Air Comat: (PS1) Haven't played it
Ace Combat 2: (ps1) haven't played it
Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere: (PS1) Japanese version rocked but American version (the one I played) sucked! THe entire story was cut out of it. The Japanese version let you change sides and had several endings but the American and European versions had all that stuff cut out. Curse you Namco! :mad
Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies: (PS2) Also called DIstant Thunder in Europe, this is probably one of the best games in the series and many fans think it is the best. The game has believable characters, highly realistic planes, beautiful graphics and scenery, wonderful music, great voice acting, and a great story line. Shattered Skies takes place in 2004-2005 on the fictional Usea continent.
The story: In 1994, an asteroid called the Ulysses XF04 was detected heading for Earth. Scientists rushed frantically to find a way to stop it. They built a series of giant railguns called Stonehenge that could fire powerful shock blasts and destroy the asteroid. In 1999, the asteroid reached Earth and most of it was successfully destroyed by Stonehenge but several fragments made it through and impacted several places and caused widespread damage. The country of Erusea was particularly hard hit and had a governmental breakdown and as a result, the military tok charge. These duded became power hungry and decided to take cntrol of the whole contenent using Stonehenge as a weapon of war. Stonehenge could destroy any plane that was above 2000 feet and within 600 miles of the site. Usea was a small continent anyay (roughly the size of the United States) so losing over 1200 square miles was pretty devastating. ISAF, the organization you fight for in Ace COmbat 4, was devastated by enemy attacks and forced to retreat to an island nation called North Point which was outside the range of Stonehenge.
Anyway, the story is told from two points of view. One is narrated by a boy who goes unnamed in the game but is known as the "Storyteller Boy" among fans. The boy was on his way to school one day when an arial battle broke out overhead and one of the planes that had been shot down crashed into his house and kille his parents. The plane that shot down the other plane circled around and the boy saw a 13 painted on the side in yellow numbers. The boy moved into the city of San Salvasion and earned money by playing a harmonica for occupation soldiers at a local bar. Eventually, the boy comes face to face with Yellow 13, the leader of Yellow Squadron (the main villains in the game) but he comes to realie that the crash that killed his parents was a freak accident (they lived in the country so having a plane crash into their lone house was a freak occurrence.) He eventually befriends Yellow Squadron and they look after him.
The othe rpint of view is from Mobius 1, the pilot you play as in the game. Mobius 1 is an ISAF (Independent State Allied Forces) pilot who eventually earns a reputation both among the enemy and allies alike after single handedly destroying Stonehenge and shooting down a member of Yeloow Squadron. It was said that his compat capabilities rivaled that of an entire squadron. Mobius 1's real name and physical appearance remains unknown.
As a side note, Yellow Squadron are my favorite villains in the series because they are like real pilots. They fight as a squadron and watch out for eachother. They are just people fighting for their country only tey are on the wrong side. In the newer games, bad guys have been complete whackos. In AC5, you had Belkan terrorists trying to avenge their defeat from 15 years earlier. In Ace Combat Zero, a bunch of nutjobs called "A World With No Bounderies" tried to desotry the world with a hug nuke. I heard that the bad gys in AC6 were also complete whackos. Unlike the other villains, Yellow Squadron didn't seek power or glory. They were just a bunch of patriotic pilots serving their country. It was kinda sad in the end when you shoot them all down.
Anyway, I'll d a summary for Ace Combat 5 and Zero later.
