Game Preview:Time Ace

Publisher: Konami
Developer: Trainwreck Studios
Platform Available: DS
Release date: Q2 2007

Dominate the skies once again with your DS in this new surprise game by Konami. As the name suggests, Time Ace has you flying aircrafts from various eras in environments that range from pre-World War settings to some futuristic space age. The game’s single-player campaign mode occurs over 9 distinctive eras, which consists a total of 19 missions. You start off with a simple plane, but as you progress through the levels, you get to fly more advanced planes like an F-15 and even some sort of weird spacecraft. The mission structure is also designed in a way such that you will get numerous objectives to complete in each level, including some that require you to defeat bosses and sub-bosses.

Time Ace is an on-rails plane shooter, but during some portions, it does allow some freedom. To keep players in the playing area, the developers have implemented invisible walls to box the battle areas in. The controls for Time Ace, unlike in Star Fox Command, relies mostly on the buttons for the movements and actions of your plane. For example, the d-pad is used to steer your plane, while you need to press the different face buttons for using the several weapons on your plane. The shoulder buttons, meanwhile, have been assigned to the job of doing aerial maneuvers. The top screen of the DS displays the action, with the lower screen showing you your radar and icons representing power-ups. You will be able to tap on these icons to activate the power-ups.

As far as graphics are concerned, the game is looking good. Textures are considerably detailed and each environment is filled with destructible objects. As of now, further details on the game remain scarce, but look forward to learning more about this game as it approaches its release date.