You Haven't Played every Ace Combat until you've Played THIS
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Today, we're checking out a game that came to be via Kickstarter: Project Wingman.
Developed by a team of just three people, the 2020 title is essentially a love letter to the Ace Combat franchise and its fans (and also possibly the color orange). In particular, heavy inspiration is drawn from earlier entries in the popular franchise, with Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War seeming to have the most influence.
Can this "Indie" title deliver an experience that is anywhere close to what fans of the genre love and expect?
Stop by and find out!
The way you talk and sound affects my “asmr” in a cringe way
Just want you to know this
😂😂
Palworld and Pokemon: *beating each other up for being too similar and acting there can only be one Pocket Monster game*
Project Wingman: __
Ace Combat: __ *Epic Bro Handshake*
project wingman was made by the community for the community and in essence so was palword the difference being combat fans aren't brain dead bootlickers
@@H4L0GUY117 It _was_ one sided at the beginning with the Pokémon community attacking Palworld's community. But it became both ways after a patent lawsuit was filed against Palworld. (Keyword: Patent. *Not* Copyright.)
@@H4L0GUY117 Adding onto that, the fighting at the start _was_ mostly one-sided with the Pokemon community attacking Palworld. It only went both ways once the Patent lawsuit was filed. It's ongoing as of this comment. (Keyword: Patent. *Not* Copyright.)
Project Wingman has become so large that a full ARMA3 unit led by one of the voice actors (Woodward himself) is running operations set in the universe. I’m one of the top aces of this unit and we run some pretty wild ops
That's incredible! Is there footage of this anywhere?
Edit: I see it on your channel, checking it out!
@@JarboeGaming I’m also subbed to one of our other members: Trenni. He recorded full VODS of the operations we hold in much high quality.
Oh you and I have talked before. I’m a unit rep in that server, and the leader of the 13th JFW
is this some like arma vet thing? sounds really cool and I'd be down to try it out but last time i've played arma was probably 2020
…
That’s Adorable
When I kick-started project wingman, I was expecting something fun that would scratch the ace combat itch, but would ultimately pretty mediocre in comparison. I was blown out of the water when it released. The game punches above its class in almost every regard.
I agree, there are some mediocre design choices with the game. It's still a lot of fun but I have to rely on mods to make it better for me.
@Swattii just remember, sector D2 is literally 3 people...
I thought it would go like Vector Thrust did but I am glad it did not
This game throws haymakers above its class
We need more.
Finally an indie game that understands that art style doesn’t have to mean quirky or colorful or unusual. Honestly this game just looks insanely good for three devs
And as another commenter mentioned, even though it was a total team of three, it was really just one guy that worked on the actual game itself.
I wish I had the talent to do that 😅😅
I want to make a comic book like indie/mid-budget game that can still run on Windows 7
The Project Wingman Mark 1 was so cool someone modded it into Ace Combat 7 and had a scenario where Crimson 1 fought Mister X.
Somebody modded the other way as well and had Crimson 1 fight Pixy.
They have literally opposite ideologies and it's hilarious to hear their monologues "debate" with each other lmao
I'm surprised PW Mk1 hasn't been modded into GTA V yet
We heard you intercepted our planes? So we sent an intercept of your intercept and then intercepted the intercept that you sent after that intercept. Oh god my whole Air Force is in the sky off Alaska and the world is ending a second time. Love this game
Bering Strait: The largest furball in history. Truly a target rich environment.
@@DarkElfDiva I love that mission so much, Showdown just fits the sheer insanity of a mega furball
The best part is that in the dlc, you're tasked with defending the bering strait survivors that managed to run but still chased by the mercs. Yes that includes the crimson squad themselves, so now you get to disrespect him for a 2nd time by making him rely on a newly activated reserve unit
technically the game was only made by one person. the other two guys just made the story and ost respectively
I am currently working on transcribing all of "Kings" to sheet music by ear.
