Time Crisis 4 Review

By Mike D'Alonzo - Posted Aug 27, 2007
Mike D'Alonzo

Fly the unfriendly skies with an eye toward killing your assistant before he unleashes hell on the world. Here's Time Ace for the Nintendo DS, and X-Play has a review, of course.

The Pros
  • Lots of missions, planes, and power-ups
The Cons
  • Touchy controls
  • Poor hit-detection
  • Enemies can shoot through walls

The world is filled with good, if unremarkable action games. Sometimes, an otherwise adequate game gets dragged down by some quirky design issues.  That’s Time Ace in a nutshell.

Time After Time

Time Ace ReviewAs a 3D shooter in the spirit of the Star Fox games, Time Ace ain’t half bad… but the plot is.  The laughable story tacked on between missions has our hero, Dr. Clock (Come on, guys.  Dr. Clock?  Seriously?), chasing his nefarious lab assistant though time to stop him from using weapons from the future to take over the planet. Ignoring the obviously deficiencies in the story, players will instead focus on piloting all manner of flying machines through nearly twenty levels of shooting and dodging mayhem.  Things don’t start off well.  The first mission appears overly difficult for players attempting to master the touchy controls and spotty aiming of your craft.

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Time Drags On

Time Ace ReviewGet past that hump and Time Ace settles into a consistent and unchallenging rut for most of the game.  There’s not a lot here to get excited about.  The levels are a mishmash of canyons, oceans, mountains, and cities with little going on to make them feel unique or even plausible.  On one level, most of the mission has you flying around a desert canyon before you suddenly stumble upon New York City.

The last few levels get more interesting and difficult, but Time Ace never quite feels like a comfortable, fun play.  Enemies have the amazing ability to shoot at the player through solid objects. If you deviate from the linear path, the game will correct your course for you, occasionally sending your plane right into a tree or cliff face.  This kind of thing sucks any enjoyment you might get in mastering the game.

Time’s Up

For the hardcore action fans that really need a fix, I suppose Time Ace might be worth a look.  There are multiple difficulty levels, plenty of planes and power-ups to collect, and multiplayer battles for you and all your friends who also bought a copy of the game.  But really, your money is probably better spent on a game that’s at least trying to be fun.

Article by: Greg Bemis