Lock onto their six and blast – A.C.E.S. Review

Run, do not walk, to snag this one! Extremely polished, original, and pretty brutal as you are first figuring it out! You start with two planes on the map and, just like Flight Control, new enemy aircraft will enter in from random points along the side. They will maneuver to get you in their sites while you'll do the same (ideally locking in on them from behind). After a while, if you can stay alive long enough, a third and fourth plane will join your original two. You don't have to fear colliding with your own craft but there is a hidden cost to all of this support. The game ends once ANY of your squadron is shot down so in some ways having more craft is a greater risk as you need to keep them all alive as long as possible. You start the game with one generic plane type but as you learn the ropes and achieve certain threshold highscores or take out some of the game's "Boss Monsters", you'll unlock more plane types. While I have only unlocked the first of six at this point, I like how the new aircraft isn't clearly better, just different. Before starting the game you get to decide your squadron makeup, even down to which planes you want to come in as later reinforcements (the 3rd and 4th plane to join in the fray). Like this first new plane I unlocked, it was tougher and had greater firepower but was a bit slower and the weapon had a much shorter range. So, ideally, you'll probably create a team of mixed aircraft for different roles. Like maybe have a real fast guy whiz by the enemies to lure them to some point on the screen that the slower guys with more firepower can take them out. The three missions at this point are essentially the difficulty level with the later ones spawning more and nastier enemy aircraft right off the bat.
Review by Lord Gek on A.C.E.S..