A moving ship is a hard target indeed. |
It would have been nice to see the each factory represented in the radar as some other-colored blip. But this isn�t the case, and I often find myself defeated in this level (in other words, the Germans constantly destroy my factories), because I�m never quite sure how to return to the area I�m supposed to cover. Either the game isn�t playing fair, or all my years of hardcore gaming experience have evaporated, leaving me a pitiful, utterly incompetent lamer. You might have already formed your own opinion on this (grin), but I prefer to think it�s the former and not the latter.
Another thing I find utterly incomprehensible: Every time I shoot down an enemy, the game cuts away from my main view, and switches over to a side view, a cutscene camera view, while the game is still in motion. Not only is this jarring, as it rips me away from the main action, but it�s potentially fatal because my aircraft remains at risk. In order to avoid injury, I need to control my craft from this totally other perspective -- at least until the game returns me to my main view. Uh... no. Controls, while somewhat configurable, are frustrating. While it might be inappropriate to draw comparisons to Dreamcast racing titles, said titles have established a strong precedent for handling acceleration and braking. Typically, in a Dreamcast racer, acceleration is assigned to the right shoulder button (trigger), while braking is assigned to the left. This makes sense, as such a configuration opens up the A, B, X and Y buttons for items like the hand brake and camera-mode switching.
In Iron Aces� default configuration, throttle-up and -down are assigned to the A and X buttons, while firing is assigned to the B. This is awkward, because I can never throttle up or down and fire at the same time, unless I want to mash A+B, or disjoint my thumb and mash B+X. I would expect to see throttle controls assigned to the shoulder triggers, allowing me to keep my thumb on the fire button most of the time, but, sadly, this isn�t the case. Although I can configure the throttle controls, I can re-assign them only to other buttons, not the triggers.
Dog fighting is fun, but plane fighting is ever better. |
Which brings me to another point: So many functions are assigned to the main buttons that Street-Fighter-type combinations become necessary. For example, the "air brake" is assigned to A+X. And there are several other wonky combinations just like this one.
Let�s think about this for a moment: I peel the shrink wrap off of my copy of Iron Aces, and I settle in, expecting a visceral, arcade-style air combat experience. But wait. Throttle-up is on the A button; throttle-down is on the X; the air brake is an A+X combination; some other function relies on some other combination, and firing is on the... what... oh, uh, the B button. I get so bogged down in button management that, all of a sudden, I�m having less fun than I expected. Suddenly, I feel like I�m dealing with a PC title squeezed onto a Dreamcast, and not the sort of streamlined, easy-to-access console experience designed to include casual gamers as well as hardcore geeks.
In addition, camera-angle switching is assigned to the D-Pad, and the function is non-configurable. The D-Pad is a horrible choice for cycling through camera angles, considering the pad�s close proximity to the analog stick. Often I find myself jamming down on the analog stick in an attempt to bank sharply, only to find myself looking at the cockpit�s ceiling because I�ve accidentally brushed the D-Pad. Awful.
Not only are the controls screwy, but target presentation is bad. Basically, it would have been nice to see far-away targets scaled up a bit. But, as it stands, far-away targets appear as little black specks surrounded by target indicators -- a serious rip-off. If I�m playing any air combat title, then I�d like to see my enemies a little more often than I do in Iron Aces. I want to fight something that remotely looks like a plane, and I don�t want to do battle primarily with the heads-up display. In Iron Aces, the only time I really get to see my enemy is when he�s so close to me that he�s zooming past me.
Speaking of presentation, the cockpit view is just as baffling as the target presentation. In Iron Aces, cockpits are translucent. Let me repeat that: Cockpits are translucent and non-configurable. In other words, I can�t switch over to an opaque cockpit.
I understand the developer�s intent was to avoid occluding the player�s view; but, if I elect to play any air combat game from within the cockpit, then I want to feel like I�m actually in the cockpit. I expect my view to be somewhat occluded, and I certainly don�t expect to find myself in the seat of Wonder Woman�s glass airplane. Ironically, had the developers chosen an opaque cockpit over a translucent one, the player�s view to the outside still would have been wide enough to preserve the overall combat experience. To put it another way, the decision to make cockpits translucent turns out to be goofy and wholly unnecessary.
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