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Review by Felix Arabia
June 25, 2007

Clock and Scythe, two normally inanimate objects, are used as proper names for two super genius scientists. One, a warmongering malcontent fixated on conquering the world. The other, a supreme do-gooder determined to stop his foe in his tracks. Things weren’t always so hostile between the two, however. They once worked together. Clock, the valiant scientist and Scythe, the schemer, were actually good buddies until they completed a time traveling device during the early months of 1914. With the tantalizing prospect of traveling to any time in history, the two scientists parted ways, each determined to leave his mark on the fate of the world.

…

It’s times like these where I wish the observed exhibit was as sinister as the above intro. Time Ace does indeed put you as the stout scientist turned pilot, Clock, through a throng of rail-shooting action starting at the twilight of World War I en route to the far distant future of space. The entire journey is a wasted opportunity of tiresome levels, banal aircraft, and tepid voice acting. Things could have been so much better, but any interesting ideas such as time travel and psychotic madmen intoxicated with the concept of world domination were ham-handedly executed.

Where Panzer Dragoon and Star Fox were at the forefront of the rail-shooting genre during its inception, slop such as Time Ace now happily greets the poor players (un)prepared to dabble in the dark arts of video game laziness. And at a bargain price, I find it highly likely that this aerial misadventure will scar more than a handful of rail-shooting junkies expecting this to be so much more.

For starters, Time Ace is EASY. It’s forgiving, and even though Scythe’s flying war legions are constantly bombarding Clock’s lone fighter throughout the depths of time, hardly ever will you find their presence anything more than mere trifles. You’re given numerous lives to work. Too many, in fact. You can afford to errantly plow through the straightforward snoozefest stages without ever having to worry about seeing the “Game Over” screen.

These stages, pitiful excuses at portraying a variety of locales throughout the twentieth century and beyond, are often displayed as boring brown canyons with towering spires. One early mission has Clock in a muddy plane dubbed “Fighter” going through winding canyons replete with towering redwoods outside of . . . New York City? Another stage has you racing to save London, but before you can get there you must fly over . . . dozens of tiny islands? The levels don’t make geographical sense. Even so, if they were at least entertaining, this would be a forgivable issue. But we’re talking about nineteen boring-as-hell levels.

They look muddy and murky, offering the finest collection of doldrums and dark tones I’ve seen in a game as of late. This boring palette applies to your fighter and to the enemies you’ll engage. They’re often kept to only a handful of different types throughout the duration of a time period, slowly advancing in design, though not in power, speed, or intelligence. Where the opening World War I level has you shooting crimson biplanes with your brown biplane dubbed “Biplane” as soon as they appear on screen, the penultimate stage in the game – a mission set in the wild void of space – has you shooting greenish space jets with your brown space fighter dubbed “Space Fighter.”

You’ll kill Scythe in that mission, discharging a barrage of rockets into his steel vessel, saving the fate of mankind as a result. His wild rampage caused you to suffer through eighteen incalculably boring – though playable – missions, yet there is still one final stage for the road. As an encore for the diligent Time Ace player, you must control Clock through the arrestingly grayish landscapes abounding in ancient Atlantis. Before it sank into the ocean.

And for some reason, you’ll be fighting planes in Ancient Greece. Two thousand years before Christ.

With something as silly as that, it comes as a surprise that Time Ace takes itself so seriously. Shortly into the game, you’ll meet a saucy Russian vixen named Nadia. She offers a whole ten lines for you to hear over and over throughout your journey. She’ll mouth off moving lines such as how your mom would be proud of you for tackling a boss. She always serves as Clock’s love interest, but their intimacy is even more timid than Mario’s and Princess Peach’s on again / off again relationship.

I have to wonder here. Wouldn’t it have made more sense for Clock to have just gone back in time to the night prior to Scythe going postal? He could have simply killed the nefarious figure in his sleep, and the entire world would never have had to suffer from his wicked intent. The game would not have needed to been made, either, saving me the two hours it took to beat this unspectacular time traveling wreck. Nevertheless, Konami still published Time Ace after Trainwreck (an appropriate company name) had the gravitas to develop this turkey.

Unfortunately, Clock’s time machine doesn’t work in real life. I’m doomed to suffer the harm from actions past.

Rating
3	It makes Star Fox 64 look hard.
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Staff Score (Avg): 3.0 User Score (Avg): N/A Press Score (Avg): N/A
Reviews: 1 Guides: 1 Cheats: 0 Ratings: 1	High Scores: 0 Screenshots: 0 Videos: 0

Title: Time Ace
Genre: Flight Simulation
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Trainwreck Studios
Release Date: June 12, 2007
ESRB: E10+

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