January has been insane. What a good freaking start to 2019 (….at least as far as video games)! I never thought I’d say this in a million years…but out of all of the games that released this month - Ace Combat 7 is the one that enthralled me the most. I could not put it down. Resident Evil 2 did manage to make me scream out of terror a couple times and having anxiety riddled runs through hallways with Mr. X and Lickers trying to get to a safe room. But imagine screaming at the screen as (a different) Mister x is doing a dance with death you in the sky - annihilating your teammates -as you’re fucking flooring it, doing high G turns trying your best to keep up with him as the equivalence of Nier Automata music is blaring in the background. IT’S FUCKING AWESOME. Also Kingdom Hearts 3 is alright so far too!
The keyboard seen above is the same one Capcom has bundled in their $900 edition of the game - but I got it for 80% less than their absurd mark up.
We’ll see if I keep posting here but I continued to take pictures this past month and a half as if I had a place to put them. Hopefully I either break the habit or I convince myself this platform is worth keeping up with.
A commission for a friend: A (hypothetical) modernized IJN Yamato with I guess with an awkward dash of Ace Combat fanart with the Wyvern and Eursean markings.
The Ace Combat series has grown into a sprawling, quasi-futuristic, melodramatic behemoth since the first game, Air Combatin the west, was released 26 years ago. As you might imagine this first game is simpler and, while there is a plot, it is much more straightforward than those in the sequels, spin-offs, and it’s appearance in various other media.
There are fifteen or so real-world aircraft to choose from with performance more-or-less in line with what you’d expect from machines of their size and power but, fortunately, the attempts at realism end there.
Air Combat started out as Arcade game and, while the PlayStation version is not really a ‘port’ of that game, it very much keeps gameplay toward the fun and exciting end of the spectrum. I can’t remember if the missiles are infinite or so vast in number that they as well be, but that should be indication enough that this is arcade action from start - via to death-defying canyon runs, high speed interceptions, and love-em-or-hate-em escort missions - to finish.
It has to be said that the first sequel adds a level of scale and polish to the original that should see it comfortably chosen to represent the series here, and it was a close run thing, but Air Combat include a two player dog-fight mode that is brilliant in its simplicity and in which, with two decent pilots, battles can go on for a very long time time and take on a highly strategic air.
