AirForce Delta Strike

"Bogey at 4 o'clock! Fox 2! And a big satisfying boom."

The very first flight game I played was Ace Combat 3. And I sucked at that game. Especially landing the bloody plane. After that I swore off simulation flight games for a couple years. Then this gem came along and blew my mind away. It's more of an arcade plane game with some simulation points thrown in (like stalling, ammo, things like that) and managing to throw out the annoying things (for example: fuel and landing the plane).

Graphics (9/10): The graphics are very detailed and beautiful. The scenery ranges from lush forests and canyons to harbor cities by the ocean and valleys with large hills. The planes themselves are amazing, especially the look. I LOVED how they designed the planes. Some of them reminded me of Macross & Robotech, especially the inverted wings on a certain plane *cough*MacrossPlus*cough*. You can tell that the designers looked at real jet aircrafts and modified them to their liking. On top of the that, you actually have characters in the game WITH depth & history! The artwork in the game is great, you can expect that from Konami, as they always have great characters sketches and designs. Some did, however, look like the usual anime character though. Such as the busty woman, silent hero with tragic past, and etc. But I didn't mind in this one. It was certainly a great way they blended it all together.

Sound & Music (7/10): I don't quite remember the music, you tend to not notice it when you are dodging 3+ missiles and you only have 100 armor left on your plane. But I do remember that it fit the mood and pumped you up. You actually looked forward to the next sortie because the music would make you FEEL like you were being tailed by an ace pilot. The sound effects are realistic. Explosions and the whole bit. There wasn't exactly a huge array of different sounds, which makes sense because it's a jet fighter game.

As it turns out, the voice acting is good. The voices fit the characters, but you don't really hear them talk all that much besides during the missions and in the briefing. Which disappointed me a bit because I liked the voices. But since you don't hear them all that much, it drags the score down a little.

Story (8/10): Each character in the game has their own story, Ken deals with the loss of his girlfriend, Ruth wants to end the war so people don't have to suffer, and John has an insatiable appetite for going after aces or as he calls it ''hunting''. And that is just one squadron! There are three squadrons in total that you can play as. But overall story is about a war between governments, one of which seems to have a large advantage in technological development. You begin to see the length of the war take a toll on the character's morale and the outcome of the war. So instead of having a generic, ''I can kill countless amounts of other soldiers with no guilt! And have perfect sanity! attitude, the characters actually feel and allow you to get close to them. Fellow squad mates develop bonds and fight together, which is shown in the dogfights. I really like the story and the way it was put into use.

Gameplay (7/10): As I said in the beginning, this is more of an arcade based jet fighter. Meaning, you don't get blown away by one missile. You can survive several missile hits but that doesn't mean you're invincible. I've had a couple missions where I died constantly because I messed up on dodging the missiles. Sometimes you even get hit by a barrage of them when you are getting sloppy. But the gameplay is smooth for an arcade jet fighter, things aren't blown out of proportion by being able to go faster than the speed of light or anything like that. But the big pull is the 100+ fighter jets you can unlock. Which is a staggering number. And best of all, each of them have different capabilities that are better suited for certain missions. So they are not the same jet with a different design. There is certainly a lot to collect. From medals for each character to 100+ fighter jets. And I love this, there is a lot of re-playability. When you beat the game, the game prompts you to save. And when you load that save, you can start from the beginning with all of the jets you unlock in the previous run. And with all the characters you can play as, it doesn't get old. They did a great job of molding it all together and not letting it get old.

Difficulty (7/10): This game can be HARD. Especially some of the requirements of certain missions. Like escort missions, I hate escort missions. But it's so addicting you WANT to do it over and over until you get it right. The challenge is just right to where you keep coming back for more even though you get your butt kicked. And that right there, is the sign of a good game.

Buy or Rent: If you're not a fan of flight games, give it a rent. It's well worth the 5 bucks to play. And if you're a huge fan of flight games, BUY IT. That's all I can say. This game kept me entertained for a good long while.

So there you have it. AirForce Delta Strike is a great game for those who like flight sims but don't want to hassle with the super details of more realistic flight games like Ace Combat. It's a definitely a refreshing breath of fresh air.

And did I mention you can unlock Vic Viper from Zone of the Enders 2? Yeah, this game is that cool.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/04