I first heard of Aerial_Knight (aka Neil Jones) when he was working on his first solo game, Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield — an endless runner set in his hometown of Detroit. After that he went on to create a sequel, Aerial_Knight’s We Never Yield. The sequel was another endless runner which greatly expands on the protagonist’s (Wally’s) story and added new co-op gameplay.

His third game Aerial_Knight’s DropShot released today. While this is a different kind of game, it still feels very familiar after playing his first two games. On Aerial_Knight’s DropShot, Neil worked with a team of three other developers to create his first non-endless runner game. There’s a great deal of shared DNA between these three titles.

Aerial_Knight’s DropShot

I’ve been playing Aerial_Knight’s DropShot for the past few weeks, and this is a new direction for Neil. At the same time it also feels very inspired by his previous work — both in look, feel, and gameplay style.

With his first two games Neil proved he has the skills to create powerful and precise endless runners. While Aerial_Knight’s DropShot is not another endless runner, you are still endlessly falling from the sky. It’s more of a free-falling FPS (First-Person Shooter), but the precision is still there. There are plenty of obstacles on your way to the ground.

You play as Smoke Wallace, who was bitten by a radioactive dragon as a kid. He turned purple and gained the power of being able to shoot “finger bullets.” Also, that same dragon ate his family and he’s out for revenge. Today, Smoke is grown up and spends his time jumping out of planes hunting down dragons and any goons that get in his way — sometimes he competes in the occasional sky race against his nemesis.

Aerial_Knight’s DropShot adds the power of “finger bullets” (or a shooting mechanic). As you fall through the skies it’s all about timing and concentration. Sure, you may be free-falling out of an airplane with no parachute at however many MPH and counting. You have to mentally slow down and plan out your shots to take out enemy goons.

The player has the choice to complete each level to the best of their ability and move on, or take the completionist route and take out all targets for a high score and S-rank status. Taking the second approach (the completionist route) requires planning out the perfect line to take out each target, collect coins, ride air pockets, and reload by shooting ammo balloons. The game can be as simple or complicated as the player wants it to be.

Anytime I miss a target with a finger shot, it messes with my flow. It’s fine since each level is short and simple to restart. Still, if I try to shoot too quickly and miss, I go ballistic until I run out of finger bullets. Concentration and waiting for the perfect shot is a much better technique. Of course, there are times when a target flies by and you have to be quick to get the shot — most of the time I am not.

The whole free-falling and shooting targets was tough at first, but I quickly got used to it by taking my time. I’m no pro, but I can get the S-rank after a few attempts.

Aerial_Knight Vibes

What makes a game an Aerial_Knight vibe?

First off, there’s Neil’s afro-futurist art style from the first two games, which also carries into this third game. Aerial_Knight’s DropShot features more of an action-movie take on his art style. You can still tell these games were all created by the same artist.

There’s also the music. Neil previously collaborated with his good friend Danime-Sama (aka Daniel Wilkins) on those first two games. Daniel was a part of the early stages of development with Neil, but unfortunately passed away before the real work started. The game still features some of his tracks, and a beautiful tribute to him in the end credits. A big part of the first game for me was the original music.

Aerial_Knight’s DropShot lets you play your own way. Meaning, you can choose how hard you want the game to be as you complete each level. The player ultimately chooses if it’s time to move onto the next level or try for a higher score.

Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield and Aerial_Knight’s We Never Yield did the same thing, but in a different way. Those games let you choose your difficulty from Normal to Insane. Do you want to have a more chill experience, where the music and animation slows at each trigger point — jump, vault, or slide? Or do you want everything to remain constant with no cues? Also, did you beat each level in one flawless run, or did you die a bunch and get the most out of the checkpoints?

These three Aerial_Knight games are the types of games I like to keep loaded on my console or PC. There’s always time to jump back in and go for a high score, or play through a couple of levels. The gameplay is simple to understand. You can easily pass the controller to someone new and see if they can beat your high score. You can also play together locally in Aerial_Knight’s We Never Yield.

Thanks Neil

I also want to shout out Neil for being the first guest on the myVGBC Podcast. I started this site as a place for me to share my love for video games, because in 2020 (during the height of the pandemic) we were all playing way too many video games. I was looking for a way to turn my gaming habits into something useful.

I started writing about whatever games I was playing at the moment and trying to find a different point of view. Early on, I reached out to Neil to see if I could talk to a game developer and he immediately said yes. We had a great chat and I’m happy he’s still making great games with his strong point of view. This all led to me reaching out and creating relationships with more-and-more developers and game studios.

Each of Neil’s games also have a powerful message of “Never Yielding.” Anytime you lose a level instead of asking “Continue or Quit/Exit/Escape” the word YIELD is there instead. I asked him why he has stuck to using this word and the concept of “Never Yielding” and here’s what he said:

“We use the term Never Yield a lot because it’s almost like a dare at this point to me. Just seeing it makes you not want to give up and play just one more time and I think that is a good mentality to have with a lot of things.”

-from Neil Jones (aka Aerial_Knight)

---

*myVGBC was provided with a review copy for Aerial_Knight’s DropShot by the developer.