Time Ace review

Off we go into the mild blue yonder

12DOVE Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Blowing up anything that moves

  • +

    Decent planes and environments

  • +

    Touchscreen repair mini-games

Cons

  • -

    Exceptionally bland

  • -

    Lack of any cool power-ups

  • -

    Absurdly short

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The concept of time travel is certainly appealing: who wouldn't jump at the chance to rectify personal regrets or prevent history's most brutal wars? In video games, this contrivance usually serves up a juicy excuse to whip up imaginative weapons, historic foes, and memorable arenas, but somebody forgot to tell Time Ace.

It's fitting that the first level sends you after an evil time traveler's locomotive, given that most of the game rides on rails. Though you might occasionally get to circle back on generators or buzz bosses, finding your route just means following the top screen's gyrating arrow. Trying to deviate from this preset course tends to result in being forcibly steered to an explosive death, but once you accept that you're riding a glorified rollercoaster you'll find that your only real frustrations relate to some mercifully uncommon instances of poor collision detection.

The resulting experience is remarkably simple and ridiculously short; cruise through nineteen epoch-hopping levels where you only ever need to decide what to shoot at next. Unfortunately, no matter how many floating power-ups you grab, the only remotely interesting weapon you'll ever acquire is a gun that fires green circles, and the endless waves of dull, slow-moving craft do nothing more than spray a handful of bullets and wait to be executed. The tedium is broken up by larger quarry like galleons, tankers, and a handful of repeating bosses, and a few of the later levels demand some tense flying through narrow spaces, but even then the core action remains a tepid shooting gallery. Only the Atlantis bonus level adds any offbeat mechanics to sink your teeth into.

More info

GenreAction
DescriptionFly everything from a bi-plane to a space ship as you pursue an evil time-traveler bent on world domination during the two most forgettable hours of your life.
Platform"DS"
US censor rating"Everyone 10+"
UK censor rating""
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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