Dogfights made easy.

I’ll be honest – in my 25 years of playing video games I have never once touched an Ace Combat game. I have always seen them as an overly complex flight simulator with combat thrown in. Then I was asked to review an Ace Combat game on the 3DS. Needless to say, I was a little anxious to try this out with that mentality, but after putting time into it, I found that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it feels pretty arcadey in many aspects – which came to my surprise.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy + is actually a remake to a 2011 3DS game of the same name sans the “+”. Players take control of a fighter pilot known to many as Phoenix, who is commissioned by allied forces to take down the rebel forces – a standard plot that honestly doesn’t go anywhere. I’m the good guy. Those are the bad guys. Blow them up.

Fly the portable skies.

Platforms: 3DS
MSRP: $39.99
Price I’d pay: $19.99
Multiplayer: N/A

Watch this. I’m gonna do something cool.

Utilizing the circle pad pro, I was able to dog fight like the best of them. Pulling off complex maneuvers with a simple positioning of the right stick and a button press, it felt a bit like quick time events that took place more dynamically throughout the combat. It did a very good job of making me feel like I had done something awesome when I was able to position myself behind a bogey and blow it to smithereens. Unfortunately, that feeling lasts for only a little while.

While the game never gets too challenging, the bigger problem I had with it was how quickly the game play became overly routine. After completing about five missions, I started to see that many of the mechanics I had learned where a bit too simple. “Get behind the enemy using an easy maneuver, and shoot rockets at them.” Sure, mission structure would change up a bit. Sometimes I had to escort someone or having to bomb ground forces, but after an hour and a half with the game, I felt like I had seen most of what the game play had to offer.

I dislike it when someone says “It looks alright for a _ game.” But in the case of Legacy +, it looks alright for a 3DS game. There are still some rather bland environments and some really jagged edges that come up often when playing. Of course, I was a bit too busy locking onto my enemies to care much.

You will need an amiibo for this plane…and a New 3DS.

This new stuff is…well, it’s new at least.

Players with a New 3DS can utilize the system to unlock new skins for their jets via Amiibo support and, of course use the new C-stick to pull off those crazy dogfight maneuvers. That’s about it for the + part of the game. People that have already played this game back in 2011 may not find enough here to bring them back.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy + is never an offensive game. I actually enjoyed much of my time with it. Especially finding out it wasn’t as complex as I had imagined the series to be, but in that same vein, maybe it should have been a bit more complex. After hitting the two hour mark, I seemed to have seen everything the game had to offer as far a variety, and the new additions to the game don’t seem to be enough to get people to double dip and purchase it again. Still, it is a decent time for players that are new to the series or haven’t tried this game out before. Just keep in mind, those awesome moves you’re pulling off will get old eventually.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.