I think Air Combat tricked me into believing all PS1 just looked like that. The flat ground texture which resulted in difficult-to-judge altitude is a total non-issue in the sequel. The flight controls have been tightened, the music even better and the story? A mild improvement, but not something I cared about.

Ace Combat's biggest strength lies in its missions, where we some much needed variety. Standard dogfights are interspersed between defence objectives, time restrictions and levels that require precise navigation. Not every level is great, but the diversity is appreciated regardless. Environments are more unique, too, with the highlight being a city at night which lets you squeeze right by the buildings if you're feeling brave. As this is a PS1 game with access only to a D-Pad, controls aren't as accurate as you'd hope, making some maneuvers riskier han they'd be if full analog control was possible. Regardless, it works well enough that I can forgive the shortcomings.

Ace Combat 2 is great, a solid step up from its predecessor and a fantastic foundation for entries moving forward. I'm particularly excited to see how the series fares on more powerful hardware (particularly given the dual analog setup), but that'll have to wait a little longer.