Nintendo Okie

My love of flying games goes all the way back to playing games in the arcades like Top Gun and After Burner. I also played a lot of Flight Simulator on the PC for a number of years. I even enjoyed things like the flying modes in Wii Sports and Pilotwings was a game I spent a lot of time in. I also think that’s why I have an affinity to inverted aiming controls, but that’s a whole different story. The 3DS is getting its first true flying combat game in the form of Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy. Is this going to be the first flying game worthy of time in the cockpit for the 3DS, or will it crash and burn?

What You Need to Know

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is a dog fighting game for the 3DS. You’ll engage in around 25 missions that all take place in the air against multiple types of enemies. You’ll encounter other enemy ace fighters, helicopters, ground defense, anti-air defenses and more in your bid to stop a group of rebels from overthrowing the government currently in power. There are dozens of real world aircraft, all modeled very realistically with a lot of detail, as well as numerous different types of missiles to choose from. Outside of the main campaign you’ll be able to engage in a number of side missions, including ones unlocked as you play them in the campaign, and survival missions that are designed to see how long you can last against oncoming waves of enemies.

Subtle, but Effective Use of the 3D

One of the things I’ve come to know on the 3DS is that the 3D effect is usually in your face. It’s usually very obvious that you’re looking at something that’s being displayed in 3D and it doesn’t always feel natural. Ace Combat is one of the first games I’ve ever played on the system that really took advantage of the 3D effect, but did it so subtly that you almost don’t even realize you’re looking at it in three dimensions. Things like the plane don’t immediately stand out as a 3D object, but if you push the slider down you notice a significant difference almost immediately.

The terrain features also don’t just pop out at you, like you expect. You can tell that they seem to occupy space, but it feels more natural; almost like you’re actually in the environments. The mountains stand up off the ground, and the areas where you’re flying through canyons really give you a good sense of space and it’s easy to tell just how far away from the terrain you are. At times I really felt like I was flying through the mountains.

It’s a great use of the 3D feature, and there is no noticeable dip in the performance of the game with the 3D on.

Solid Flight Model

The flight model of the game is very good. It’s very easy to get a handle on how each of the planes operates, and they’ll operate considerably different from one another. Some of the planes are much faster, but take more precision to operate in dogfights, while others will be able to seemingly turn on a dime while sacrificing some speed.

The planes all behave in very realistic manners. Turns can’t be performed instantly and you need to constantly be aware of your surroundings or you’ll end up flying straight into the side of a mountain or crashing into other fighters.

For veterans of this style of game you’re going to find it very easy to pull off any of the maneuvers you would hope that you can and you might not need to take advantage of the biggest feature in the game. It was a lot of fun to get out there and push the plane as far as it could go, push it to the stall point and then bring it back in with some well timed maneuvers.

Awesome At the Press of a Button

When you’re playing a flying game you always want to feel like you’re the most awesome pilot in the world, even if you would die a horrible, fiery death in real life. Ace Combat does something really nice to give you that feeling that you know everything there is to know about flying a plane. When you close in on enemy fighters your positioning indicator will turn yellow. When this happens quickly tap the Y button and you’re plane will go into a mini cut scene where it will do loops, immelmans, barrel rolls, or whatever is required to get your plane into position behind the enemy. This makes you feel like a real top gun and provides you with ample opportunities to get missile locks on the enemy.

Without this it would be very hard for rookie pilots to get into the proper position to take out enemy aircraft. Many dog fights would devolve into a game of chicken rather than a real cat & mouse type experience. It’s not always easy to pull off the necessary requirements to use this feature when you get later in the game, but it’s wholly satisfying when you do.

Wait, There Was a Story?

Yes, there is a story to the game. It’s one of a war between two powers; a country and rebels who are fighting against them. However, the story is told through 3D map projections by a voice in your head. There’s a small picture that accompanies this voice, but nothing that really identifies that person to you. All of the visuals are wire framed terrain features and polygonal aircraft.

I sat through all of the story features, but I never really cared why I was fighting to take down these rebels, other than the fact that they were labeled as rebels and it seemed like that’s what I was supposed to do. War stories thrive on telling the story of the characters involved, but you never even really get a chance to relate to your own character, much less anyone else on the battlefield.

Forgettable Bad Guys

For the most part the enemies you face will be named people who are around for a mission, and then gone because you’ve blown them out of the sky. There’s only one recurring enemy, who flies a red plane, but outside of a few snippets of conversation you never really learn about. You shoot them down, they came back a few missions later a bit more experienced and harder to kill. You shoot them down again and repeat until the end of the game. They appear seemingly at random, and don’t always seem to be connected to the enemy you’re fighting.

All of these characters are ultimately forgettable because you never get the chance to learn a lot about them. You never really find out why they’re fighting you and they are essentially nothing more than cannon fodder.

I think the developers were going for a bit of a Red Baron style character with the mysterious Z.O.E. fighter, but it failed to develop for me and I never cared that I was shooting down anyone because they never felt like real people.

Conclusion

There’s a lot of like about a game like Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy. While the story was mostly forgettable and the enemy characters felt like nothing more than virtual enemies that you don’t care about, the flying is a heck of a lot of fun. Earning the money to unlock new fighters and equipment never felt tedious and trying out new planes was interesting. The different aircraft available all feel different and you’ll find one that you really like to stick with. The lack of any multi-player options is a sad omission, but the single player dogfights will keep you engaged for the length of the campaign. If you’re in the mood for a good flight combat game then this would definitely be one that you should check out.

Final Score: 

Review copy of the game provided by Namco Bandai
Played through the single player campaign and a handful of survival missions.
Total Play Time: 5 hours