Games of the 8-, 16- & 32-bit era

Air Buster

Title	Air Buster
First release	1990
Developer	Kaneko
Publisher	Kaneko
Platforms	Arcade, Mega Drive / Genesis, PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16
Genre	shooter game
Also known as	Air Buster: Trouble Specialty Raid Unit · Aero Blasters · Aero Blasters: Trouble Specialty Raid Unit
Players	1–2 players
Co-op	Yes
ESRB rating	E Everyone
Releases	Arcade: 1990-01-01 (NTSC) PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16: 1990-01-01 Mega Drive / Genesis: 1991-01-31 (NTSC-J), 1991-01-31 (NTSC-U)
Wikidata ID	Q2039855

Air Buster has its roots in such scrolling shoots as R-Type, Gradius and Truxton. Its two-player simultaneous action is a relatively unique twist on the genre.

Description: TheGamesDB (community-contributed, no licence stated; internal use only)

View on Wikidata Read on Wikipedia

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), gaps filled from TheGamesDB and Arcade Database (ADB). Only retro platforms tracked by this site are listed; the year is the earliest release date recorded on Wikidata.

Sources

Wikidata (Q2039855) · last updated 2026-09-27 · CC0

TheGamesDB (7891) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (3864,33623) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (4909) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

Arcade Database (ADB) (airbustr) · last updated 2026-10-02 · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · internal use only

Arcade Database ADB

MAME romset	`airbustr`
Title at ADB	Air Buster: Trouble Specialty Raid Unit (World)
Manufacturer	Kaneko (Namco license)
Year	1990
Genre	Shooter / Flying Horizontal
Players	2
MAME driver status	GOOD

Artwork: ADB (Arcade Database); artwork © original manufacturer (Kaneko (Namco license)); snaps by ProgettoSnaps via ADB. Non-free, internal use only (hotlinked, not downloaded).

Scraping using Arcade Database by motoschifo · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · romset via Wikidata P2451 (wikidata-qid) · fetched 2026-10-02 16:33 UTC · no fields filled (other sources take precedence)

Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded, NTSC release) · © Kaneko · internal use only

1 / 6 Box art Box art (front) (NTSC)

Image credits

Box art (1): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded, NTSC release) · © Kaneko · internal use only. TheGamesDB page

Box art, Screenshots, Logos (5): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded) · © Kaneko · internal use only. TheGamesDB page

Sprites

No sprite sheets yet. Find sprites on The Spriters Resource ↗ /

Videos

PC Engine Longplay [005] Aero Blasters (JP)

World-of-Longplays · PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 version · longplay · 28:37auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:42 UTC

Arcade Longplay [147] Air Buster #shmup#arcade#kaneko#namco

By Urien84 Longplays · Arcade version · longplay · 25:15auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:41 UTC

"Auto-matched" videos were found automatically (title + platform match via the YouTube Data API) and may occasionally be wrong. Videos are hosted by YouTube (embedded via youtube-nocookie.com; nothing loads from YouTube until you press play) and belong to their channels.