I can offer only one piece of advice to you. Stay clear of tall buildings for at least a week after playing “AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – A reckless disregard for gravity.” You WILL have the urge to climb to the top and leap to an oh so bloody death. I’ve said my piece. Now do as you wish. But doing so wouldn’t be half as fun as this game. It may look like a silly name, but I’d bet my belt loops that you scream like that countless
times before it’s over. I hope so anyway or perhaps I’m just a sissy.

This is Dejoban games’ thirteenth release. A prolific producer since 1999, they have a few titles you may know of, most notably the Beautiful Katamari style “The Wonderful End of the World” which is available on Steam. This game is focused around base jumping. You have to leap from tall buildings and score the highest you possibly can using a variety of scoring methods before you reach the bottom. Of course none of this matters if you forget to deploy your parachute, which happens more than you’d think. Your brain will be calling out “HIT THE SPACE BAR.” Instead you’ll scream at your monitor and run downstairs to hide in a cupboard. Trust me.

The bulk of your score will be made up of “hugs” and “kisses” which are scored by getting to and staying close to buildings without actually flying into them. You have to balance this with trying to smash through scoring plates, spraying graffiti, flipping off protestors, giving the thumbs up to supporters, smashing into birds and racking
up stunt scores by taking the most difficult routes. There’s a hell of a lot to remember, but you’re lowered into this slowly and with tutorials that help you get to grips with what eventually becomes a multitasking nightmare.

There are eighty levels in total which are unlocked using a currency called “teeth”. The higher your score on a level, the more teeth you will receive. This is based on a star rating system. There’s no getting around going back and perfecting levels in order to be able to afford some of the later ones. The levels are really designed to make you rethink your approach. Which way down will allow me the most kisses? Am I missing an available stunt by not taking that way? Where are the protestors hiding? Oh yes. That one will pop up regularly. Where are those damn protestors?
The levels progress from simplistic designs that seem to have a specific purpose about them – for example, two designed specifically for score plate smashing – to the last set of levels which put together all the different skills you have learned from the start. The outcome will be based purely on your skills as a player. You’ll no longer have time to think, just react. It’s simply Fantastic.

If this wasn’t enough for a player, there are also unlockable mini features. And these aren’t your typical “concept art” or “commentary”. These are unique and absolutely hilarious comedy sketches worthy of an award. I won’t list them all and ruin the surprise for you, but a couple of my favorites were “How to deal with accidental time travel” and “Grandma”. You wait and see. These are all narrated by some rather excellent voice actors which only amplify the humor. In fact all the voice acting in the game is good. The only gripe I have is the newscaster will occasionally start speaking in an apathetic manner on something completely off topic. I can see what they were trying to do, but after some time he just stops being funny and grows irritating. Luckily this wasn’t the case with the soundtrack.

I cranked my 5.1 Dolby up and sucked it all in. A wide variety of excellent instrumentals ranging from techno to surfer rock. They help get your heart racing along with the momentum of the gameplay. The sound effects don’t fall short either. The wind whistling past your ears throws you into the driver’s seat with even more realism and the smashing of glass as you pound through score plates or the final squawk of a bird as the feathers fly grabs you by the ears.

The graphics aren’t mind blowing, but the game does have a unique charm about it. It’s incredibly colorful. There’s plenty of attention to detail and more indication of Dejoban’s humor with electronic billboards put up sporting various funnies. There’s traffic flying about the place which helps remind you that this is set in the future. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that and just assume you’re in a virtual reality suite. Sadly, I can’t see a significant leap in graphical standard since their 2004 game “Inago Rage.” A little more development would have been awesome, but everything is still pretty, none the less.

Most of the levels have at least some degree of replayability. But once you’ve finished the game, I don’t know how much you’re going to want to play the levels that you have exhausted by trying to obtain those 5 star ratings. I can see me picking this up again in a few weeks time when my blood pressure goes down. A leader board would be great with the concentration of the game being on scores, but this is a minor blemish, as are most of AAAaaa’s problems and with a level editor in the works, this really is worth the wonga at $15 (Now Only $10).

It’s quite clear from playing AAAaaa that the folks at Dejoban games are brilliant fun! And I can’t help, but wonder why this game hasn’t been made before? I do cast my mind back to playing Pilot Wings on my Nintendo 64 and see some similarities, but I don’t remember enjoying that anywhere near as much as this.