Air Combat (PSOne Review)

For those of us old school gamers, I'm sure there are plenty of you that would attest that back in the day there was no better looking arcade flight shooter than Sega's After Burner. I honestly can't remember how many hours I wasted during my high school years standing besides that gigantic moveable cockpit cabinet wishing for the day to come where I could play something that looked that real from the comfort of my couch.

Once I discovered the PlayStation back in 1998, I figured that my hopes and dreams for gaming had finally come to fruition. Everything looked so much better than it ever had on my Commodore 64 and damn wasn't it close to what the arcade cabinets were able to put out. The only thing that seemed to be missing was the ability to get the sofa to move underneath me. Little did I know, this was just the beginning where in-home gaming was to surpass that of the arcade variety. We now could have all the fun without the need to use up our laundry quarters.

The flight genre is one of the least overall exploited categories in the PlayStation library. Although, if you take a snapshot of the early days, you'd think exactly the opposite. In the first couple of years, there seemed to be a literal avalanche of flight concentrated titles, some being top-down shooters while others decided to dabble in the third dimension. However, this flood quickly dried up and only a few stalwarts remained. One of the first just happened to become the be all, end all to the flight game genre on the PlayStation. Although it would go thru a name change, it still set the bar for all that would follow and kept the pretenders honest. Of course I'm referring to the big daddy of all flight games, Air Combat (AC).

The backstory for AC is nothing new or unique. You are a member of an elite group of mercenaries hired by the governments of the world to combat and defeat an invading force of terrorists. Where the air forces of the establishment have failed, it's up to you and your band of mercenaries to succeed. The danger is great, but so are the rewards. Are you up to the challenge? Well, strap in tight and let's get ready to taxi. Up next, Air Combat. Ready? Break Now!

The first thing for any flight game that a person wants is variety in the plane lineup. Well, Air Combat does not fail in this department. Although you initial choices are limited, as you progress through the game you will have the opportunity to pilot sixteen different planes ranging from the slow, plodding A-10 Warhog to the nimble SU-27. Each plane has varied ratings in five different categories (Stability, Offense, Defense, Power and Mobility) and they all handle differently, which adds the possibility of replayability for players looking to complete all the levels with all the different planes.

You begin the first mission with only 3 planes in your personal hanger. However, more become available for purchase as you progress through the game allowing up to eight planes total to be at the ready. However, if your plane gets shot down, or you crash and burn, to get that type of plane again you must purchase it from funds in your account. One thing to keep in mind though is that all unlocked planes do not remain purchasable at all times an you might have to wait to find your preferred ride again. Once you fill your hanger, you do have the option of selling lesser planes back, for half of their original purchase price, to open up a spot. But, once again, be careful of what you get rid of, as it may not become available later on when it could have been useful.

You also do not have to take on all the missions alone. You have the opportunity, in some of the missions, to purchase the assistance of various mercenary wingman to watch your back and help out when the going gets hot. Nevertheless, their respective abilities and planes are not free. These mercenaries want their money up-front, so if you crash and burn, not only do you lose the plane you had but also the cash you used to purchase your help. Money management is an added factor that must be taken into consideration at the beginning of every chapter.

Where do you get the funds? Well, along with a standard pre-announced cash prize for successfully completing the mission, everything that you shoot down or blow up has a prize value that gets added to your score when you achieve your goal. Usually there are specific targets, designated with special HUD cursors, that must be destroyed to complete the mission. However, all other additional forces can either be engaged or ignored, depending on the whim of the player. I would suggest though that leaving these targets still sitting on the table can create a real cash crisis later on in the game and should only be passed up if your plane is in a critical condition. Also, you do have a limited amount of missiles, ammunition and fuel to take into consideration. So, if you are running low on any of these, I'd advise you to concentrate on the primary objectives and leave the gravy on the plate.

The mission variety is definitely on par with any flight game you may have experienced. Dogfighting other planes does occupy the majority of the experiences, just as it should, however you can expect Namco to keep everything fresh and exciting. Not only will you take on terrorist planes and 'copters, but also ground forces, supply stations, naval vessels and even a super-sized air fortress in the final mission. One nice touch is that you don't have to follow the game linearly. After getting into the meat of the game, multiple mission branches begin to open up. Players can choose where they want to go next and tackle which specific mission when they want. Eventually, you will have to complete them all to get you to the end, but having the freedom to decide when is a big plus in my book. The environments are also as varied. Besides the wide blue yonder, you can expect to have to tackle desert lands, open ocean waters and some rather claustrophobic canyon runs tight enough to challenge Maverick and Goose. All in all, there are 17 very different missions to complete and each one has something different to offer.

