonated by enemy shots.

Released: 1991
Platforms: Arcade SNES
Genres: Arcade Shoot 'em up Shooter
Developers: UPL
Publishers: Taito
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Third person Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Science fiction
Country: Japan

About

Acrobat Mission is a 1991 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed by UPL and published by Taito. A port to the Super Famicom developed by Micronics was released in 1992.

›Story

At the year 2100 A.D. Humans were exterminated by their own self-destructive nature leaving behind the consequences of environmental degradation on earth and were forced to escape to Mars leaving a bio-computer for environmental recuperation of earth to preparing the blue planet for future recolonization. But one day a half a century after humans arrived, mars was attacked by strange flying objects. To fight these enemies, the director general of the Defence Agency organized the task force army and started quickly the dogfight with invaders to neutralize the invasion.

The operation was called 'Acrobat Mission' as it exceeded the technical limits of the pilots.

Keywords

shoot 'em up
shmup

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Players start the game equipped with the default weapon, the Standard Shot: a semi-automatic laser weapon. Though moderately powerful, the Standard Shot cannot be upgraded or charged. Once the player has lost a significant number of lives and their selected weapon his lost its upgrades, the Standard Shot will once again take over.

Two other weapons are selectable to the player, one of which is the Wave Shot (Wide in the Arcade version). The Wave Shot is a spread shot that increases in size, numbers and strength. When charged, the Wave Shot can unleash a short range, but powerful laser blast that increases in width and strength when Wave icons are collected. The other weapon is the Hurricane Shot, a unique area-effect weapon that encircles the ship clockwise when fired before flying forward. When charged, the Hurricane Shot fires a ball of energy across the screen, but there is a one-second delay every time the shot is fired.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Acrobat Mission on their September 1, 1991 issue as being the fourteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.