 Review By: Eric Rehm |
Developer: | Trainwreck Studios |
| Publisher: | Konami | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Everyone 10+ | |
| # Of Players: | 1-4 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Wi-Fi (local) | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Time Ace is a third-person air combat game by Konami. The story follows the aptly named Dr. Clock as he pursues his former partner Dr. Scythe. The two developed a time machine, Scythe stole it, and now you’ve got to follow him through time and try to foil his attempts at controlling the world. You’ll upgrade your plane throughout the game’s different times, and you make the friend of a random Russian named Nadia.
The story is mainly told via overly long text blocks, with a random image above them. These really detract from the game, considering the amount of voice acting that is used later on. It doesn’t seem like it would be too hard to read those couple of paragraphs out loud, now does it? Apparently so, as the only voice acting we’re treated to is the repeated ‘Nice one ace,’ done by a pathetically bad Russian accent, after you’ve shot down a plane or two.
The story is annoying and convoluted regardless, so you really don't need to pay attention to the story anyway. It’d be too easy to simply have Dr. Clock go back in time, and stop Scythe before he even got the time machine, right? Also, you take Nadia from the first World War, and there are no consequences? No one's going to miss the plucky female Russian scientist?
Now it’s time to play the ‘repetitive levels’ game. We start the game in a biplane, and that’s about as original as it gets. You fly along and attack a train that Scythe is on… Once you destroy it, he miraculously moves a couple hundred yards away to some random castle with cannons. This is pretty much the same boss over and over again. It’s a stationary object with cannons firing at you, that you’ve got to destroy repeatedly…riveting. It’s pretty much the same pointless combat over and over, only changing once or twice throughout the whole game. Later on, there’s an area where time and space are disrupted, adding in some new obstacles. It could have been done a lot better, but even as mediocre as it was, it still made it a little more fun, which is to say ‘not so much’.
One of the biggest problems I had with the game was simply being able to turn around. Or rather, not being able to. There are a number of ‘bombing run’ style scenarios, where you’ll need to turn around to take out the ridiculously tougher mini bosses/regular bosses. You’re often stuck in a smaller area, where there are bland walls all around. So, you’re forced to make shorter circles, and then the fight takes much longer than it should. It’s just another random annoyance that you find too often in this game.
Another problem with these boss fights is the invisible wall. In a game like this you need boundaries, so you don’t get away from the main action. However, going only a little bit away from the target area will get you turned around instantly in this game, often times pushing you into an enemy that was following you, or into a wall. This was annoying when trying to make a decent circle around a ship, when suddenly you're turned around without warning, right into an enemy bomber. It just seemed like a last minute, tacked on addition that breaks the game in several places. It got so frustrating that I had to stop playing several times, just out of sheer annoyance.
Posted: 2007-12-06 20:00:46 PST