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Battle
Ace
バトルエース
30 Nov 1989 |
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In 1989 the PC
Engine was at the peak of its powers, but the arrival of Sega's Mega
Drive (29 Oct 1988) made NEC panic.
Caught up in a mind-frenzy
over the prospect of the MD gnawing into their
market share, they came up with a panicked solution:
the Supergrafx, a half-hearted upgrade that only
offered a few minor tweaks to the PC Engine's already
efficient framework. Third party developers didn't go anywhere near the machine, and Battle Ace was the only title available on launch.
Simply put, Battle Ace is After
Burner (1987) in a cockpit. The game is solid, but it does smell like technological showcase for
the new format, with speedy gameplay and zooming visuals serving
as bait for potential sales.
In all fairness it does provide its fair share of thrills and spills. The gameplay is phenomenally smooth, and the pacing of the events provides plenty of memorable moments. Act 5, 'Asteria', is a great laugh: it propels you
through space head-on into dozens of
formations of trigger-happy alien denizens, through
clouds of meteorites and space debris. It's great stuff...
Get through that one unscathed and you'd do Han Solo
proud.
Battle Ace is worth a try. Not only
is it a small piece of gaming history, but it's also
a surprisingly efficient venture into a genre that in its day was
seldom explored with any success.
Rating:  |
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Battle
Ace
バトルエース
SUPERGRAFX |
DETAILS
| Format |
SuperGrafx |
| Released |
30
Nov 1989 |
| Publisher |
Hudson
Soft |
| Product
ID |
HC89026 |
| Size
(cm) |
14.2
x 12.4 x 1.1 |
| Weight
(kg) |
0.10 |
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Launch
release for the PC Engine Supergrafx, first of only 5 titles produced for the format.
Give it a try -
you might be pleasantly
surprised.
Cardboard sleeve, standard
PCE case, 4Mbit HuCard,
8-page colour manual.
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Battle
Ace is very much a straightforward game: simply make your way to
the end of each stage, and shoot down the boss.
A good trick is to set both the I and II
buttons on autofire: guns and missiles will fire automatically,
so you can focus on piloting.
Also, a good trick to dodge missiles is to keep rotating the ship
around in a circle (top right - bottom right - bottom left - top
left etc). This works quite well - but not during the obstacle courses.
Completing the game sees it restart with the difficulty increased. |
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'Battle
Ace' and 'Hudson Soft' are registered trademarks of Hudson Soft
Ltd.
'PC Engine', 'Supergrafx' and 'NEC' are registered trademarks of
NEC Corporation
Battle Ace TM & © 1989 Hudson Soft All Rights Reserved
Page content, design & layout © 2012 Arcade Gear |
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