130 BPM, 29 instruments, 238 measures, 7 minutes. It's coming along VERY nicely so far!
I should be done within the next month or so
the lore is basically Armored Core 6's lore lol
It's funny you mention that, because I felt the same having just finished AC6 lol
PW is great, but the people saying this game is a replacement to Ace Combat completely missed the point of why it was made
A love letter to Ace Combat by Ace Combat fans. Correct?
@@da_riceboy161 correct
PW is easily the best arcade air combat game ever made. I appreciate AC and even Hawks for being fun, but something about PW brings it that feeling I had as a 10 year old kid running around my backyard in the 80s with my GI Joe planes
Project Wingman gives me so much more arcadey replayability than AC7 does. Controls in AC7 absolutely suck and you cannot change them, whereas Project Wingman lets you use a HOTAS easily and set any controls you want
Don't forget that unlike a certain other plane series, Project Wingman can be played in its entirety in VR with fully rendered internal cockpits (though sadly the planes are not technically real aircraft, so don't go in expecting 100% accuracy to their IRL counterparts). VR with full HOTAS is an absolute joy to play.
That was because ace combat 7 had to be made for a console that was already 6 years old and was pushing old hardware, not only that but psvr is only a gimmick made by Sony
Although the gameplay and plot are heavily inspired by Ace Combat, the soundtrack was inspired by Nier Automata. Jose Pavli released a couple of "making of" videos explaining it. Compare the tracks "Calamity" from Project Wingman and "Alien Manifestation" from Nier Automata. Similarity was intentional since the developers requested something similar to Nier Automata and "Calamity" was used as the audition sample.
Love Project Wingman. I loved the ability to add more special weapons than in AC, just wish I could select the pylons and qty’s displayed.
Great game.
The whole game is literally a fandom response to the dev said "Fine I'll do it myself, and maybe way better then you current game"
The existence of Project Wingman is literally because of Ace combat series went silent for about a half of decades after assault horizon and infinity released. God i don't know how much hate the whole fandom has when assault horizon was first publish that make three people decide to make their own Ace combat game.
Anyway damn i didn't know the game would be that fun especially knowing that you can bought 3 special weapons and having a wso and hell the music also a bangers. Man i wish i had a powerful pc or Xbox just to Play this supposed called "Indie game"
If you get it on PS5, you get 6-7 extra dlc missions, plus a bunch of new quality of life updates
@@SpartanChief17Cpfft bet it still doesn’t have Replay viewer mode
“Because the series went silent for half of decades after ACAH and infinity released”
So you’re taking about Just Numbered installments instead of just Ace combat Titled ?
If so that’s petty as hell and I don’t understand that as AceX is not considered a “Numbered” Title as wth is X mean ? 10!?
And it was A Solid Title
Also X2
@@mrandrossguy9871 both of that game released the same year as Zero & Assault Horizon... Of course not many people knows about that game
5:40 Boom
Exactly because they modeled the “flight model” to be more Accurate and Aero Dynamic/ Drifty just like Ace3/Ace4/AceX and Ace6 !
Yeah I'm not a huge fan of high G maneuvers, this does a better job of bringing me back to the glory days of the AC series.
Looking forward to X, that'll be the next flight game we cover!
"your wingmen arent entirely useless"
On the mission where Monarch and Diplomat take down transports hiding among civi aircraft, Dip doesn't shoot down a single enemy, even shooting down civi aircraft on accident a few times. Atleast in my experience.
That's 1 less civvie to be accidentally shot down by you, I'd say that's a big help
I love the mods that let you take the EUFB on multiple pylons into the campaign, so you can just roll up with 6-8 nukes
TIL about the EUFB. Dang that's insane. So many things in Conquest I didn't even know were there
I got PW as soon as I got my laptop. For the price it's heaps of fun and is a love letter to the Ace Combat series from fans. Crimson 1 is just more evil pixie if he loved boarders. I also like the addition of the encyclopedia with good articles to flesh out the Characters and setting in lue of having cut scenes. Keeps the budget down but provides what you need. And yes, I love how they do special weapons. If AC needs to take one thing away from PW it's that. Give use multiple weapon hard points. I'd love to have a multi roll load out of a huge AC mission using jammers, and various ordinances for various targets.
