WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - Racing Aces

Developer: Hammond & Leyland Publisher: Sega Released: 1993

Back in 1993 this felt like a really weird release by Sega. Especially for the Sega CD. The system was no stranger to what felt like experimental games, but Sega of America wasn’t usually the company doing it. American Sega CD games from the parent company seemed way more focused on full motion video and multimedia experiences.

Now, 25 years on, this release makes more sense. The gaming industry was on the cusp of the 3D revolution. Sega and Namco were on the bleeding edge in arcades, while at home Nintendo and Sega were in an arms race to bring fully 3D games to their 16-bit consoles through add-on chips like the FX in Star Fox and the Virtua Processor in Virtua Racing.

Also, though most of us probably didn’t realize it at the time, combat racing was about to become a big genre, with the recent release of Super Mario Kart on the SNES leading the way.

Racing Aces is a combat racing game with a twist. Rather than cars or karts careening around a race track, all of the action takes place in the air, with pilots at the controls of biplanes and other airborne war machines.

The ultimate goal in the game is to win a series of races. Choose from a rather extensive line of planes, most of which are driven by propeller, and armed with some basic weapons. The events themselves are similar to the Reno or Red Bull air races. You’re presented with a wide-open sky and a series of pylons or markers that need to be flown around or between in a specific order.

Of course, just being faster than the other planes isn’t enough. You’ll have to dodge competitors’ fire while doing your best to down those you have in your sights. If you are taken out, you’ll lose a few precious seconds while you watch your pilot gently float to earth with a parachute. Once they touch down, your plane will respawn and you get to continue the race.

The only way to succeed is to win enough cash to buy new planes and better weapons, either from the regular dealer or on the black market.

Racing Aces was the brainchild of Greg Hammond, previously a Producer at Lucasfilm Games on titles like The Secret of Monkey Island, Loom, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. That last game featured a whole series of add-on discs which depicted a slew of other WWII fighter planes.

This particular title started life as a board game in 1990. Hammond and his circle of friends further refined this concept that aimed to combine air racing with WWII dogfights. One of those friends was Robert Leyland, and late in 1991 the two of them entered into a partnership to form Hammond & Leyland, with the purpose of producing games for Sega.

Racing Aces started life as a Genesis project, but the desire to create pseudo-3D terrain for each level was way more than the system could realistically handle. Luckily, the Sega CD hardware had the extra oomph needed to push around the levels at what was considered an acceptable frame rate.

I would argue that it wasn’t enough. Racing Aces suffers from what feels like some major input lag, which I believe is caused by the low frame rate. It’s just way too easy to turn further than you want, and way too hard to hold a competitor in your sights long enough to take them down.

Racing Aces was the only game produced by Hammond & Leyland for the Sega CD. The team would change its name to Jumpin’ Jack Software and go on to develop Ghen War for the Saturn and work on Crystal Dynamics’ PlayStation 2.5D platformer, Pandemonium.

The company ultimately published four games in total.

Racing Aces was an interesting formula that didn’t sell nearly well enough to be viable, whether that’s because the concept was too new, the frame rate was too low, the system was not successful enough, or a combination of all of those things.

I’d like to thank Greg Hammond for providing some insight into the development of Racing Aces and the formation of Hammond & Leyland for this article.