Ace Combat HDWA Challenge - Day 9: Ace Combat Advance (GBA, 2005)

HDWA = Hardest Difficulty, Worst Aircraft.

RULES
1) Beat the game at the highest difficulty using the worst aircraft available.
2) Cheats, intentional glitches and bugs are forbidden.
3) Savestates are forbidden.
4) This is not a speedrun! Take your time and try to achieve a good score if possible.
5) Choose any emulator you want.
ACE COMBAT ADVANCE
PREREQUISITES
None.

HARDEST DIFFICULTY
Ace.

WORST AIRCRAFT
F-C Talon.

HDWA CHALLENGE DIFFICULTY: 6/10

ADDITIONAL CHALLENGE
Complete secondary objectives if possible.

DESCRIPTION
This is the first Ace Combat game for portable consoles.
We can see all the mighty force of the Game Boy Advance here, and all its limitations.
The game is set in the year 2030, and the main character is a fighter pilot simply called “Ace”, who is affiliated with United Air Defense (predecessors of UPEO?) and has to stop General Resource’ s elite branch called Air Strike Force.
There are only 12 missions, and the game isn’t hard at all, not even in the highest difficulty, because whenever you need it, you can just call Mother to regain health and stock missiles as many times as you want: in other words, you are potentially immortal.
Ace Combat Advance is a relatively simple and straightforward game.

For the HDWA challenge: you can use the F-C Talon in every mission except for mission 10, in which you have to fly an advanced fighter jet stolen from General Resource.

There are two things that really pissed me off about this game. And I’m not talking about graphics or controls (remember: we’re playing on a Game Boy Advance, after all).

Time limits are very strict: I’ve failed a bunch of missions, and 90% of the times it was because I ran out of time.
I had to try mission 11 three times before completing it because I couldn't get back to base before the timer reached zero.

And the thing that really ruined the game for me: afterburners!
You can use the aircraft’s afterburners only for a limited amount of time (5-7 seconds), then you have to let them cool down for some seconds before you can use’em again.
A solution to this is to press the button to accelerate for a couple of seconds, release it for 1 second, pressing it again for a couple of seconds, rereleasing it for 1 second, and so on.

The game itself wasn’t frustrating at all, but strict time limits and the afterburner detail really take the piss.

Emulator used: BizHawk.

SHORT REVIEW
Plot: 6/10
Graphics: 6.5/10
Soundtrack: 7/10
Controls: 7/10
Game difficulty (besides my challenge): 4/10
Frustration: 7/10 (due to time limits and afterburners)
Overall score: 6/10

Видео Ace Combat HDWA Challenge - Day 9: Ace Combat Advance (GBA, 2005) канала Mad Punkerz