History YMMV / AeroFighters

* HilariousInHindsight: The ''Aero Fighters'' series share many similarities with its SpiritualSuccessor series ''VideoGame/Strikers1945'', made by former Video System staff at Creator/{{Psikyo}}. Both series feature a ReformulatedGame of the second entry on a competing system (''Aero Fighters Special'' on Sony ZN-1; ''Strikers 1945 Plus'' on UsefulNotes/NeoGeo), and a third game featuring completely different planes (UsefulNotes/WorldWarII fighters in ''Aero Fighters 3''; modern fighters in ''Strikers 1945 III'')

** After the first game was released, its director Shin Nakamura left Video System over CreativeDifferences (Nakamura wanted to keep making vertical shmups in the traditional 3:4 aspect ratio, while Video System wanted to focus on the UsefulNotes/NeoGeo which only supported a standard 4:3 aspect ratio) and founded Creator/{{Psikyo}}, which used ''Aero Fighters'' as the blueprint for the many vertically-scrolling shmups it would release until its bankruptcy in 2001. Psikyo's first two games, ''VideoGame/SengokuAce'' and ''Gunbird'' were especially similar to ''Aero Fighters'' as they retained the mechanic of the highest power-up level having limited ammo.

* BadExportForYou: The European version of ''Special'' removes most of the between-stage dialogues and the endings and there is no saving, making it impossible to save high-scores and unlocked planes.

* WatchItForTheMeme: The game is pretty standard as far as vertically-scrolling shooters go; it's instead best known for having dialogue for every possible combination of pilots available, sometimes due to amusing premise (you have a ''dolphin'' for a fighter pilot and that's just one tip of the iceberg), sometimes due to [[BlindIdiotTranslation questionable translation quality]].
* WidgetSeries: Mainly because of the huge contrast. The characters and some of the final bosses are wacky, but the rest of the game looks like any other generic military shoot'em up.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Aerofighters Assault features none of the quirks and jokes from the ShootEmUp games aside from returning characters and CallBack FinalBoss, the game wasn't even made by the original developers, and the game plays like a poor man's ''Videogame/AceCombat''.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8toaCZbnz0 The boss theme]] from ''Aero Fighters 3''. It starts off with GratuitousEnglish lyrics that make as much sense as they are intelligible, and then turns into a bass-thumping drum-and-bass piece to set the mood for destroying a large battleship/tank/whatever.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In the second game, one level you can visit New York City and destroy the World Trade Center for points. Yikes!

** The Fortress is ''[[UpToEleven extremely]]'' resilient, and protected by a ton of Anti-Air emplacements, making a head-on attack suicidal. It also has enemy aircraft around, like always. Even if/when you take everything out but the boss, remember the Fortress itself is target-less once its adjacent SAM sites are gone. In other words, [[FakeDifficulty you have to manually aim your weapons at it, and at a specific area to boot!]]. This makes your missiles (the best and usually your main way to kill enemies) virtually useless..

* BadExportForYou: The European version of ''Special'' removes most of the between-stage dialogues and the endings and there is no saving, making it impossible impossible to save high-scores and unlocked planes.

* GoodBadBugs: In ''3'', if you play as Mao-Mao and hold down the bomb button, the [[TimeStandsStill time stop]] will occur as usual...but the five-orb spread she fires out will remain in place around her ship until you let go of the button, letting you save it up for a later attack.
* HilariousInHindsight: The ''Aero Fighters'' series share many similarities with its SpiritualSuccessor series ''VideoGame/Strikers1945'', made by former Video System staff at Creator/{{Psikyo}}. Both series feature a ReformulatedGame of the second entry on a competing system (''Aero Fighters Special'' on Sony ZN-1; ''Strikers 1945 Plus'' on UsefulNotes/NeoGeo), and a third game featuring completely different planes (World War II fighters in ''Aero Fighters 3''; modern fighters in ''Strikers 1945 III'')

** Glenda in single-player only. For a BossGame, bosses are nearly immobile and Glenda has all the tools to go straight to them and defeat them quickly. Her great defense not only makes her resistant to attacks, but completion with high health increases point score enough to unlock the 1st bonus stage and going straight to bosses quickly with ness chance of death unlocks the 2nd bonus stage. Her 30 MM gun having no recoil allows her to destroy the lesser enemies quickly, quickly interrupts air pilot fights if your teammates are in the defensive (especially in the Antarctica mission that is just the air pilot fight and no giant boss), and continuously do damage to bosses. Her rockets, while not homing and her only weakness, still hits the bosses and does great damage. Her special weapon ([=FAE=]) is the ace of it all, doing great damage to bosses and everything else around it. Most will choose her just to complete the game and unlock Spanky quickly.

