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jp's Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy (3DS)

[May 28, 2015 06:27:27 PM]

I made a poor decision: play on easy.

However, I still had a great time playing the game. I'm actually kind of amazed by how well the 3DS captures the Ace Combat experience (from my limited experience with only one other game in the series?). This was by no means an impoverished experience (though, arguably, the graphics are poorer that what you'd get on a recent console, BUT the last version I played was PS2...). I guess what I'm saying is that I'm amazed that the 3DS has games that feel like PS2 games I really enjoyed.

So, what is the Ace Combat experience?
a. Arcade-style flying around
b. Mission prep screens with icons, vector terrain meshes
c. Cool post-mission replays with icons for planes, colored ribbons showing trajectories, all taking place over vector terrain meshes
d. Anime characters

I really couldn't tell you what the story was (war against some rebels for some reason I don't recall) and the gameplay is very much like what I expected except for one feature I thought was pretty cool:

I'll call it an "action chase sequence". In a nutshell, there's an arrow that fills up when you are close to an enemy fighter and "chasing them". If it's filled up enough, you hit "y" and you trigger a short cut scene of your plane doing a cool move that results in your being right behind the enemy plane. It the ideal spot to launch some missiles and take them out. It's not a guaranteed kill, but it helps a lot.

I'm not sure if they were implemented as a "fix" (or improvement) due to the game being on a handheld, or if it's a feature that's part of the main series now, but I really enjoyed it. It basically makes you feel like a hot-shot pilot and makes lining up those locked missile shots much easier.

Given that the game is set in a fictional world, I don't really understand why they've licensed all these real-world planes. Perhaps I don't get it because I'm not a fan of fighter planes? I think the last one I played didn't have real planes...