Acrobat Mission is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released by UPL in 1991, licensed to Taito for manufacture and distribution. It was ported to Nintendo Super Famicom in 1992.

Story

In the year 2100, the Earth's environment has been devastated by its inhabitants, who have left to live on Mars. Before they left, the humans created a Bio-Computer assigned to replenish Earth's ecosystem. 50 years after terra-forming parts of Mars, they were attacked by hostile UFOs, so they set up an attack force to defend the humans of Mars. The main operation of attack is called "acrobat mission" because it exceeds the technical flying ability of the pilots.

In the arcade version, you can play as fighter pilots Jet or Nova to get the job done, but both were discluded from the Super Famicom port of the game, making the player's pilot anonymous as well as discarding Nova's custom color scheme.

Here however is the story, exactly as it appears at the beginning of the game:

"AD 2100: HUMANS EXTERMINATED BY THEIR OWN NATURE DISRUPTION AND ESCAPE TO MARS LEAVING BIO-COMPUTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RECUPERATION OF EARTH. ONE DAY HALF A CENTURY AFTER HUMANS ARRIVED, MARS WAS ATTACKED BY STRANGE FLYING OBJECTES. TO FIGHT THESE ENEMIES, THE DIRECTER GENERAL OF THE DEFENCE AGENCY ORGANIZED THE TASK FORCE ARMY AND STARTED THE DOG FIGHT WITH INVADERS QUICLY. THE OPERATION WAS CALLED "ACROBAT MISSION" AS IT EXCEEDED THE PILOT'S TECHNICAL LIMIT."

Weapons

Standard Shot: This is the player's default weapon: a semi-automatic laser weapon, though moderately powerful, it 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.

Wave Shot: 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.

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 pause every time the shot is fired.

Bombs: Bombs are collected by picking up Bomb icons. The player can only hold up to two bombs, but the two bombs are physically mounted under the ship's wings once collected. If an enemy shot hits one of the bombs, then the bomb will detonate, creating a destructive shield for the player. The player can manually detonate either bomb at will.

Defenses

The player's fighter ship has a number of different defenses at its disposal.

Jet exhaust: Whenever the player moves their ship in any given direction, a burst of flame will shoot out from the opposite direction the player moves the ship in. This applies to all directions: left, right, front, back and all four diagonal sides. This jet exhaust not only serves an aesthetic purpose, but it can also harm nearby enemies and destroy nearby objects.

Kamikaze: Unlike most shmups, whenever the player is hit, their ship will steer wildly out of control. Once this happens, a timer will appear near the ship which indicates how long the ship has until it explodes. The explosion of the player's ship will harm any nearby enemies.

Ship's armor: Because the ship is apparently well built, any kamikaze enemies or drifting objects that touch it will not damage or destroy the player's ship.

Record

Antonio R. Filho(Brazil, flutotal@yahoo.com.br) holds the official world record for this game with a maximum 279.900 points.

External links

• Acrobat Mission at Arcade History