Racing Aces

[Melf]

Sometimes, a developer's creation is too ambitious for the hardware for which it's created. The result is usually game full of lost potential, and players almost always sum things up with a collective "this could have so much more on better hardware." Sega's Racing Aces falls into that category. A game with lots of good ideas, it fell victim to a release on hardware too under-powered to fill its potential. The game is still playable, but one never ceases to wonder of what could have been. Read our full review and draw your own conclusions.

[kgenthe]

Kudos to the reviewer for sitting through this game. I have tried a few times but the sluggish controls and bad frame rate are such a big turn off. Still, glad someone got some enjoyment out of it. A 6 out of 10 though?

"6: Better than average and a decent game to be had for a cheap price."

Definitely not better than average.

[vintagegamecrazy]

My review stated that it took me some time to get into and that it had a pretty steep learning curve. Once that is overcome it is a pretty decent and engaging game, I understand that it's not for everyone though.

[KillerBean2]

xXxTWO FACExXx >>

Score: 6
I wanted to see this review for a while now and its looks not bad at all great review and maybe i'll be trying this game out in the future.

How can you rate a game you haven't played?

[Dirt Ball Gamer]

Nice review. It is good to see a review where even thought the game is not all that spectacular, the reviewer still gives it a fair shake instead of slamming it, and even puts in the time to find the game's good points. After reading the review I might pick this up as it seems like the kind of game I might like.

[vintagegamecrazy]

[quote=xXxTWO FACExXx >>
Quote:
Score: 6
I wanted to see this review for a while now and its looks not bad at all great review and maybe i'll be trying this game out in the future.
How can you rate a game you haven't played? [/quote]

Agreed!!

Two face, post that kind of comment in the boards not the comments section.

[kraftwerks]

A friend of mine adored this game, so I picked it up on his recommendation. I hated it and never had the patience to stick with it to get any better at it, but he still swears by it.

[Joe Redifer]

This game always reminded me of F16 Fighting Falcon on the Sega Master System. Similar primitive look compared to other games on the system. Similar single color graphics based on dots or lines. Similar slow, choppy movement. Similar CD quality soundtrack, etc.

[philiptwood]

The gameplay does feel floaty at times... I haven't played the game for more then an hour at the most, but I was impressed by it's 3D.

[ThugsRook]

This game always reminded me of F16 Fighting Falcon on the Sega Master System.

i was thinkin the exact same thing.

prolly shoulda used sprites on this one

[Videogamer.]

Nice review. It is good to see a review where even thought the game is not all that spectacular, the reviewer still gives it a fair shake instead of slamming it, and even puts in the time to find the game's good points. After reading the review I might pick this up as it seems like the kind of game I might like.

Good call, Dirt Ball.

Evaluating games with an holistic outlook provides a more comprehensive and, therefore, more trustworthy assessment. It makes for a better read, too.

Mr. Jackson, your tenacity and honesty are much appreciated.

[vintagegamecrazy]

No problem man, I hope you enjoy it if you get a copy, like I said before, be prepared for a learning curve though.

[Ecco]

Great review. It sparked my interest, and so I just tried it out. My first impressions are good and I am impressed with this game. I think 6 is a fair enough score, but since the review is quite focused on the shortcomings of the game, I think someone else could easily score it higher.

I find that the game plays really much better than the review makes it sound like. I was expecting a choppy mess, but I do find the game playable and impressive, though difficult at first. The framerate doesn't bother me, and the game seems to render the environment quickly. It seems like a bit more of a mess in the racing mode, with all of the other planes and targets.

I really like the practice mode, nice relaxing music, quite fun, and it lets you get used to the controls. You have to press down to make the plane tilt up, and vice-versa, but it becomes intuitive. Also it seems that you have to get used to tapping left and right very lightly, to avoid holding either direction too long, which will often launch your plane into mountains.

Basically, this game is awesome and unprecedented as far as I know. I can see how it gets a bad rap, but personally I'd rate it higher. Flawed, but unique and overly ambitious!

[Barone]

Horrible framerate... I think the reviewer was very forgiving with this game.

Also, I firmly disagree with these lines:

I guess I have to start out by saying that I’m surprised and amazed that the programmers got this game to work at all on the console without the help of a SVP chip or the 32X’s enhanced capabilities, because it’s a fully 3D game with no FMV present. There are roughly forty fully-3D tracks in the game. They are extremely choppy and move at a very low frame rate, but they are amazing nonetheless. Either way, this game actually makes great usage of the Sega CD’s disc space and the system’s capabilities. I guess I also have to congratulate Racing Aces on its awesome soundtrack. It makes perfect usage of the CD capabilities, and there are many tracks, and all are worth listening to.

There's nothing to be surprised or amazed about since the Sega CD has an ASIC providing 3D capabilities and several other games made much better use of it. In fact, I really don't know if this game is really using the ASIC at all since it renders everything really choppy and the appearance of the game is even worse than F-22 Interceptor on the Genesis IMO. The airplanes really don't look like anything 3D and also the objects on the tracks look terrible and scale even worse.
A game like Jaguar XJ220 is much more impressive in terms of Sega CD hardware usage then this one.

I guess I have to point out the gaping flaws, which are plenty. To start, this game is just too much with too little to work with. The Sega CD is woefully underpowered for a game of this caliber. It would have been much better suited on the 3DO or Jaguar or even the 32X with it’s added power. The backgrounds are pretty much reduced to single color blocky polygonal objects that have to represent the backgrounds. While it works to a certain degree, it fails simply due to the fact that the Sega CD or Genesis just can’t put out the high resolution and smooth frame rate required to make a game like this run right.

I don't see why the Sega CD couldn't have handle this game a lot better if it was programmed well.
Also, maybe you should check this comparison video of BC Racers (3DO VS 32X VS Sega CD). The Sega CD version actually is the one that run faster and with better overall framerate. It does not means that the Sega CD is so powerful as the other 2 systems but it shows what it could do when good programmers were behind the game.
AH3 Thunderstrike and SoulStar are other good examples.

The thing is that Racing Aces was just poorly programmed and you can see it in all technical aspects of the game. The color usage is terrible and the sfx are really poor.
The controls also feel floaty IMO.

[sheath]

I played the daylights out of this game back in the day and love it to this day. I think the framerate is a little better than the Genesis flight sims, and I love the race aspect and power ups. I agree with agostinho, I doubt the Graphics Coprocessor was put to much use in Racing Aces if it was used at all. I'm not sure what the deal is with "filled polygons" versus vectors, but the grounds look like something in between.

This reminds me though, I really wish Sega PC had ported Plane Crazy to one of their home consoles, that was a great game.