Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception

Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception belongs to the arcade series of aerial combat games set in the fictional world of Strangereal. The player takes the stick of dozens of licensed aircraft, from F-16 fighters to B-52 bombers, flying cinematic missions full of flashy maneuvers, guided missiles, and dense anti-air fire. The story follows a war between the Aurelia Federation and the Republic of Leasath, giving the series its traditional blend of accessible arcade physics with a tense narrative about a conflict between fictional nations.

The game was built directly for the PlayStation Portable as a full-fledged entry in the series, not as a derivative port of a console game, and its whole structure reflects that. Missions are shorter and easier to digest on the go, the controls were adapted for the handheld's single analog stick, and the graphical detail was scaled back so the game would run smoothly on the portable hardware of the time. Skies of Deception also adds a Strategic Mode, a map of the war effort where the player deploys units between missions and influences which way the front line shifts — a feature the series' concurrent console entries lacked. The game also supports local wireless multiplayer for battles against other PSP owners.

Skies of Deception is also visually tied to the Ace Combat series — the campaign is interspersed with drawn cutscenes that replace the costlier movies of the home console entries, yet still manage to tell the story of the Aurelia Federation's pilots just as engagingly as the big installments. The music comes from the same team of composers as the console entries, so even in handheld form the game retains the series' signature orchestral atmosphere of aerial combat. Short loading times and the ability to save a mission in progress at any point further reflect that this is a title built for shorter play sessions rather than one long block of play in front of the TV.

Why play it: Skies of Deception is an ideal choice for PSP owners or emulator users who want arcade aerial combat in shorter bursts tailored for a handheld. The strategic layer on top of the regular missions also gives the game a sense that decisions in the air carry weight on the bigger map, something players looking for more than a purely linear campaign in the series will appreciate.