Ace Lightning is a 2002 platformer for the Game Boy Advance, developed by Tiertex Design Studios and published by BBC Multimedia. The publisher's name reveals the source material: the game is based on the BBC television series of the same name, a show mixing live action with computer animation around a video-game superhero who comes alive in the real world.

On the Game Boy Advance the brand took the shape of a traditional single-player platform game. Nintendo's handheld was at its peak in 2002, and licensed titles based on TV programmes arrived on it in droves — for publishers it was the cheapest way to put a brand into children's pockets.

Tiertex was a seasoned British team that made its living from licensed adaptations for many years, from 8-bit conversions all the way to the GBA era. Its output had a mixed reputation, but the craft fundamentals of a platformer were well within its reach: jumps, enemies, item collecting and levels themed after the show's settings.

Today the game is interesting mainly as a relic of the brief period when the BBC tried to establish itself as a games publisher, and as a companion piece for fans of a series remembered mostly by viewers of early-2000s children's television.

The handheld format suited the television brand in practical ways too: the target audience was school-age children, for whom a GBA cartridge was more accessible than a computer game, and short play sessions matched bus rides and school breaks. Publishers of TV licences designed accordingly, building levels that could be cleared in small pieces without a long learning curve.

OldGame.cz keeps the card for this GBA platformer, including its year, both companies involved and a picture gallery.