If there's one thing I could just pick out that PW does better than AC is how much better the machine gun is with the reticle.
Yeah I definitely prefer the guns and their aiming in this game. So fun to use!
You mean better than the Latest AceCombat Right ?!
Because Most of not ALL the previous Acecombats Gun reticle behaved Like PW
@mrandrossguy9871 No, I've played the PS2 Trilogy, and they aren't as smooth and stable as PW.
@@mrandrossguy9871 Disagree. Pretty sure the only AC game to have guns as good as PW was AC6, and THAT was only because the guns were buffed significantly.
Guns in AC7 are still kinda useless IMO
The core mechanics and gameplay are really solid, Cold War is easily one of the most fun experience I've ever had in this subgenre. The story is also not too bad (I don't like the true ending) and the characters are fun to listen to.
My only grievances are the missions being so long without checkpoint while being pretty repetitive overall, Cold War is fun because it's a fresh A2A only mission after many many samey multirole/CAS missions with little alterations beyond the map. This is also kind of an issue for Ace Combat as well, but because the missions are shorter it's not as exhausting (physically and mentally); AC also have more variety that people sometimes dismiss as gimmick missions, but they can be really memorable and fun too.
Hope that Ace Combat X is on your list. Great PSP game made even better by playing on a big screen with a real controller. Even has a full HD texture pack.
Yep, we'll be covering this for our next flight game! Looking forward to it, will be relaxing compared to the anarchy of Helldivers 😅😅
This game…this game man….i was not expecting such a damn good experience at all. It became one of my favorites of all time
13:53 Remember: *_"Belka did nothing wrong."_*
While admittedly I'm not a fan of the story or the soundtrack, my appreciation to project wingman is MONUMENTALLY HUGE. Not only is it inspiring to me as a game dev, but the team, voice actors included, are just very nice people (Matthew in particular since he's really been helpful to me). The gameplay improves on the ace combat formula MASSIVELY and it's honestly just overall fun, and there's a lot of care to make sure the game works well. The missions are fun; they're difficult while still being completable, the way the guns work is satisfying, the way you can pick your loadout and its more dynamic than ace combat. The flight model is just great; my only complaint is a lack of (real) angle of attack which I am very picky about. Also the active use of countermeasures is a neat detail too. I overall love this game, it makes me happy just knowing it exists and the team behind it are great.
I still prefer Ace Combat but this game is a lot of fun. I recommend trying out the Balanced Wingman mod that makes the plane fly a little more better. A lot of the planes in the base game fly a little sluggish in my opinion.
@@Swattiisometimes mods like those are subjecfive. I personally think the game is well balanced from the get go and there is nothing wrong with the default turn rates on aircraft as they're pretty close to what those aircraft would be like anyways.
@@sanikku7359 The mod is actually a community effort so there's a lot of suggestions taken from many folks to help the jets actually fly closer to their IRL counter-part while also feeling absolutely amazing.
The mod also changes the weaponry on a lot of the jets, making them more powerful and in my opinion, more satisfying to use. I would recommend giving it a try just to see.
@@Swattii lmao, really, you mean you prefer a mod that makes the planes fly more stupidly rather than with AERODYNAMICS ?
@@mrandrossguy9871 It's an arcadey flight game. I don't care about realistic unless I'm playing an FPS.
I'm proud the Developer were Indonesian
My favorite game... ive done it all but i still discover little things when i replay it... so good.
Even better now that Frontline 59 has more missions!
Only if you play on PS5. The others don't get that. Doesn't help they basically abandoned the Xbox version with no updates for a long time. This game's issues are only now creeping up
@@Tman2bardyeah like REPLAY IN PAUSE MENU or AFTER MISSION COMPLETE AND FAILURE
You mean those missions original fans and backers on PC haven't received after two years of dev's promise of 2.0 update and subsequent 2 years of radio silence?
