YMMV / Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: No one bats an eye when Phoenix pilots World War II-era fighters, or has his wingmen do so — although some of the usual "This Cannot Be!" remarks from enemy pilots become downright hilarious when one considers that they're saying this as an obsolete subsonic propeller-driven fighter zips up behind them and tears them apart.
  • The final bonus mission becomes exceptionally hilarious in this way, given that you fight FOUR laser toting generation 6 fighters at once, all on your lonesome. Given that the Hellcat and Zero are both actually really good, you can expect to see this happen more often than not.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In Ace Combat 2, Scarface One's official aircraft was the Su-35 Super Flanker. The introduction to that game depicts his aircraft coming to the aid of a wingman flying an F-22. Fast-forward to Assault Horizon Legacy — now Scarface One's official plane is the F-22, and since the game uses Assault Horizon's cover art (which features an Su-37 Terminator), Phoenix is practically shooting down his old self!
  • In the 2nd mission "Easy Money", you'll encounter Lancer Squadron whose leader, Albert "Lancer 1" Wahlberg looks upon you as a "mercenary dog". Guess he took a playbook from Crimson 1.
• Memetic Badass: Scarface One/Phoenix is the first protagonist in the series, yet one of the most undeniably awesome. He's put a stop to multiple wars, all while making his enemies piss themselves in fear of him. Who else is more than capable of 100 enemy fighters in one go as well as taking down four advanced, laser-toting super aircrafts at the same time?
  • And he can do all of that while flying an early 1940's USN Carrier fighter.
  • He's so badass that the ending theme, Gravity/Like A Phoenix Rising is basically one big boast about how anyone who stands against him is already dead before the fight even starts.
  Commenter: "That's Phoenix to his opponents. He's undefeatable, the Lord of the Skies, the end of days to his enemies."
  • Like Mobius 1's appearance in Ace Combat Zero, Phoenix makes a cameo in Ace Combat X and Joint Assault as the games' True Final Boss.
• Narm Charm:
  • While the actor's delivery isn't the problem, Final Fantasy fans may get a chuckle upon hearing, "Phoenix down!"
  • The first ace squadron you fight, Lancer, has a thing about knights and chivalry and honor and the like, much like some of the bosses in Zero did - and then you realize their lead's personal callsign is "Pride". It's like they held a contest to let a fan design one of the boss fights, and George Lucas won by doing his version of Rot Team with Schnee's plane choice.
• Player Punch: Assault Horizon Legacy brings Edgar Grint, leader of the Albireo squadron known as the "Bird's Eye". He takes up the challenge of facing Phoenix after hearing just how unbeatable he was, having taken the Lancer, Beast and Cocoon squadrons down. He puts up a massive challenge and when he goes down with his plane, his act is that of a Graceful Loser. The actual punch comes when you look at the profile you just unlocked: before he joined the Rebels, his original plan was to retire from the army, and he promised his wife he'd move to a village away from any air bases once the conflict was over. You can feel bad for him now.
• Underused Game Mechanic: The game has a meter build up whenever an enemy is chasing behind you that allows you to instantly loop your plane behind them with the press of a button. The feature did not return for Infinity or 7; presumably it was seen as too close to the much-loathed Dogfight Mode.