** Glenda in single-player only. For a BossGame, she can go straight to the bosses because of their lack of mobility. Glenda has all the tools to go straight to them and defeat them quickly. Her great defense increases point score and completion speed to unlock the bonus levels. Her 30 MM gun having no recoil allows her to destroy the lesser enemies quickly, quickly interrupts air pilot fights if your teammates are in the defensive (especially in the Antarctica mission that is just the air pilot fight and no giant boss), and continuously do damage to bosses. Her rockets, while not homing and her only weakness, still does great damage to bosses. Her special weapon ([=FAE=]) is the ace of it all, doing great damage to bosses and everything else around it. Most will choose her just to complete the game and unlock Spanky quickly.

* ThatOneBoss: In ''Assault'', the Spriggan and the Fortress, both being {{Damage Sponge Boss}}es as well as {{Mighty Glacier}}s. The Spriggan is made hard primarily because of its accompanying enemy aircraft which will annoy you all throught the level, as well as the time ticking by and how you'll be hit hard and mercilessly by its weapons if you aren't smart about it.
** The Fortress is ''[[UpToEleven extremely]]'' resilient, and protected by a ton of Anti-Air emplacements, making a head-on attack suicidal. It also has enemy aircraft around, like always. Even if/when you take everything out but the boss, remember the Fortress itself is target-less once its adjacent SAM sites are gone. In other words, [[FakeDifficulty you have to manually aim your weapons at it, and at a specific area to boot!]]. This makes your missiles (the best and usually your main way to kill enemies) virtually useless. Averted if you are using [[GameBreaker Glenda]] (see above).
* ThatOneLevel: In ''Assault'', the Air Battle and Fortress levels. Air Battle is annoying because the best way to finish it quickly is to damage the boss as much as possible before it fully spreads its wings, as it won't fire back until it does. The problem is that there's lots of B-22s shooting at anything above their altitude level, and several enemy aircraft trying to kill your team, with there being at least 2 [[GoddamnedBats F-22As]]. If you ignore them, you'll find yourself eating a lot of bullets from one tailing you, and your team can easily be picked off without your support. If you go for them and don't down them quickly, you'll find yourself hard pressed for time to kill the boss before it destroys New York.

** Glenda in single-player only. For a BossGame, she can go straight to the bosses because of their lack of mobility. Glenda has all the tools to go straight to them and defeat them quickly. Her great defense increases point score and completion speed to unlock the bonus levels. Her 30 MM gun having no recoil allows her to destroy the lesser enemies quickly, quickly interrupts air pilot fights if your teammates are in the defensive (especially in the Antarctica mission that is just the air pilot fight and no giant boss), and continuously do damage to bosses. Her rockets, while not homing and her only weakness, still does great damage to bosses. Her special weapon ([=FAE=]) is the ace of it all, doing great damage to bosses and everything else around it.

** Glenda in single-player only. For a BossGame, she can go straight to the bosses because has all the tools to defeat them: good defense, an unlimited 30 MM gun that doesn't not recoil, rockets, and a special weapon (fae) that does good damage to bosses and everything else around it. Concerned about dogfights? Let the teammate AI handle them or simply use the 30 MM gun.

** The Fortress is ''[[UpToEleven extremely]]'' resilient, and protected by a ton of Anti-Air emplacements, making a head-on attack suicidal. It also has enemy aircraft around, like always. Even if/when you take everything out but the boss, remember the Fortress itself is target-less once its adjacent SAM sites are gone. In other words, [[FakeDifficulty you have to manually aim your weapons at it, and at a specific area to boot!]]. This makes your missiles (the best and usually your main way to kill enemies) virtually useless unless you're using Glenda, whose Rockets don't lock on, and therefore, always shoot out the full load.

** Fortress, meanwhile, gives you ''15'' minutes to destroy the Fortress, minutes you may find not sufficient if you don't work quickly and effectively. Going straight for the boss is suicide, since there's a TON of SAM sites around it that will shred you to pieces quickly if you don't pick them off one by one outside their targeting range. There's, of course, aircraft around to delay you. And when you DO destroy every SAM site around the boss, you'll find there's no target to lock on to--The boss is right there alright, but you can't lock onto it, meaning missile types where the damage done is reliant on lock-on are made virtually useless (for reference, most of your characters suffer from this problem; Glenda doesn't because her Rockets don't lock on, and Volk because his is just one missile, locked-on or not). To make matters worse, although the Fortress won't shoot back once it has no more SAM sites, it is very, ''very'', '''VERY''' resistant to damage, meaning you may find yourself pressed for time if you don't do everything up to this point effectively. And if you do run out of time, [[HopeSpot no worries, you don't get a Game Over...]] [[FromBadToWorse The Fortress will simply shoot at you.]] ''[[OhCrap With Ninja Beams.]]'' '''''[[ThisIsGonnaSuck Repeatedly.]]''''' The sad thing is, it can easily [[OneHitKill kill you with just one.]]

* {{Narm}}: The bad guys organization in ''Assault'' have the less than threatening name ''Phutta Morgana''.