COME FLY THE DEADLY SKIES.

Hello once again all you flying fans! It’s time for another PSP installment of the ever-popular Ace Combat series! Over the years its name has gone hand-in-hand with incredibly fun aerial combat coupled with great graphics, engrossing storylines and super-tight controls. With the release of Joint Assault, the only real question is: has this release kept up the pace of previous entries? Click the link to find out…

Well, right off the bat I will give a resounding ‘yes’. I made it a point to play Fires of Liberation (Ace Combat 6) on my Xbox 360 just to see if I got the same feeling of control and excitement when I picked up Joint Assault. And I’m happy to say that it’s every bit as tight and fluid as a console release. You get a grand total of 40 planes, the controls are more than responsive, the graphics are beautiful, and this time around the story is set in real life rather than the fictional worlds for which the series is known. As the name suggests, the big deal is the multiplayer. You can now be joined by up to three friends and go through the campaign as intended…killing everything that moves with drunken buddies. Various competitive modes are also included with up to eight players going head-to-head in either ad-hoc or infrastructure wireless play. Voice chat would have been nice but regardless, the game feels more fleshed out with people playing with you. Also the audio is unexpectedly incredible. The music is incredibly engrossing. The chatter between your comrades, the enemy along with the sounds of engines (and the ever-awesome lock-on tone) keeps the frantic pace going — it’s always good when sound production gets your heart rate up.

Unfortunately, there are a couple points that do mar the experience a bit. First off the storyline isn’t remotely up to par with past games — it’s like they weren’t even trying this time around. If you’re going to bring the series into conflicts based on the real world, you would think they’d put some effort into it — it’s not like there’s a lack of source material people. Even though the combat itself is great, the missions are plagued with repetitive battles. It’s not completely dull, but the interesting moments are definitely lacking in comparison to other Ace Combats. The first couple times you bring down a flying fortress are great, but by the twentieth time it gets a bit… stale. Thankfully the multiplayer breathes life into the otherwise uninteresting campaign.

All said, there’s still a lot of fun to be had in this version of Ace Combat. The story and solo campaign may not be up to snuff with previous entries, but the multiplayer, Fighter variety and combat make up for it. So if you and three of your friends have a few hours to kill and enjoy visceral and explosive aerial dogfighting, I recommend Ace Combat: Joint Assault. Come fly the deadly skies people. They is waiting for you.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]