- PlayStation 2
- ESRB Rating; T (teen)
- Shooter
Product Description
MODEL- 63029 VENDOR- Sega FEATURES- Aero Elite Combat Academy Description: Learn from the best and defy the rest when you become a fighter pilot in the most realistic aerial combat simulator for your PlayStation 2. Master the intricate flight maneuvers of over 60 types of authentically-modeled aircraft from jump jets to choppers before going up against deviously aggressive enemy squadrons. Your high- tech weapons skills will be put to the test in a wide range of com… More >>
I accidentally stumbled across Aero Elite at a GameCrazy one day – but had never even heard of it. The price was marked $12.99. I read the description on the back and thought.. “Well, what the heck – it might be fun to just have around and the price is decent.” Being an avid fan of the Ace Combat series and even reaching into the combat flying sim abyss with Top Gun and Bogey: Dead Six (Anyone remember that one??) I figured 1 more pretend flight sim couldn’t hurt the collection…
And then I played Aero Elite for the first time….. and haven’t touched another flight-related title since.
Having always wanted to be either a Navy or Air Force pilot and having searched fervently for the best flight sims possible on a console station, Aero Elite was the perfect match!
Beware of all the “critics” of this game that bash the gameplay, the physics, the realism engine and who whine about the Training Mode. This is not a game – this is a combat flight simulator. From over 60 planes to choose from (yes, you have to unlock 90% of them by completing Scramble Missions and Training Modes) – take-offs – landings – dogfighting – air to ground missions – free flight – carrier-based missions – a head-to-head death match and Aero Meet 2002 (various competition missions against AI), the replay value of this game is priceless.
Oh.. speaking of “replay” – none of the other reviews mention that you get to watch a replay of your entire previous flight from over 40 different camera angles! (OH YEAH, BABY!!)
The Bottom Line is This: Aero Elite Combat Academy is the best (and only) true combat flight simulator in the console world today. In addition to the myriad of planes available, there are also rotary-wing craft (3 helicopters including the Cobra and the AH-64 Apache) that are the true jewels of this simulator. ((Wanna REAL fun challenge?? Try landing the US-1A on the dam lake at Base Island at night! What a rush!!)) With continual practice and patience, this sim will reward you like no other.
No game collection is complete without Aero Elite.
Oh… one more “fruit” for thought…. if the critics of this simulator are correct – then why is Aero Elite so difficult to come by? And even if you do find it on sites like this one, then why is the price marked so high? That in itself speaks more volume than anything anyone could write about it.
Happy Flying!!
Rating: 5 / 5
Aero Elite outclasses Ace Combat 4 in terms of realism and detail but sacrifices fun in the name of it. The weapons, for example, are exact to the real specs and number. You have to pay close attention to your speed and altitude when landing, especially if you’re flying VTOL in a Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier. The vertical take-off and landing feature of the Rolls Royce Engine only engages at a specific airspeed. Going through the VTOL training really helps you learn the basic skills for flying the AV-8B Harrier. Unlike Ace Combat 4, you can pre-program your replay views before saving it and even choose a different background music. Not to mention, you get the whole replay for the entire length of the game! Ace Combat 4 only replays the last 4 minutes and you cannot save each individual replay movie. Aero Elite even lets you land any plane on a city freeway or on almost any flat surface you can find on the face of the Earth like parking the F-16 Falcon on that helipad in front of your house in the Snowy Mountains Mission. Try parking the huge F-15E inside the pyramid in the desert mission. Mastering the technique of landing the AV-8B Harrier on the LHA at sea can be hard to learn at first but you’ll be proud once you get it right and to watch or show that perfect replay is almost enough reason to own this game. Not recommended for beginner pilots. Advanced pilots dare this!
Rating: 4 / 5
Areo Elite ROCKS. You can really pilot 60 aircraft including an
su-25,f-15,and an AH-1.It may seem hard but after a little while it gets easy.By the way this game is not ace combat.
ace combat=arcade style
areo elite=simulation
the only downfall is that you can only fire your weapons when you get within range.
other than that this is a great game
and also don’t complain about all the training because real pilots go through many years of training and are not guaranteed a mission.
Rating: 4 / 5
Being a lifelong combat aircraft buff, I was immediately attracted to this title. Graphics looked great, and the ability to fly 60+ aircraft (including some real rare birds the like F-104 and the F-86) made this game appear all the more like an outstanding title. Well kids, It is not. Thankfully, I rented this one before I bought it. My biggest complaint the the control, or lack thereof, especially in the training missions. Completing the training missions is required to unlock various aircraft. Training missions consist of things like take-off, landing, rolls, loops and so on. Later training missions involve combat maneuvering, formation flight, and weapons. There are also training modules involving rotary-wing (choppers) and VTOL aircraft. Sounds fun and involved, right? WRONG!!! The training requires you to be so precise in your control, that even the slightest mistake will cause you to fail and re-take the “test”. Yeah, I know that the REAL jet jockeys and chopper drivers go through the same thing, … Maybe I’m just whining. Also, while you are in “school” you can be “scrambled” to respond to airborne threats. You may be required to simply identify and unknown aircraft, or you may have to shoot him down. You never know when you get the call. That part was kind of cool, although the radio voice vectoring me to the target did get a bit annoying. Other than that, I must admit, there were a wide selection of aircraft (all with Japanese Air Force markings) and great graphics. On one hand, I have been known to complain about the Ace Combat series of fighter plane shooters, stating that they are painfully unrealistic. But, I guess that there can be an overdose of realistic, and (in my opinion) this game suffers because of it. But again, the myriad of aircraft (including combat choppers and heavy transports) gave this game a nice variety, and prevented me from giving the dreaded one-star review. I guess if you mastered the training portion, than this game would be a blast, but I suppose I just lost interest.
Rating: 2 / 5
Thank god I bought this at a store that has a money back return policy wiith receipt. This game was one of the worst games I’ve ever played.
To start, for a flying game to be any good you must first get some sense that you are flying. Aero elite seemed to go out of its way to take that sense from you. For perspective, I would say that Ace Combat 4 gives you a far better sense of flying. While that game was not terribly realistic in that your plane could hold 50-70 missles, it is in every other way a far superior game and would give it 3.5 to 4.0 stars.
Aero elite’s graphics are Ok nothing great and certainly no better that Ace Combat 4′s. The controls are horrendous, from accelerating to decelerating, to the firing of missles, to just flying the plane around the screen.
There is a great selection of planes, however, It’s no fun to fly any of them because it doesn’t feel like your flying any of them.
It is a shame that in the middle of 2003 companies are still creating games that would have been better for the original Sega system from 10 yrs ago. This game is worth between $1 and $5, no more. Not even worth the $6 to rent.
Rating: 1 / 5