While this generation has seen a revival of the space sim, it has been far less kind to terrestials, not-simmey flight combat games, as evidenced by the fact the only retail release so far are a New 3DS rerelease of Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy, and a PS4 port of the atrocious Air Conflicts Vietnam. This makes me a sad panda because air combat games are my favorite genre. Are there any other fans of it on here, too?
Ace Combat, Rogue Squadron and Crimson Skies are all great but for this OP, I'm feeling like talking about some favourites that dont get a lot of love. Games like
Airforce Delta
Airforce Delta is for all purpose, a total ripoff of Ace Combat 2, except it was released on the Dreamcast, with the expected bump in visuals and framerate. It isnt very original, but it does what it does very well. Controls are snappy, missions are varied, and the visuals still look pretty good for a game released in 1999.
One thing I must note is that the game has an incredible soundtrack. Theres a playlist of it on youtube listen to it, all of the tracks are winners. Had it been used in a JRPG or something, Im sure people would hail it as one of the all-time great of vidya music.
Lethal Skies: Elite Pilot: Team SW/Lethal Skies 2
An unusual mix between arcade and simulation, the final two installments of the little-known Sidewinder series pair simple controls and boss battles against huge vehicles with more simmy features like limited missiles loadout, g-forces management, subsystem damage and black outs/red outs. Rather than taking the Ace Combat of having you and useless wingmans take on a large number of stupid enemies in protacted battles, Lethal Skies has you and a number of competent allies fight in short, clinical sorties against a small number of stronger enemies, which works well with the games more realistic leanings. You can also customize your loadout with different types of missiles, and while the plane roster is comparatively small (13 in the first, 19 in the sequel), they feel much more differentiated than other console air combat games, where planes are mostly a succession of bigger sticks.
As mentioned above, the first Lethal Skies feature many boss battles against huge vehicles like a crab tank, a ground aircraft carrier, etc which are fun, and require some experimentation to discover whats most effective against them. Lethal Skies 2 is largely more of the same, but better. The huge weapon aspect has taken a backseat (though its still there) but the regular missions have gotten more scenarized and creative. One early in the game puts a twist on the cliché canyon run mission by having you land in the middle of an enemy base to pick up a secret agent. Another has you destroy defenses around a castle and then make use of the planes VTOL capabilities to land inside a small courtyard and blow open a gate.
Overall, great games. Id say Lethal Skies II is the best-kept secret of the air combat genre.
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Theres more games I wanna talk about, but I figure Id stop here before making the OP even more boring and uninviting than it already is ^^. So NeoGaf, what are your favourite air combat games?
Ace Combat, Rogue Squadron and Crimson Skies are all great but for this OP, I'm feeling like talking about some favourites that dont get a lot of love. Games like
Airforce Delta
Airforce Delta is for all purpose, a total ripoff of Ace Combat 2, except it was released on the Dreamcast, with the expected bump in visuals and framerate. It isnt very original, but it does what it does very well. Controls are snappy, missions are varied, and the visuals still look pretty good for a game released in 1999.
One thing I must note is that the game has an incredible soundtrack. Theres a playlist of it on youtube listen to it, all of the tracks are winners. Had it been used in a JRPG or something, Im sure people would hail it as one of the all-time great of vidya music.
Lethal Skies: Elite Pilot: Team SW/Lethal Skies 2
An unusual mix between arcade and simulation, the final two installments of the little-known Sidewinder series pair simple controls and boss battles against huge vehicles with more simmy features like limited missiles loadout, g-forces management, subsystem damage and black outs/red outs. Rather than taking the Ace Combat of having you and useless wingmans take on a large number of stupid enemies in protacted battles, Lethal Skies has you and a number of competent allies fight in short, clinical sorties against a small number of stronger enemies, which works well with the games more realistic leanings. You can also customize your loadout with different types of missiles, and while the plane roster is comparatively small (13 in the first, 19 in the sequel), they feel much more differentiated than other console air combat games, where planes are mostly a succession of bigger sticks.
As mentioned above, the first Lethal Skies feature many boss battles against huge vehicles like a crab tank, a ground aircraft carrier, etc which are fun, and require some experimentation to discover whats most effective against them. Lethal Skies 2 is largely more of the same, but better. The huge weapon aspect has taken a backseat (though its still there) but the regular missions have gotten more scenarized and creative. One early in the game puts a twist on the cliché canyon run mission by having you land in the middle of an enemy base to pick up a secret agent. Another has you destroy defenses around a castle and then make use of the planes VTOL capabilities to land inside a small courtyard and blow open a gate.
Overall, great games. Id say Lethal Skies II is the best-kept secret of the air combat genre.
----
Theres more games I wanna talk about, but I figure Id stop here before making the OP even more boring and uninviting than it already is ^^. So NeoGaf, what are your favourite air combat games?
