Aer: Memories Of Old Switch Review

Aer: Memories of Old is the latest in a long line of games that have seen success on Other Formats and is now ported over to Nintendo Switch.

Overview

The premise of the game is straightforward, you play a character called Auk that has the ability to transform into a bird. By doing so, it gives you the ability to travel between islands in the sky (not unlike those in Skyward Sword) and collect the shards of a tablet located across three temples. It would be remiss at this point not to mention the length of the game; it’s short. And by short, I mean roughly 3 hours.

There is a degree of challenge in these temples, with it being a combination of puzzle solving and a bit platforming. It would have been nice if there had been more of this on offer, but sadly it isn’t the case. However, despite it’s short length, it is one of the more relaxing games I’ve played in a long time. The length of it is a perfect fit for Nintendo Switch in handheld mode, since you would be easily able to shoot through it in a long train/plane ride.

The flying mechanics in the game is exactly what a lot of people wanted in Skyward Sword, but that did fall a bit short thanks to the motions controls in it. It honestly just feels so natural and whilst playing it, I had a permanent smile on my face.
Plot wise, the furthest I’ll delve into this is that you’re on a quest to stop a big bad. It’s a really beautiful, if somewhat simplistic story, but it’s one that you should really experience for yourself.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, the game does look beautiful. This is one of the benefits of a game made in Unity in that it does offer the ability to create truly stunning games. Along with how great it feels to fly through the sky, it looks so stunning that you do get lost in it. Likewise, when traversing inside the temples to look for the shards, the lighting model used makes you feel as though you are stuck within a temple. Let’s not beat around the bush here; this isn’t a game made with a AAA budget on hand. Despite that, it ticks the box looks wise.

Much like the graphics adds to this games charm, so does the audio. Apologies again for referencing Zelda, but the relaxed and subtle music in Aer could just as easily fit into a Zelda game. This in itself is a major pat on the back to the developers for being able to come up with such an excellent score. Even the sound effects when flying is brilliant. It does genuinely feel immersive and you’re totally sucked into the games realm.
Whilst the game is brilliant, one thing that did shock me was how the game would face random drops in the framerate. This seemed to be almost random, though, and it certainly didn’t take anything way from the overall experience.

Aer: Memories of old is available now on Nintendo eShop.