Love/Hate: Air Combat (1995)

Time for a new Love/Hate series here on IC2S! I really love this format – it gives me some clear structure to write around, while also being fairly easily to put together compared to a full-on deep-dive. Plus, they’ve given me the excuses I’ve needed to try out lots of games I had never played before! With that in mind, I had been planning on doing a Love/Hate for the Ace Combat series for most of 2025. It’s one of those long-running franchises that I’ve been interested in for years, but only ever ended up playing a couple of its entries. However, Ace Combat 04 was so impactful to my life that it has made its way into my list of all-time favourite games. The only other entry I had played was Ace Combat 7, so I was curious to see how the rest of the franchise would shake out in comparison. Naturally, we’re starting here at the beginning of the franchise, with Air Combat on the PS1 (they wouldn’t codify the Ace Combat name until the next entry). Would this be a case of humble beginnings, or would this first entry have glimmers of the greatness that made me fall in love with Ace Combat 04? Read on to find out…

Love

• Arcadey Gameplay – Ace Combat games are known for having an arcadey feel to their gameplay, but Air Combat leans fully into this, from its presentation to its gameplay. It has a very fast-paced, instant gratification focus, with very little downtime and bite-sized missions. The scoring system also feels like it’s made for a high score screen. Then there’s the very bright and saturated colour palette. Taking all of this into account, you’d be forgiven if you thought that it was an arcade port (it isn’t, but it was loosely based on a Namco arcade game with the same title).
• Mission Variety – You’d think that it would be hard to differentiate missions in an air combat video game, but there is a shocking amount of level variety in this game (in fact, these mission types will be staples of the franchise going forward, which just shows how strong this franchise’s foundation was out of the gate). You’ve got mixtures of simple air dogfights, air superiority missions against ground and naval targets, levels where you have to weave through a narrow canyon, missions where you need to follow a particular terrain feature to find your targets, and even a full-on boss battle with a flying fortress. While you will be replaying these mission archetypes more than once, it’s still a lot of variety and helps keep the game fresh throughout.
• Wingman – Perhaps the coolest feature of Air Combat is that you quickly unlock the ability to have a wingman join you in battle. They can even be given a simple command before the mission starts (eg, cover your tail, go off and do what you want, defend an objective, etc). Their AI is decent as well, reliably keeping enemies off your back or going off and taking care of bogeys as instructed. They also come in a ridiculously wide range of costs and effectiveness, costing between $100,000 to $1.5 million to recruit! Please note: this is the cost to recruit them for one battle. That said, I was hiring the most expensive wingmen, buying a full fleet of planes, and still had money to spare: money is not really a concern in this game, so feel free to splurge.

Mixed

• Leaves You Wanting – Look, I love a short game, so far be it from me to criticize a game for being short… that said, I really wanted more from Air Combat. There are seventeen missions to embark on, but they typically take less than five minutes each to beat. Once you beat this campaign, you have a two-player vs mode, or you can replay the campaign on a higher difficulty… that’s it. It’s certainly a fun enough time, but I just wish there was more!
• Story – The story in Air Combat is paper-thin, and doesn’t make a lot of sense. So you’re telling me that there’s a terrorist group with a goddamn modern air force and navy that’s taken over nearly an entire country? And they get defeated by one mercenary in a plane? It’s utter nonsense, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t gets the job done, effectively building up the stakes as the enemy forces grow more desperate.
• The Graphics – The graphics in Air Combat are bad by even early PS1 standards. The planes look decent enough and resemble their real-life counterparts, but the actual levels are very simple. Let me put it this way: Air Combat looks like a borderline-Mode 7 game at times. That said, as egregiously bad as the graphics are, they didn’t really impact my enjoyment of the game much. The graphics are entirely functional, they fit the game’s arcadey vibe, and it actually does look pretty cool at times (Night Attack on Coastal City is a particularly impressive-looking level considering the engine they were working within).

Hate

• Vocal Cues – Easily the most annoying aspect of the game is the incessant radio chatter you’re subjected to. You’ll hear an endless cacophony of “Bogie on your six!”, “Watch your left!”, “Up ahead!”, “Warning: Body Damage”, etc. I get that this was early days for 3D gaming and it’s intended to help you stay oriented, but it’s so constant that you end up having to mentally filter it out to avoid going insane.
• Keeping Track of Enemies – When you get into a dogfight with another pilot, the limitations of this game’s controls and design comes into sharp focus. If an enemy you have engaged is not on-screen, then your only indication of their position relative to you is a red arrow (and an unhelpful mini-map if you’re in first person mode). You have to follow the arrow to catch the enemy, but they are also often making the same turn as you, making you go in literal circles for several seconds at a time as you try to break the deadlock. It’s kind of unfortunate that the game came out in 1995, because a bit of camera control on the right analog stick would have done wonders for this issue. Of course, this is also exacerbated by…
• Zoomed Out Mini-map – Air Combat actually has a couple mini-map options: in first person mode you get a very short-ranged radar, and you can also hold Square to bring up a map of the mission area. The problem is that these maps are extremely zoomed out, making it difficult to tell your distance relative to the enemy. You can literally be a pixel away from an enemy in front of you on your map, but not even be able to see them yet: that is how zoomed out the in-game map is. I don’t know why they didn’t just give you an option to zoom the map in a bit more, it would have made it significantly more readable and functional.

If it seems like I’m a bit down on Air Combat, it shouldn’t: I had an absolute blast with this game. The fast-paced and fun, bite-sized missions made it a game I could jump into for a couple rounds while I was on a break. I wasn’t really expecting Air Combat to be this good right out of the gate, and to have so many series’ hallmarks already in place. Suffice to say, I’m even more excited to see what else this franchise has in store for me!

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Barloq

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Writer, blogger, father. Blogging since 2012, writing my whole life. Was blessed by the chupacabra and the guardian shepherd.

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