Last updated on January 17th, 2026 at 09:31 am
A.C.E.S. – Action Game Review
A.C.E.S. is a Action/Casual game from Dirk Eichhorn, first launched in 25th October 2010.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 20+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes A.C.E.S. Stand Out
A classic fast-paced line drawing game. Use your finger to plot flight paths for you squadron of A.C.E.S. and clear the skies of enemy planes!
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The game features three challenging missions, powerful airplanes to unlock, and boss battles!
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Use your Game Center account to participate in global leaderboards and compare scores with your friends.
Start your propellers, Ladies and Gentlemen, and take control of the skies!
———- HINTS ———-
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Double tap your planes for a short speed boost!
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End a flight path right on the tail of an enemy plane to follow that plane. Your own fighter will then try to close in and get in a good firing position. Watch your angle, though! Your pilot can't lock on a target if you don't approach it from behind!
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You can deploy newly unlocked planes in the profile screen. You always start a stage with Spades and Diamonds. Clubs and Hearts will join the fray after a while.
This Action game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, A.C.E.S. is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 26th October 2018
Recent improvements include:
Party like it's 2011!
Seven years after it's last update, it was time to dust off the tomes and cast some necromancy hacks on this venerable App Store dinosaur – and to bring it back to life once more!
Version 1.2 is a maintenance update focusing exclusively in restoring the classic gameplay for current generation devices. This includes:
- 64bit support
- Support for iOS 12
- Very basic support for different iOS device screen sizes… by adding big fat black bars where needed :)
So grab your aviator goggles, fire up the piston engine, and take the Old Lady for a spin!
Download & Availability
A.C.E.S. is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We love the fact that you unlock new things.
Theres one problem,once you lose just one plane its over.
No same as normal dogfighting game it need to use your brain. Just install that.
Fun game; needs improvement. 1 plane death should not = defeat.
Fun initially but it's ridiculous that if you lose one play it's game over. Mainly because you can't repair and with 8+ planes on the screen it's fairly easy to lose one after 25+ kills.
This game has so much potential. We guess you can say it is an ok game with it's features right now. The developer seems to be stubborn and neglect the need to change the terrible rule: 1 plane death=defeat. You have four out there! We should be able to use all we got! Not to mention the awesome potential for online multiplayer. The gameplay is absolutely perfect for that. Come on developers… It won't take that much programing to make this game good… Just do it.
The game is terribly glitchy. If you press the screen without touching a plane the game glitches out and you are taken to the iPhone home screen.
Perfect time waster! One thing, can you please put the Game Center check in the background? We have a touch and when we lose wireless, a notification is displayed that we are no longer connected to Game Center and it's crashed a few games. But all in all, very fun.
Simple game, like flight control but with a good twist. Different planes with different attributes (we.e. More speed less range etc) become available after a bit of playing. There's a good level of rts kind of micro needed for the higher stages/waves which we really like.
Its a great game and FREE!!! What else can you ask for.
Just like steambirds get while free.
Absolutely excellent app. Very addictive and fun to play. One complaint though, that we hate the two plane crash/destroy limit, because it makes the game so much harder and sometimes even frustrating. Bump this limit up to say three or four, and we'd be happy to give it five stars.
Ok, got this one for free. At first when we started playing this we thought it was a perfect little minute waster. Now we find ourselves playing this for hours. Easy but challenging, this is one of our top rated sleeper hits of the year. Easily worth .99 cents! Only complaint is it does crash once every 10-15 games. Fix this and we'll rate this 5 stars.
Not much fun but at least its free.
The game has an absolute potential to be fun. But some of it's features make play time dreadful! One plane= defeat ;(. And some other stuff too. Get it while it's free, it's not worth even 99 cents… Yet. So pls pls pls fix.
Very good game,looks like great Flight Control alternative (with guns) Still,turning animation needs work, its too jerky and do we really need to watch after collisions??? Consider removing it???And losing one of your own planes shouldn't lead to defeat – make it if all four is lost then you lose. Plus 50% of the time we can't lock on on the enemy plane with the swipe it just won't lock…we really want to enjoy this…one day maybe? Update: no crashes after last update, thank you. But can you remove collisions with enemy planes please?! It's hard enough to lock on enemy as it is, and when there is 10+ planes on the screen – it becomes frustrating. That extra touch just makes the game less enjoyable . Look at Steam Birds.
Run, do not walk, to snag this one! Extremely polished, original, and pretty brutal as you are first figuring it out! You start with two planes on the map and, just like Flight Control, new enemy aircraft will enter in from random points along the side. They will maneuver to get you in their sites while you'll do the same (ideally locking in on them from behind). After a while, if you can stay alive long enough, a third and fourth plane will join your original two. You don't have to fear colliding with your own craft but there is a hidden cost to all of this support. The game ends once ANY of your squadron is shot down so in some ways having more craft is a greater risk as you need to keep them all alive as long as possible. You start the game with one generic plane type but as you learn the ropes and achieve certain threshold highscores or take out some of the game's "Boss Monsters", you'll unlock more plane types. While we have only unlocked the first of six at this point, we like how the new aircraft isn't clearly better, just different. Before starting the game you get to decide your squadron makeup, even down to which planes you want to come in as later reinforcements (the 3rd and 4th plane to join in the fray). Like this first new plane we unlocked, it was tougher and had greater firepower but was a bit slower and the weapon had a much shorter range. So, ideally, you'll probably create a team of mixed aircraft for different roles. Like maybe have a real fast guy whiz by the enemies to lure them to some point on the screen that the slower guys with more firepower can take them out. The three missions at this point are essentially the difficulty level with the later ones spawning more and nastier enemy aircraft right off the bat.
Neat and fun little game once you get used to how it works. Definitely entertaining. :).
It's hard to get uses to when you first start but after a while you find a good system that works. The game is fun challenging and enjoyable. The game is worth the one dollar to buy if you like a good challenge and is very addicting.
We seem to die quickly – doesn't seem to be much strategy we can figure. Bottom line – not much fun.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.2
- Size: 26.72 MB
- iOS: 11.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: [Dirk Eichhorn]()
Last updated: 26th October 2018 | Genre: Action, Casual | Developer: Dirk Eichhorn