![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Arcade Archives: Air Combat 22
Jul. 4th, 2025 07:51 amThis week's Arcade Archives release is... Air Combat 22 (Namco, 1995)
Both the Japanse and English ROMs are included. There's a whole load of control options available here. As well as the standard controller with dead zone / analgoue sensitivity adjustment settings (as with Ridge Racer, they're a little hidden- go to Settings > Button > Custom Button Settings > Advanced Setting), the PS4, PS5, Switch and Switch 2 versions have gyro controls you can toggle on and off (this works extremely well, so I'd recommend you give it a try) and all versions have flight stick support (including, on PS4 and Switch with a convertor, the USB CyberStick!). I can't check the Xbox One version for control options unfortunately, but I assume flight stick controls are in there at least. Preference Settings allow players to adjust how much time you get upon continuing.
Bandits at 10 o'clock! This is not a drill, this is the real deal! Commandeer one of three top fighter jets and strike out at the enemy bogeys across three intense missions- two Cadet missions (with with training tips) with Aeries to counterattack against an enemy strike on a friendly base, a Top Gun mission with Top Gunners to support ground troops, and a Dog Fight mission with Aces to duke it out over 32 levels of pure dog-fighting. All three of your aircraft come fully equipped with machine guns, a limited supply of missiles and lock-on capabilities, but those enemies are pesky and can outrun your missiles, so be sure to give chase by using the throttle to control your speed. A dramatic climactic air battle awaits brave pilots who make it to the end, so wipe 'em out before they knock you out of the sky!
I didn't think we'd see a 3D Namco game so soon, but here it is! The follow-up to 1993's Air Combat, this is called Air Combat 22 because it's running on Namco's Super System 22 (or is it System Super 22? Both have been seen on official sources, so who knows- thanks electricboogaloofunk in the stream chat!), an upgrade from the System 22 that Ridge Racer ran on, and similar to its predecessor comes on an absolute monster of a cabinet (and operators can upgrade their old Air Combat cab if they want!). Unfortunately, flight sims are absolutely not my area of expertise and I've certainly never seen a real cabinet of either game, but even with my limited experience, it's easy to see why Namco would keep making these games on home consoles to this day. I suppose the closest comparison would be Sega's G-LOC in the arcade as you have a set number of enemies to take down in each area, but while that was 2D trickery, this is all 3D with texture-mapped polygons and an incredible sense of speed and control as you take out enemies to get precious seconds added to the clock.
It's quite a short experience, even for an arcade game- four stages in the Cadet, five in Top Gun and 32 in Dog Fight but you'll have to be good to get that far- but there's multiple routes and terrain to fly over depending on your altitude when you end a mission, so repeat playthroughs are definitely encouraged. Just like Ridge Racer, it's a very 'one more go' kind of game, where you want to just dive straight back in to try again and do better. The presentation really helps too, with excellent music, superb polygons for the time and lots of great radio chatter like "What a manouevre, son of a gun!" when an enemy breaks away from your locked-on missile and even little launch sequences at the start of a game. Even if you've no interest in flight sims, this is way more arcadey ('cause, you know, it's an arcade game) and more accessible than I'd anticipated, so I'd say it's worth a try, as even without the impressive cabinet this is a lot of fun!