Project Wingman is a lot of fun in VR, and you can mod in FSR 1.0 support to boost frame rates in VR.
I recorded and posted (I think) 2 complete playthroughs of it on Merc level difficulty. It is so much fun.
Going to go do a playthrough of AC7 in VR with the IE to VR mod after the X-Wing conversion
Project Wingman is literally just some guys playing Ace Combat and saying "I could do that" and did it
Ah this one. Man, Wingman was wild as far as the gameplay went. In fact, I'd say it's kind of like Ace Combat 6 where the gameplay and ost hard carry it. Wish they had a bit more budget for a more interactive story though, that's the only thing I'd really want for this game.
The missiles being more led on than straight tracks like Ace offers some interesting maneuvers and strategies and man, these guns are probably one of the best in the arcade flight sim genre with how much you can curve the bullets and snipe things using some wind physics.
This one might be a bit obscure but if you liked Wingman, I'd like to suggest giving Raiders Sphere 4th a try. You would think it's a visual novel but it turns out to be sorta like playing Electrosphere with some rather wild missions like aerial stonehenge.
Yeah, as I mentioned in the video, think the lack of cutscenes sort of made the antagonist worse, and hurts the story a bit overall.
But, serious credit where credit is due. For such a small team, it's damn impressive.
@@JarboeGaming Agreed, I hope the wingman team makes another one because it has a lot of potential.
@@tenkakuch Frontline 59 was DLC made for PW, but it is unfortunately a PS5 exclusive.
The soundtrack sounds like a combination of Pokemon and Gran Turismo’s original stuff. Pretty good
Such a great game🎉 love this review , pretty spot-on 😊. The funny thing is this game was created because of a lack of AC games, and them AC7 was announced on PC 😂. Both came out around the same time. This game was also ported on Xbox series and later on ps5. GamePlay rocks musoc rocks mission are fun, a great games with it's own take on the AC formula, nd clearly made by an AC fan for AC fans. I mean the times is called "After Calamity" : AC 😂
I Only Wish pW Devs would implement is REPLAY VIEWER
As it was SHOWN In the Trailers !?
CRIMSON ONE
>
Rusty & Raven: *Laughing in LoR*
I was already sold but I saw the nuke, brother THE NUKE got me hooked alright
Me who already had orange as my favorite color absolutely LOVED this game's visual 😂🧡
love me my *ORANGE* simulator
I love this game. I love this game so much I actually went out of my own way to do a true 100% completion of the game. All difficulties played, all planes unlocked, Conquest mode completed, all planes unlocked in CM, AND ALL ACHIEVEMENTS unlocked for the Steam release. This game was the best stopgap after completing AC7 three times on Ace and getting all olanes and parts on the PS4 release (DLC does not count). I still go back and play Conquest Mode because of how much fun it is (all issues of the game still being 1.0 not affecting my outlook) and the VR. Oh man, the VR is just B-E-A-utiful when it works for me. I honestly feel like I am sitting in at the controls of the jet I am using and also using my head to track all my targets just adds all the extra challenge I need.
Just wish this masterpiece had Replay Viewer
Presidia makes me ascend into the dark blue (bright orange).
I bought this game to scratch that AC itch, i continue to play for Prez❤, the WSO if your in a two seater jet
Have you ever played sky crawlers innocent aces ?
It’s a 2008 Wii game developed by Project Aces
And has a tie in sequel anime movie
@@xdxkid5444 No I will check this out!
Everyone's been commenting me to check out this game's OST
It's very impressive!
Should get an affiliate link, this looks dank
✈️
Damn i bought the game back when it was 5 bucks. Such a good pick up honestly
2:06 yeah they arent useless and they always steal my airship kills 😢
Ace Combat has a lot of people around me say I'm the ace so many times it got boring to me.
Project Wingman made me feel that I AM the ace. Mission 11 is better than anything equivalent Ace Combat had ever offered, so was Frontline 59's Mission 4.
