Video Game / Air Combat

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The first game in the Ace Combat series.

Released in arcades in 1993, the game runs on Namco System 21 hardware, utilizing 3D polygon graphics to render realistic airplane simulation and graphics of the time. The arcade version saw an unnamed rogue nation that has amassed considerable military strength, thanks to post-Cold War economic upturn, invade its neighbors for personal gain. After NATO air forces fail to contain the war, pilot Falcon 1, part of an elite mercenary unit, is commissioned by the United Nations for interception missions. It spawned its own sequel, Air Combat 22, which saw release in 1995 and used the newer Namco System 22 board, bringing improvements upon gameplay and graphics. Air Combat 22 was rereleased as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives series in 2025 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S.

Initially intended to be ported to the PlayStation in 1995, hardware differences and deficiencies compared to the System 21 board saw the end result sharing little in common with its basis beyond name, developer, and overall focus on air-to-air combat, as best demonstrated by the Japanese version retitling itself as Ace Combat, which would become the console series' official name for every release afterwards. You fly as the leader of an elite mercenary unit out to stop a terrorist threat threatening a small island chain, the events of which are still broadly canon with the "Strangereal" continuity of later games (the "Skully Islands insurrection" of 1995, leaving it together with the later Ace Combat Zero as the earliest playable conflict of the series).

Also like the arcade version, the PS version saw success and even spawned the later Ace Combat titles, setting themselves from the arcade branches. The arcade games would later see their own Creator-Driven Successor in the form of Mach Storm, which was released in 2013; compared to the major differences between the original arcade games and the console series they birthed, however, that game owes much of its gameplay to the Dogfight Mode mechanics of Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. This would also serve as the basis for a licensed Star Wars game in 2014 running on the same engine and hardware, called Star Wars Battle Pod.

Tropes pertaining to the arcade version:

• Artificial Brilliance: In Ace difficulty, the enemy aircraft will use any countermeasure to hinder the player from progressing.
• Bottomless Magazines: Your aircraft's gun has finite ammunition, but that amount is so ridiculously high that it's practically impossible to use it all up before you run out of either time or targets.
• Boss-Only Level: The last mission of any given path in Air Combat 22 has you destroy the enemy's final base, which depending on the route is either a heavily-guarded airfield or an aircraft carrier. On Expert mode, this is then followed by a fight against a single enemy ace who is vastly more skilled than anyone else you've shot down up to that point. The game ends with a cutscene of your wingmen reuniting afterwards.
• Have a Nice Death: The Game Over screen has the player ejecting from the aircraft, leaving him under a parachute.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: Air Combat 22 is a downplayed example, sharing similar gameplay to its predecessor but with a slew of new aircraft, not only for the player to fight against but even in what they can fly, with the F-16 of the first game being replaced by your choice of the F-14, YF-22, or Su-35.
• No Plot? No Problem!: Unlike the Excuse Plot in the PS1 version, the arcade games have no plot to speak of, other than "shoot down the enemy targets".
• One-Man Army: Unlike the PS1 version or even Air Combat 22, Falcon 1 in the original arcade game doesn't have any wingman to accompany combat (aside from the Red Shirt pilots in the beginning sequence and inter-mission cutscenes), but can take down multiple aircraft with just an F-16. This also carries to gameplay; your wingmen leave at the beginning of the missions, and you must carry out alone.
• Red Shirt: Your wingmen downplay this trope; they do not affect the gameplay other than occasionally gaining the enemy's attention and requiring you to save them, but they'll just end up rejoining during the inter-mission cutscenes after you took down several aircraft.
• Timed Mission: Being an arcade game, every mission has the player trying to shoot down hostile aircraft in time limits. Running out of time in Air Combat 22 pops up a Continue Countdown on your screen before you're ejected with parachute for good.
• United Nations Is a Superpower: Averted. While the United Nations aren't a superpower, they task Falcon 1 on the interception missions.
• Year X: The Opening Scroll places the game sometime in the 2000s.

Tropes pertaining to the PS1 version:

