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Dr. Clock's employee screening process sucks. His last assistant, Scythe, stole his time machine plans and ran away into the future. This forces Dr. Clock to chase after him in a bland forward-scrolling shooter, blowing away countless minions throughout the ages in an attempt to thwart Scythe's amazingly ineffective plan to take over the world.
Starting from home base in 1914, Time Ace ranges from a few years ahead in 1917 all the way into 2160 and unknown future beyond, with a few side-trips to ancient Atlantis for good measure. New eras bring new enemies, but a World War I tank does roughly the same thing as a spider-walker, except without lasers, so the differences are mostly cosmetic. Biplanes and space fighters fly in a straight line towards Dr. Clock's aircraft while letting loose a few bullets, and the aerial fight has all the subtlety of jousting. Fly at the enemy, put aiming reticule over it, shoot, dodge, repeat for 19 levels. The visuals may change, but the strategy never does.
It's particularly fun when they're grey enemies set against grey rock caves, because everyone loves taking unavoidable fire from nearly invisible enemies.
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While that doesn't necessarily lead to a bad game, or even a boring one (Rez, for example), no other aspect of Time Ace makes up for its repetition. Some of the levels are mildly clever, but boss fights are uniformly anticlimactic. Beating the last bonus level was actually less exciting than dealing with the first level's train/fortress/bomber sequence, and the same goes for the previous level which was the final showdown with Scythe.
Adding to Time Ace's problems are several questionable gameplay issues. The levels are done in the style of Afterburner or Panzer Dragoon, with Dr. Clock flying his plane into the screen, but there's more freedom of movement given to the player. That doesn't sound like a bad thing until you try to take out a ground target on the extreme left, only to find that the game auto-corrects your flight path into a tree. Extra-twisty corridors in the later levels get frustrating as well, especially when you can't find the exit, and only have a second to search before being forced back on track slams you into a wall.
Those twisty corridors are also involved with another issue with Time Ace's design, leading to many cheap hits. The plane only shoots directly forward, and slamming into a wall is bad, so a corridor with a 90 degree angle means you have to fly straight past the turn before seeing what's waiting behind it, letting the enemy toss a good number of bullets your way. It's particularly fun when they're grey enemies set against grey rock caves, because everyone loves taking unavoidable fire from nearly invisible enemies.
Perfectly complementing Time Ace's cheapness, it's also easy. The first few levels, when you've only got a weak biplane, have a bit of challenge to them, but once stronger and faster planes become available it should be possible to blow through Time Ace in a couple of sittings. Each level starts with five lives, no matter how few the last ended with, and later levels are generous with the 1-ups and health. The worst challenge I faced on the final levels was some strange collision detection, with most deaths coming from scenery rather than enemy fire.
Still, I've completed Time Ace and can't say it caused any real pain. There were a few annoying moments but nothing to make me throw the DS across the room in anger, but unfortunately there were no “Oh cool!” sections either. Repetitive gameplay and an emotional response ranging from mild annoyance to mild entertainment is all Time Ace has to offer, and while that won't put it on anyone's Worst Ever list, I can still think of better ways to spend my spare time.
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