I beat the whole game with the f14 i couldnt stray from prez i even came back and beat crimson on mercenary with f14
This looks soooo good!!! I wish it would come to consoles
because it's already is, especially in PS5 which also includes an additional campaign expansion which we're exclusive to it for the time being
@@adlibbed2138 Oh wow I was not aware, already downloading it, thanks
I fucking love this game but hate the devs. I understand that Sony would have paid well, but for fans of the game on other platforms that didn’t get the dlc/ major update its just a spit in the face and feels so anti consumer. I love this game but I cannot recommend supporting devs that can so easily shit on their fans.
LoL Just like Project Aces or is it their Platform NamdaiBamco?
This Game is amazing
My steam review is negative because they put platform exclusive dlc on PS5 but not PC
No one has made more to ruin this game and its community than RB-D2 himself. I mean, alright dude, you want more money, thus you pursued Xbox GamePass and PSVR2 exclusive deals, but no one held you at gunpoint when you've promised 2.0 update, no one put you into the basement for the following years to prevent you from speaking anything about those. Even the simple "I'm short on time and resources, so I'll prioritise another platforms for now, promised features will not be implemented" would've been much more relatable than what he actually did.
This game might crash my laptop, Since it can only run Ace combat 7
I struggled to enjoy playing through Project Wingman. The music and gameplay were the only things that allowed me to just get through the game and the dire lack of Ace Combat games on modern systems. The obscene difficulty of this game, the downright ugly designs for a number of the the aircraft, and the downright offensive visual design of the game really did everything it could to keep me from finishing this game on both PC and PS5. I really hope they fix the fake hyper real look of the first game and just give us 100% original designs instead of these god awful mash ups. Overall, for a game made buy a really small team it is a great effort and I look forward to more works from them with the potential they showed with this game.
Alright, offensive visual design and ugly aircraft is a personal thing, but what difficulty were you playing on? Theres an easy mode for a reason, and even on medium you’re probably going to focus too hard on an enemy and accidentally fly into the ground more than you get shot down
4:38 peak
This seems awesome as fuck
I can't even get past the first mission in this game, I wish they'd allow save points.
prez everywhere mod 🙏
No coverage of Ace Combat X huh?
It's the next flight action game we're covering ❤️
@@JarboeGamingdid you cover X2 already ?
MY 1ST THOUGHT WHEN I HEARED WHEN GAME TAKES PLACE I AT ONCE THOUGHT THAT THEY MUST HAVE PLAYED ZELDA!! CALMATION OR WHAT THE WORD WAS AGAIN COMES UP ALOT IN ZELDAS BOTW....
GAME LOOKS WAY BETTER THEN I HOPED AND WHEN I LEARN THE CONTROLS N GAMEPLAY IT WILL ALSO BE MORE FUN I WOULD THINK..
RPG FLIGHT COMBAT OR WHAT I SHOULD CALL IT?
My Nationalist ass when I found out the lead developer of this game is from my own country: 🦅🦅🦅
Bruh your fav thing about it is the BGM 🤷♂️
When it’s the GAMEPLAY
Anyway I only like Calamity and that Showdown, the rest is mid to me which is alright because it’s not That important ?
Also 6:20 BRO THEN THATS ALL ACECOMBAT NEEDS TO DO TO HAVE LIKE OVER 100PLANES 🤷♂️ stupid devs of Ace combat
#belkadidnothingwrong
My only complaint I have with the game is the sea battles, to take down a ship you must destroy all armements it has first, which is a bit stupid because if one gun is in a particular angle then you can't hit it, your missiles will hit ship directly instead but inflicting no damages because one gun left, for me it is stupid, by the time you're done with the last gun the ship is already full of hole and shouldn't be floating anymore but nope, have to destroy last gun to actually bringing down the entire ship next, at least in Ace Combat you can destroy ship weapon to make it less effective or just deal with ship directly instead destroying all gun in the process and still having the full points. I have nothing against this gameplay mechanic being used against airships, but against sea ships? Come on...