• Ace Custom: Every plane you use has the unique paint scheme shown on the box art, white with purple highlights and red-and-purple flames on the wings. When you're looking over planes to purchase in the hangar, they have standard paint schemes, but then are replaced with the above scheme if you buy them.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The game lets the player save after every mission to balance out the Permadeath feature tied to their planes and wingmen. Although, it can more so completely negate said mechanic if the player chooses to do so.
• Anyone Can Die: The player's wingmen, who can get shot down by enemies and be lost for good.
• Artificial Brilliance: Enemies will veer in different directions in order to throw off the player's aim. The AI also knows the power of missiles and will constantly get right behind the player in order to get a clean shot with them. Both of these are especially true on the Hard difficulty.
• Boss Battle: The flying fortress, which is not only the only boss in the game but doubles as the Final Boss.
• Boss-Only Level: Mission 17: "Discovery of airborne fortress!"
• Bottomless Fuel Tanks: Averted; All of the player's aircraft have a fuel gauge, and if it empties then the aircraft crashes and is lost permanently.
• Bottomless Magazines: Literally averted yet virtually played straight as the player's planes can all hold up to 65 missiles and 9,999 bullets, which is more than enough for every mission as long as the player isn't firing wildly.
• Bowdlerise: The PS version had real-world organizations such as United Nations removed, as part of its reformulation process.
• Captain Obvious: Especially grating when compared to other games in the series, but at least your wing-man was the only annoying one yammering you.
• Collision Damage: Flying into aircraft, buildings, and terrain causes major damage to your plane. Even the most defensive planes go down after just three collisions.
• Continuing Is Painful: Wingman can be shot down, preventing you from using them for the rest of the game. Even worse, this also applies to the player’s aircraft, only a couple of which get a copy that they can buy.
• Critical Annoyance: Getting hit by a single bullet prompts the plane's system to blurt out, "Alert, body damage! Alert, body damage! Alert, body damage! Alert, body damage! Alert, body damage!", exactly that many times.
• Critical Existence Failure: Bullets and missiles can severely damage aircraft and buildings without leaving a mark or affecting the performance of planes in the slightest. But, the moment an aircraft or building takes too much damage it explodes. Subverted with the final boss, which loses parts and teeters from side-to-side as it gets damaged, although it still doesn't have its performance affected.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Even the most resilient of aircraft can only take a few missiles before being shot down. And then there's the flying fortress, which takes dozens of missiles to take down
• Defenseless Transports: The C-5 aircraft lacks any offensive weaponry and is primarily used for transportation.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The game features many differences from the rest of the series.
  • If you lose a plane, it's gone for good. To balance this, the shop may sell multiple units of the same plane.
  • Repair cost is deducted from mission pay.
  • Wingmen cost money to hire. They can be shot down and become permanently unavailable.
  • The game employs a map system with branching paths at certain junctions, allowing the player some control over the order the missions are played.
  • There are no missions which have a secondary objective.
  • Any aircraft that is purchased gets a white, red, and blue paint job.
  • The game has no fictional plane designs, with the exception of the air fortress that serves as the Final Boss.
  • Strangereal and Usea aren't around at all; in fact, the accompanying Perfect Guide book assigns actual nationalities and cities to your wingmen (e.g. Su-27 pilot Yang is a Shanghai-based Chinese chef).
• Escort Mission: Mission 10, which has the player keep enemies from shooting down the plane of a government officer.
• Excuse Plot: Compared to the later entries of the series having international conflicts and the various pilot's personal recollections of the conflicts, this game boils down to, "Fight the terrorists, save the free world." Probably in due part to its arcade origins. Later Canon Welding would recontextualize it as a small-time conflict in the greater timeline of Strangereal.
• Final Death Mode: If you crash a plane or get shot down, you lose that plane for good and, with very few exceptions, cannot buy another one. If you crash all the planes, then it's game over. Although, it's easy to avoid this.
• Flunky Boss: The flying fortress occasionally sends an enemy plane after the player.
• Fragile Speedster: The F-16 among other planes has strong firepower and great mobility but can't take many hits.
• Homing Projectile: Missiles become this if an aircraft locks onto their target.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Setting the precedent for the rest of the series, the player can only fire two missiles at a time, but as long as you have ammo in reserve, another one will materialize on the hardpoint as soon as the last one hits or disappears after missing.
• Infodump: See Opening Monologue below.
• Life Meter: The Damage icon which changes colors as the player takes more, well, damage; It starts at white to indicate perfect health, then goes to light-yellow, to yellow, to orange, and finally to flashing red and white when the player's aircraft is almost destroyed.
• Mighty Glacier: Aircraft like the MiG-31 can take and deal great damage but are slow to maneuver.
• N.G.O. Superpower: The enemy is supposedly a terrorist group, though the country you're fighting for is apparently a small one (the tiny Skully Islands to the south of Usea, according to Aces at War).
• One-Hit KO: Missiles become this against the player on Hard mode.
• Opening Monologue: Happens when the player starts a new game, which explains how the terrorists became a problem and why the government chose the player character to deal with them.
• Permadeath: The player's wingmen and aircraft. If the player loses all of their planes, then it's game over.
• Precision F-Strike: The only instance of swearing in the K-A game is if the player takes heavy damage, at which point their character may blurt out, "Damn it, damn it!"
• Save Scumming: Players can save their data right before doing a mission and if they crash their plane then they can load the save to try again. This in turn completely negates the final death mechanic should the player choose to do so.
• Sole Survivor: The player can become this by the end of the game if all of their wingmen die.
• Suicide Attack: Averted. The player's plane can't make contact with other aircraft. They can crash into structures that they must destroy, but the end result is that their plane explodes...and that's it.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: The player can deliberately let their wingman get shot down. Although, there's little reason to do this considering that they must be hired in order to join the mission in the first place.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilised: Setting the standard for most of the rest of the series when it comes to revolutions and the like, you're fighting for the government.
• Time-Limit Boss: A given for the air fortress since, like every other mission, the player's aircraft has limited fuel and as such it must be destroyed before that happens.
• Title Drop: One of the songs on the OST is titled "Ace Combat".
• We Cannot Go On Without You: If the player's wingman gets killed during a mission, then they can still finish said mission on their own. If the player gets shot down, then they fail the mission and have to try again. Also, even if all wingmen are alive, it's still game over if the player destroys all of their own planes.