Aces
Player's Guide

Aces: Pacific Air War

A fast, arcade-style WWII air-combat game set over the Pacific, 1942–1944. Fly for the US Navy or Imperial Japan in twelve aircraft, from the Wildcat and Zero to the Avenger and Betty. Your sorties include dogfights, fleet defence, dive-bombing, strafing runs and torpedo attacks.

Start here Controls Mission guide

Your first ten minutes

  1. Launch Aces from the Start menu or your desktop shortcut.
  2. In the mission list, pick Flight Training and press Enter. On the next screen, choose the F4F Wildcat and press Enter again.
  3. Fly with W A S D. W pulls the nose up and S pushes it down. Space fires the guns and B drops a bomb.
  4. The Objectives panel in the upper-left corner shows what to do next. A diamond marker on screen points you to the next place you need to reach.
  5. Press F1 at any time to see the controls in the game. Esc opens the pause menu.

Tip. Nothing in Flight Training shoots back, and your ammunition and bombs never run out. It's the best place to get used to the aircraft and the aiming markers before you fly a real mission.

What's in this guide

Getting Started

Launching the game, the menus, choosing a mission and aircraft, Recon, joystick setup and Safe Mode.

Controls

Every key: flying, weapons, views and looking around, the pause menu, replay and joystick actions.

Flying & Combat

Reading the HUD, the flight model, gunnery, dive-bombing, torpedo attacks, wingmen, enemy AI and general tips.

Aircraft

All twelve aircraft with their roles, performance and weapons, and how each one matches up against the others.

Missions

Every US and Japanese mission: the briefing, the objectives, what you'll face, and tips for winning it.

FAQ & Troubleshooting

Screenshots, where files are kept, performance, joysticks, and what to do if the game won't start.

The game at a glance

Two sides
Missions are either United States or Imperial Japan. When you pick a mission, the aircraft list only shows planes from that mission's side.
Four kinds of work
Fighters intercept and dogfight. Dive bombers go after ships and ground targets. Torpedo bombers carry a single torpedo against a ship. Some missions also send you out to strafe parked aircraft, trucks and buildings.
Objectives decide the outcome
You win a mission by completing every objective in the Objectives panel. You lose it if you're shot down, crash, let enemy aircraft into a zone you're defending, or fly home before the job is finished.
Arcade flight, real tactics
The planes are easy to fly, but the tactics are real. Speed and altitude are your life. A Zero will out-turn almost anything, and a torpedo only drops if you're low and slow enough.

Recommended order

The missions increase in difficulty roughly in this order:

  1. Flight Training: basic flying, gunnery and bombing, with nothing shooting back.
  2. Torpedo Training: practise torpedo drops with unlimited torpedoes.
  3. Solomons Patrol: your first real dogfight, with a wingman.
  4. Coral Sea Strike and Submarine Hunt: dive-bombing with nothing shooting at you.
  5. Bougainville Sweep, Ground Support and Airfield Strike.
  6. Midway Torpedo Run, Operation Vengeance and Fleet Defense.
  7. The Turkey Shoot: eighteen enemy aircraft in two waves.

The Japanese campaign follows the same pattern: start with Free Flight (IJN), then fly Coral Sea Interception, Guadalcanal Intruder and Dawn Strike (IJN).