Visually, Air Combat isn't that much of a backwards leap, even though it was released early in the lifespan of the original PlayStation. True, it doesn't have photo-realistic backgrounds and there definitely are some jaggies here and there. Nevertheless, unless you are a graphics whore, I really don't see much complaining to be done. Everything is running at a steady frame-rate, the distance draw-in is minimal, for a first generation PlayStation game, and there are no real collision detection issues that I've found. The night missions are a little more difficult than the normal day flights as you don't have a good clear view of your surroundings. But, I found if you pay just a bit more attention to the landscape than normal, you won't be having to scrape your plane off the side of a mountain as often.

While this is all may sound overly positive, everything in AC is not top notch, especially in the audio department. Yes, you do have eleven different background tunes to keep the dogfights fresh. However, the only way to pick your favorite tune is to use the music player in the options menu.  Each level usually has it's own set song, most of which would sound perfect if injected into the movie soundtrack for Top Gun. Nevertheless, they can become stale if you have to repeat the same level over and over again. Besides that, there are only the standard choices of mono or stereo in the options menu even though the PSOne is capable of so much more. Probably this disappointment stems more from the plethora of modern-day options available in today's games like custom soundtracks and multichannel surround sound. Nevertheless, the sound options and output are acceptable and keep you in the game and what does come out does it at an extremely high quality.

One other negative aspect I discovered in Air Combat was the lack of analog control, along with no support for the thumbsticks. Once again, this simply is a product of its time. These two options did not exist when the game was created. I found using the D-pad more difficult than piloting a plane with the later standard fare, but it still was possible to keep yourself flying once you got used to the retro controls.

According to the instruction booklet the controls are customizable, but the booklet is not very helpful in explaining how it is done. Only with extensive investigation did I discover that the "expert" controller setting does allow complete controller customization while the "novice" only allows a player to adjust the Y-Axis choice. Besides this, this only difference between the two is that the "expert" setting gives the player greater control over their turning ability. Selecting them means you can bank more sharply, execute maneuvers like barrel rolls or turn slightly using the separate yaw controls. Although this may be important to some air jockeys, you still can easily complete the game using the standard pre-set "novice" controls.

Players do have the option of choosing between the standard third-person (behind the plane) or the first-person (in-the-cockpit) views. Even though I tried both, and they are feasible, I much preferred to put myself into the virtual cockpit. Although I doubt that many players use the third-person view, it's nice that Namco added it in for gamers to exercise their personal taste. Either way, you are kept visually in the action and never have to worry about getting blindsided.

The one other thing that I found disappointing was the overall length of the game. There are seventeen different missions, but none of then had any extensive depth. Once I figured out the controls and got used to them, I was able to streak through most of the game in a single afternoon. I just had to finish up the final two levels after dinner to have the entire first playthough completed in a total of 6 hours. Granted, this was on the most simplistic of the three difficulty level, however I really would have preferred to have more available. One thing I did learn was that once you complete the game on different difficulty levels, you open up special unlockables to assist you repeating the process. Finishing up on the easy level allows players access to all of the planes in the game without having to purchase them, and without the limitation of hanger size. There are additional prizes, which I won't spoil for you, for completing the additional difficulty levels, so there is a reason to play the game through multiple times.

But, if you get tired of playing by yourself, Air Combat also comes packed with a 2-player split screen mode so you can fly the unfriendly skies against a buddy. There is not a lot of depth to this option. You can change up the initial face off of the combatants, giving one player an advantage of starting behind the other, but it really doesn't affect things that much after the first few seconds. Honestly, this mode is nothing to get overly excited about and only is a neat distraction that probably would last a couple of minutes, at the most, before you and a friend went to discover fun elsewhere.

In summation, Air Combat gives players a solid experience, especially if you take it's release date into consideration. However, it definitely gives room for development and refining for future renditions. As a flight game, it gives you a half decent time even though the story is a bit on the short side. Nevertheless, it's always nice to experience things at their origin, and in no way is Air Combat a disappointment to fans of the series. If nothing but for its historical nature, this one should be gobbled up by flight fans everywhere. For those casual gamers, you can probably pass it up for something with a fresher coat of paint.

Difficulty: 8

Control: 7

Audio: 6

Visuals: 7

Replayability: 8

Overall: 7.5