They released the anniversary update for the game on PC, meaning PC players can now have access to the until now Playstation exclusive dlc called Frontline 59 for only 5 bucks but also a lot of change and improvement for free, including even better AI for ally (which also affect conquest mode and make it even more fun to play with airships on your side) graphism improvement UI improvement etc, they also touched Conquest mode a bit with the enemy respawn, now when the boss of the area shows up, the random enemies wll stop spawning, so you can clear the area to then have a clear shot on the boss squadron or fleet as well as making your fleet focus fire on them.
Crimson 1 is American, he just can't stand having his ego, army and arrogance being outmatched by mercs with no affiliation, so for that part, he's the perfect antagonist (It's a joke dammit stop aiming at me with all these guns) :p
Misconception, in ace combat the stall manouvers are quite simmilar to project wingman AOA, the diffrenvd is that in ace they are just muvh harder to pull off anf are limited to 360 degrees and slow speed. In good hands i would say ace combat stall manouvers are more powerful, but project wingman's one dorsn't require you having 50 hours in game to figure it out
and it is my personal hell i love it and hate it
The game is almost perfect, Conquest Mode is some bullshit though.
If you get killed in conquest just exit out the whole game immediately b4 “better luck next time” screen and your progress will be saved
Its not a bad game, and its definitely worthy of the Ace Combat lineage, but because its so much like that game it actually hurts it for me. The music and the idea of this 'one ace who can change the tide of battle' really is so on the nose for me. I couldn't stand it, and it made me distracted from the game at hand. Air Force Delta Strike on the PS2 for example is similar in game play, but its still unique enough to not feel like a total ripoff. Hope that makes sense
So, was I the only one who thought the boss was just way too difficult compared to the rest of the game?
I have beaten every Ace Combat game on the hardest difficulty and the highest rank. Every single one of them. But playing that last mission of project wingman was an absolute slog.
I wouldn't say difficult, but I agree that it can be a drag to get through. But to me that's a side effect of the whole game having long missions that can be a slog in general, not having checkpoints means you also redo a lot of them if and when you are failed.
Ace Combat 6 can do these massive long missions because it have checkpoints which made them bearable, and multi-operations made them somewhat less repetitive. Most good AC games have a mostly sweet and short missions that are fun to replay as you experiment and optimize your playstyle on each playthrough; PW made that harder to do as you became risk averse as to not waste your time redoing this one mission that you've been doing for 10 minutes (give or take).
I'll say this, on my first playthrough I died more to Frost's first fight than I did to Crimson 1. With Crimson it's a matter of figuring out what you have to dodge and staying in close to avoid railgun fire, but Frost will absolutely shred you if you go for a gun run at the wrong moment. The only time Crimson 1 felt like a slog was on Mercenary difficulty, where I had to actively budget my cannon ammo to make sure I had it available to burst him down.
@@griffinfaulkner3514 I always think Frost is cooler than C1
@@shira_yone She's the Boba Fett to C1's Darth Vader, of course she's gonna be cool as hell. That said, she wouldn't be as good of a final boss, because she just isn't as invested or fanatical as C1. Frankly, if she ended up surviving her second fight, I could see her bailing out of the conflict entirely once she sees the unholy asskicking Hitman unleashes on Crimson Team and the 1st fleet.
LOoks great , shame its only on pc , i think thats because it runs better there
XBone as well
@@mrandrossguy9871 Oh yeah i forgot about the GamePass
It's on Xbox and PS5 as well
@@SpartanChief17C is thr ps5 one complete missions or just a few??
@@Nobody.exe50 It has all 21 of the original missions, plus 6 additional (full) missions for the Frontline 59 DLC that is PS5 exclusive. However, on PS5, only those 6 DLC missions are VR--compatible.
Made by an Ace Combat enthusiast...
AND MADE IT BETTER THAN ASS .. I mean Ace7 !
By Core Gameplay visuals And Features/Flight Model That is ,
Similar to what made Ace6 Fires of Liberation GREAT