Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy - Nintendo 3DS

When I read the review for Ace Combat Assault Horizon on the PS3 and 360 (namely that it was terrible) I was worried about the version on the 3DS. What a difference the addition of the word "legacy" can make.As a veteran of the series who has watched the evolution over time I can say that while this one takes some steps back, it's overall a step forward, especially for being on a handheld platform.First, it introduces some simplifications that while they may sound like a bad idea for the Ace Combat series, actually seem to fit in perfectly. First the addition of action maneuvers (or whatever they are called). Basically, target enemy > get close to them > let a gauge on screen build up > when it gets full, hit the y button and you end up behind the enemy with a perfect shot lined up. If you don't let it fill all the way you can still get behind them but they are in a much better position to dodge. This may seem like sacrilege but it fits in perfectly because let's face it, Ace Combat has never been realistic in the strict sense of the word (it is more realistic than say...Call of Duty but that isn't saying much), but it has always been cinematic and most importantly a blast to play. It also perfectly meshes with the issue of not having enough buttons to do traditional Ace Combat controls. Also introduced are evasive maneuvers which basically are let missile get close to you > press Y + direction displayed on screen to dodge, possibly putting the enemy firing at you in front of you as they roar past. It's cinematic and really adds a sense of action to the game. Also, enemy aces can use these maneuvers as well, so that doesn't make things too unbalanced.Second, it makes the "upgrade" system seen in the PSP versions of the game and makes it work for all available planes. So you have engines, wing bits, and armor bits, and cockpit mods that you can tack on to planes to make them behave differently. Quite fun especially to really spec a plane a certain way (no defense, all speed mobility and stability if you feel lucky or skilled). Adds a way for people to really play "their way" in the game instead of being shoehorned into a certain play style. Also added were color schemes where you can change the colors yourself. I love this but feel it didn't go quite far enough (only two change-able colors, cool but feels kind of limited). Still, big improvements from the standard fare.As for the game itself, it's pretty standard Ace Combat fare, which is good! Blow things up get money buy planes fly through spaces intended only for large cars save the world defeat aces. What else is new. If you played and liked the good console iterations of this series, you'll like this one. The missions are shorter than those on its console brethren but I didn't find myself holding this against it as there is still plenty of content to go through. One slight issue I have with this iteration is that the ranking system for each mission is not necessarily "blow up all the things", some of them are "blow up the required targets in x time" which is really disorienting coming from the console versions which were always "blow up x number of things to get y rank", but this is probably more preference than a real complaint.Now this game is far from perfect. The simplified controls can make for some problematic situations the console versions simply don't end up with. For example the fact that to stop flying upside down you have to let the game auto roll you. This is not a huge deal most of the time but I have crashed a couple times because I couldn't pull up fast enough flying upside down and you really miss that ability to roll independently of yaw.Another place the game falls down is the 3D aspect of things. For some reason whenever I play this game I can't get the 3D to feel right, unlike the other 3DS games I've played. Not really sure how this works but I usually find myself seeing the cockpit or something double when I'm looking at the screen right. I usually play the game with 3D off for this exact reason.One other issue is that they seem to have screwed up unguided bombs for some reason. In most of the iterations of the game unguided bombs were the mother of all anti ground weapons. Landing them on ships with turrets or groups of things usually meant many things blown up all at once. The mother of all these bombs was the FAEB. In this game I can't hit squat with that weapon and watching the replays it's obvious the thing goes off but something about how the explosions are dealt with is wrong so it ends up blowing nothing up. This is much less of an issue than were this a console version as the missions are much less target rich and taking anti ground missiles is usually more efficient, but one annoyance I did note.Another step backwards was with the rocket pods. They were actually good in Ace Combat 6 but they have seemingly once again been relegated to Ace Combat Belkan War and earlier levels of uselessness. Minor complaint but something I noticed.Overall though, these are minor issues compared to the fact that a good Ace Combat game is on a Nintendo handheld. It feels and plays like an Ace Combat game and that's what's important, while at the same time optimizing the controls for handhelds and advancing some aspects of the series.

Great game and excellent story/aircraft! Brick City delivered a fantastic tough to find product!

Ace Combat has always held a special place in my heart. I played Ace Combat 4, 5 and Zero, and I was a huge fan of the series in my high school years. Even though the major console releases for the first Assault Horizon were pretty rough, I found Assault Horizon Legacy for the 3DS, and I took a shot. I have to say I am more than satisfied with how this game turned out.This has wonderful graphics and sound for a mobile game. Overall the scenery, lighting and sounds are beautiful. The game controls well, and the new system of rolling and yawing the aircraft was great once I got the hang of it. Several new maneuvers were added as well, like high G turns and the new "close-in" technique, used in a pinch to whip the plane around and catch the enemy off guard with the push of a button.As far as the story goes, this Ace Combat entry dropped the ball. In the previous games, I was blown away by some of the plot twists and the epic feel, but in Legacy, the story is flat and vague. Basically, it involves fighting some rebels without really knowing their cause, just "Hey these guys did a bad thing, go blow up their planes." and it just doesn't grab hold of you like Ace Combat 5 or Zero did. For a mobile Ace Combat game, this was an excellent try, but it's predictable and gives no real satisfaction at the end. With that said, it's still a lot of fun to play.To sum up, this game is awesome. You have the option to customize your plane colors and patterns, there are several special planes like the F6F-5 Hellcat from the WW2 era, the graphics are good and the action is intense. The story was a bit canned, but story isn't everything in a game. Legacy makes up for it with solid action and lots of missions and challenges to keep a regular player going for a few days straight.Final score, 4/5! This game isn't perfect, but it is FUN, and sometimes that's all we need.

I have 100% completed this game, and it was a blast from start to finish. If you like planes and/or ace combat, you'll get a kick out of this.I must admit, getting used to only one stick for flight control was a little difficult at first, as I am used to the "standard" setting for ace combat on the PlayStation 2, but once I got the hang of it (I'd say about the 3rd or 4th mission), it really took off from there, pun not intended.There are so many planes to fly that some kind of feel similar, but really, it's like comparing french vanilla and vanilla ice cream. They're similar, but different enough to earn a separate label.Just a heads up, the game can drop in frame rate when things get hairy and a lot of stuff is happening on-screen. I know for some people that's a huge turn-off, and ordinarily, it would be for me, too. But really, I was having too much fun to care. It felt more like a slow-motion camera shot than anything, but that might just be the fun in my eyes.The game does look really pretty. The ground models are as basic as ever, but the planes are gorgeous. 3D is fun to fly in, if you can handle it. It's even more fun using the cockpit view with 3D on, but I personally liked using the 3rd person view with the one stick control. I think it helped my brain to transition from one plane style to another (i.e. Ace Combat on PS2 to this), but it defiantly was a fun thing to do every so often. The 3D did seem to cause the frame rate to dip a little more easily than when it was turned off, but the main reason I turned it off was to prolong battery life. Otherwise, I would have left it on.All that to say, definitely a fun game and worth a purchase. Highly recommend it.

This is the best flying game ever. Message to Namco more varieties of aircraft, airports/air-bases landing and on ground playing and takeoff options would make this a 11 out of 10 game.This game is like Asphalt 3D in the air...yes that good.

wow, lots of shoot them up with this title.highly recommended for everyone.get one soonthat is all folks

my son wanted this cause he loves flying