PlayStation 2 Critic Reviews

Its biggest flaw is that the dogfights that are nominally its focus are satisfying and will keep you engaged, but escort, bombing, and recon missions are a lot more fun.

It's not nearly as good as "Ace Combat 4," but it's enjoyable enough to tide you over until the next Ace Combat game.

If you like cheeze anime character dialogue and clichés and you like a fairly solid arcade flight sim then you'll probably like Aiforce Delta Strike. There are a ton of planes to fly, plenty of missions and fairly good graphics to weld it all together.

7 / 8 / 8 / 6 - 29 [Vol 791; 13 Feb 2004]

Most combat objectives are immediately recognizable to anyone who's logged a few hours in either "Ace Combat" or "Airforce Delta". Not that htis is really a bad thing, because ultimately, the sci-fi story and design is sufficiently compelling. [Mar 2004, p.88]

The visuals are sharp and clean all around, and the game features plenty of slick aircraft shots and beautiful skylines.

It lacks multiplayer, so long-term playability is questionable, but with 60 missions, 130+ planes, and an interesting story to work through, you’ll be spending a good, long, time with this game.

Had the enemy AI been better, the speed not so sluggish, and the combat a little bit more on the arcade side like "Secret Weapons Over Normandy," this game could have been something special. [Feb 2004, p.97]

Neither as disposed toward realism as the Namco "Ace Combat" series nor quite as "on the arcade-stick" as Sammy Studios' "Lethal Skies," AirForce Delta Strike is a basically solid, good-looking, and engaging campaign, albeit a repetitive, hitchy one.

It has its ups and downs, but the goods outweigh the bads in the very end.