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ACE OF ACES by Atari
This game is a flight simulator, and a very good one at that. I have not played any of the other three flight games on the 7800, so have no opinion of how it stacks up to the competition, but its a beautiful game regardless. The main premise is that you have to complete a series of missions, ranging from dogfighting to bombing u-boats. At the title screen, you can quickly select to train for an individual mission, actually do it, or just take a crack at all of them in one shot. There are four different objectives in all, which give the game some nice doses of variety. Once you've chosen your destiny, an ugly photo album depicting your takeoff shows up, followed by you hitting the air and ready to take out some nazi trash. I think they're nazis, anyway. Whatever. Doesn't matter, as long as the violence is there. Sweet violence . . . but I digress.
The controls are rather sluggish, and it takes a while to figure out how to keep your plane level, but the game makes up for this in spades by its over all neatness. You get to actually load up your plane, deciding how many missles, bullets, and fuel canisters you'll take along. There are four different views (cockpit, left wing, right wing, and bomb bay) and they all play an integral part in the game. Usually you'll hear bullets whizzing by you, turn left, and see a sumbitch cutting you down from the side! Also, you can control thrust, engine speed, flaps, boost, neat stuff. Your engines can catch fire, and you'll have to use a fire extingusher. This can happen when flying in a storm, getting shot, or just turning the engines on too much. And for the bombing runs, you open the bay doors and let fly some old fashioned death and destruction. Nice . . . A pretty complex game, with a lot of factors to keep track of. Fortunately, the graphics are good, more than up to the task. Everything looks nice, and the different viewpoints are a nice touch of realism usually lacking in 7800 games. The enemies look kinda bland, but at least you know what they are. There is no sound really, just the droning of your engines, the occasional alarm, and the sweet kiss of good old american lead tearing someone to pieces. But that doesn't detract from the game at all, as the sounds are all purely functional. A great game, and highly recommended.
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