Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
This is it! Where it all started for me.
Story is cool, all the different characters are interesting and how it goes from despair to hope to victory is neat, sure it's not as good as Zero or 3, but it holds up.
Maps are bigger and have more enemies too, some missions are split into different operations, completing a certain amount of these completes the mission.
In terms of gameplay, this one has a new mechanic called Allied Support, completing operations allows you to call allies to help either attack enemies or defend you from pursuing aircraft. This is seriously OP and really fun to use against the enemy ace squadron, bunch of them show up, hold up on d-pad, all of them are gone now.
Might be because I've been playing through the other games in the series but I remember the last battle being way harder, specially both tunnel runs, this time around both felt super easy.
Overall, it holds up well, still as good as I remember.
Grade: A+