Reaching For Infinity

This is the day we've been waiting for...

Now, by "we" I mostly mean me and my brother, as well as anyone else who has played and loved the Ace Combat franchise.

I first came across Ace Combat when I was walking the streets of NYC. I was passing by an electronics store, not one of those big-named places or anything, just a mom-n-pop store. Sitting in a cluttered display window were a few video games. One of those games was Ace Combat 3.

I played Ace Combat 4 afterwards, and Ace Combat 5, then Zero, and eventually did play six. It is easily one of my most beloved franchises.

But it isn't perfect. For one, the US version of Ace Combat 3, while being a great game and the catalyst that got me into the series, pales in comparison to the Japanese version, which had an actual story that can be followed.

Ace Combat 6 wasn't as great as its predecessors. The selection of aircraft was down, too much stuff on DLC despite that lack of planes, and the story though having its moments seemed to be too much of an aside rather than a part of the game (mainly because the choice of perspective they chose for telling the story). It never gets that sense of exaggerated majesty, that you are a nearly unstoppable force that destroys everything. That was part of the appeal of the other games - the way it made you into those terrifying entities, not just a pilot. You were the Demon Lord of the Round Table, the Demon of Razgriz, and the callsign "Mobius One" became synonymous with single-handed heroics.

Then Ace Combat decided to leave the complicated war-torn fictional world of Strangereal, and chose to enter the real world. The last couple games, the last being Assault Horizon, tried to take on a more Call of Duty feel to them, even introducing helicopter, drone, and bomber missions. Well, helicopter combat in an arcade fighter is not terribly fun, the idea of putting drones in a video games is inherently stupid, and being that most of the planes in the games carry bombs, bomber specific missions likewise made little sense.

The above trailer, despite what it lacks, shows a few things of note about this upcoming game. One, it takes place in the real world, not Strangereal. That being said, fans of the Ace Combat series will recognize immediately the scenes of the shooting stars and the tagline about "the day the sky fell" as being part of the Ulysses 1994XF04 asteroid event that is the catalyst for the entire story of the Strangereal games.

At around the 0:28 mark one can see a computer screen with a white map with concentric circles and red dots forming a circle. This looks like it may be a representation of Stonehenge, the superweapon of AC4. The last scene, with the Pak-Fa flying over the city with an impact crater below it looks similar to a scene from AC4 where Yellow-13 flies over Farbanti. Finally, there is the title splash against the white background, where a faded mobius strip can be seen in the background. This could of course only be referring to the game's title - Infinity - but that also happens to be the insignia for the Mobius Squadron of AC4.

Ace Combat 4 would not be my first choice for an Ace Combat remake. Don't be at all mistaken - if they are faithful to the original game with just the few tweaks for the real world and new planes, it should be absolutely awesome. And Ace Combat 4 is definitely a big favorite of the series. However, I think most fans in general who know of the full history of the franchise would have much rather seen a remake of Ace Combat 3 that was faithful to the original Japanese version, complete with the various story routes, and the presence of an actual complete story that makes sense.

I, and many others, are anxiously waiting for details about this game. We hope that they avoid the unfavorable track that the game was given over the past two iterations. Whether this really is an AC4 remake or something else entirely, we wait patiently, with all due hesitance.