Time Ace
Those guys over at Konami happen to have one of the greatest and most varied back catalogs of all the main publishers, so it comes as no surprise to find them occasionally raiding the archives and offering up new takes on classic franchises. One of Konami's first arcade hits was a shoot em up by the name of Time Pilot. A multi directionally scrolling game where you piloted a variety of flying craft in different time periods, blasting away at time traveling bad guys hell bent on mucking up the history, making the future belong to them!
The Story unfolds that in 1914, a scientist by the name of Dr. Hugo Clock constructs a time machine with the intention of nipping back to before the start of the first world war, and preventing it from happening, thus saving the lives of countless millions. Unfortunately for him, it turns out that the assistant he hired has a hunger for world domination. Dr. Klaus Scythe, (who with a name like that, you would surely think twice about hiring, no?) sneaks into the time machine and starts his quest of amassing an arsenal of weapons from the future, in order to rule the past. So it falls to Dr. Clock to give chase and bring our would-be dictator assistant back down to earth.
In your travels through past, present and future, you'll find yourself piloting all manner of flying machines, from biplanes and fighter jets to space fighters. There are 19 levels of increasing difficulty, as you chase your evil assistant though time, thwarting his plans in each time period. The levels are a mixture of on rails shooting with a little bit of freedom to roam thrown in occasionally, just don't roam too far, or the autopilot kicks in to redirect you towards the action. The action looks to consist mainly of shooting stuff, which is the kind of thing that pilots usually get up to.
Time Ace will be firing up your flux capacitor mid-June, where it's hoping to snag the attention of old folks who remember the original game, and entice other people in with its promises of a combination of flying around and shooting stuff. Which is often a winning combination, provided that it's pulled off well enough.
