Air Combat

Air Combat, published by the Japanese company Namco, is the first installment of a series of arcade flight sims, which from the second installment was titled Ace Combat. The game was modeled on an arcade machine by the same company, released in 1993, and hit PlayStation in 1995, meeting with a positive reception by gamers and critics.

Story

South of the Use a continent are Skully Islands, where a coup d'état took place in 1995. The terrorists, in a series of astonishing attacks, have severely eroded loyalist forces and the government has decided to hire Scarface mercenaries to get rid of the attackers and ensure air safety.

The player takes on the role of one of Scarface Squadron pilots and takes part in a series of missions consisting of both air battles with numerous enemies and the bombardment of ground targets. Their account balance depends on the scale of success in subsequent missions. The cash earned is used to unlock new machines, including the most popular military aircraft, such as F-4 Phantom, F-14 Tomcat, stealth F-117, Tornado, F-15, F-16, and many others.

Mechanics

Air Combat is an arcade flight shooter in which the player sits at the controls of military airplanes. Although the conflict presented in the game takes place in a fictional universe, the planes in the game are equivalents of machines commonly known in the real world.

In Namco's game physics does not play a significant role and the control of aircraft is purely arcade. The camera enables us to follow the action from two perspectives - from behind the plane and from the first-person perspective, but with no view of the cockpit interior. In the latter case, a rather primitive equivalent of a real HUD is displayed (a translucent display containing information to support the pilot's actions), making it easier to navigate the skies, track enemies and shoot. The number of ammunition taken on the mission has nothing to do with reality and is either unlimited (in the case of weaker weapons) or usually counted in tens of pieces.

After the first few missions, the player also receives the support of a wingman, which before the start of the mission, on the check-in screen, can be given three commands related to protecting the leader, focusing on the mission and acting on their own.

Technical aspects

The game offers gameplay in a three-dimensional environment. Its characteristic feature is the use of intense colors, which was to emphasize the 'casual' character of the game. The producer of Air Combat was Kazumi Mizuno (Kazuu), who had previously also been responsible for the loud and extremely bloody Splatterhouse, a game from arcade machines, and had an important role in the creation of the Ridge Racer franchise.

Last updated on February 14, 2020