This game came out a little before Ace Combat 4 and was overshadowed by it. I purchased the game because its predecessor--Top Gun: Fire at Will--was good.

Gameplay is in four areas, each with its own environment: Training, Vietnam, Gulf War, and an Arctic war. The graphics look more Nintendo 64 than PS2.

The training and Vietnam campaigns both use the Top Gun signature F-14; Gulf War uses the F-18; and Arctic War features the F-22. Once the last campaign is done, you can play all missions using any of those 3, or other unlockable planes like the F-4 and X-32 JSF version. The selection is limited to 6 aircraft, and the lack of variety hurts replay value.

The gameplay is bad. Most missions are: attack ground targets while avoiding/eliminating air threats. It has a very low arbitrary altitude ceiling and the aircraft are slow and sluggish. The game features a 'Jink' maneuver. It causes your plane to jerk and then settle back after a few seconds. Unfortunately it's done by hitting R3, so if you're heavy on the thumbstick, you'll be 'jinking' alot. This hurts your aim and often happens at critical times.

Also a problem is the way AA gunfire works. Unlike the scattered, shotgun effect in most Ace Combat games, all AA guns fire salvos in perfectly straight laser-like lines. AA is implausibly accurate, so much that it's more a threat than SAMs.

Each plane carries the same weapons: gun, rockets, bombs, ASMs and AAMs. The ASMs follow wierd paths that normally results in them crashing halfway between you and the target. Selecting bombs changes your perspective to something more like a WWII bombardier, making it hard to hit targets but easy to crash. The gun, rockets, and AAMs are ok.

Bottom line, don't waste your time or money on it, there are far better classic flying shooters to play. It's so bad our local game store can't even give their copies away.