Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War

“15 years ago, there was a war…”

I’ve always liked airplanes, so you would automatically assume that I like airplane-related games too, and you’re right. One of my first games that had to deal with airplanes was “Jet de GO!”, a Japanese arcade flying simulation game for the PlayStation. Since then, I’ve clocked probably more than a thousand hours in the Microsoft Flight Simulator series, and sometime during my elementary school days, a friend introduced me to Ace Combat 5.

To be honest, I feel bad for not realising the amazing storyline behind this game in the first place. It wasn’t until I’ve discovered a group of tiny, but enthusiastic Ace Combat fans that I actually started to realise the beauty of the Ace Combat series. Ace Combat 5 is probably one of the best games in the whole series, and is part of the 04/5/Zero Holy Trinity that newcomers need to play to get the gist of what the whole series is all about.

The arcade-style combat flight simulator mechanics was great, and the fictional world of Strangereal, where most of the series take place, is painted really well with each game in the series. In Ace Combat 5, the game takes a look at the dark secrets behind a war between two countries that was supposed to be allies after “the war 15 years ago” (The sequel to this game, Ace Combat Zero, actually takes you to this war in first-person). The unexpected plot twists, as well as the beautiful writing, make this one of the games with my most favourite storyline of all time. And it sure as hell deserves an HD remake.