Line #2 VideoGame/AceCombat2


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jp_ac2_box.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Return a second time for more air to air combat.]]
3
4	The second game in the ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' series. Released in 1997. You fly as the leader of the Special Tactical Fighter Squadron "Scarface" to thwart a rebellion across the continent of Usea.
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6	Received a [[VideoGameRemake remake]] in 2011, ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizonLegacy'', [[MarketBasedTitle known in Japan]] as ''3D Cross Rumble''.
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8	!! Tropes found in the game
9	* ArrangeMode: The Extra Mode is unlocked after completing the game once, and has a mostly-different plane roster from the base game.
10	* AsYouKnow: Crops up in a pre-flight briefing.
11	* AllThereInTheManual: More like "All There In The Remake", but the foreign country Usea attempts to sign a peace treaty which was later confirmed to be the Osean Federation, and the Z.O.E. AI fighters are also confirmed to have been created by North Osea Gründer Industries, with Z.O.E. being an acronym for "Zone of Endless". The other nation the Rebels attempt fire their ICBM at from Fortress Intolerance was also confirmed to be the Union of Yuktobanian Republics.
12	* AttackDrone: Five AI-controlled Z.O.E. planes.
13	* BadassBack: The Z.O.E. Commander's FALKEN can fire missiles backwards. TruthInTelevision: Some of the latest [=AAMs=], like the Python 4/5 or AA-11/R-73, have a 360-degree targetting capability.
14	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: InUniverse. ''Ace Combat 2'' had the series' first two superfighters, the ADF-01 FALKEN and the XFA-27. Neither were noticeably important to the plot at all: the XFA-27 would unceremoniously become available for purchase in an Extra mode playthrough at the same point the F-22 would be unlocked the first time around, and while the FALKEN was treated as the TrueFinalBoss (with the player only getting the chance to fight him if they shot down all the other Z.O.E. planes across the campaign to gain access to the last two missions), it was ultimately still an optional boss which was only set apart from any other enemy by its extreme aggressiveness (being, like the other Z.O.E. planes, one of the only five in the entire game to actively hunt down the player) and an ability to launch missiles backwards it rarely actually takes advantage of.
15	* {{Bowdlerise}}: One of the "bonus" tracks in the OST opens with a section backed by the briefing message from the final mission. For reasons unknown, a part from the end of the message, "go out there and give 'em hell", is changed into "go out there and give 'em all you've got".
16	* CurbStompBattle: The TrueFinalBoss of the game, the ADF-01 FALKEN flown by the Z.O.E. Commander only takes two missiles to bring down, same as every other enemy fighter in the game. This lends itself to a rather underwhelming final duel compared to later games in the franchise.
17	* HeroicMime: Only very slightly subverted - Scarface One talks, but only when requesting assistance during landings.
18	* MookMaker: Some enemy bases do this.
19	* MultipleEndings: The game can end at any point starting from mission 19 depending on what the player does:
20	** If the Z.O.E. craft is not shot down before all other targets are destroyed in mission 19, the game ends there with the liberation of St. Ark, and the player is treated to a credits roll of the squadron flying over the city.
21	** If the Z.O.E. craft is shot down, the game continues to mission 20, where the player tracks down one of the Dragonet-class subs and then has to chase one of its cruise missiles before it impacts St. Ark. Failing to shoot it down treats the player to a NonStandardGameOver of the missile separating and destroying the city, getting a message that the rebellion was successfully stopped but at a heavy cost, before immediately taking the player back to the main menu.
22	** If the cruise missile is shot down, the game moves on to the final mission, where the player wipes out the last of the rebel forces at Fortress Intolerance, getting a different credits roll of the squadron flying over the ocean and then a bonus attract mode of Scarface One flying through a canyon as the game displays how quickly you completed every mission.
23	* NGOSuperpower: A continent-wide rebellion.
24	* NonStandardGameOver: In the late-game, [[spoiler:failing to stop a MIRV from hitting the city of St. Ark results in a unique cutscene and mission failure.]]
25	* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: The first game in the series to start hinting at this, where the rebels are a threat because of missiles launched from submarines that can level an entire city - which the game takes care to mention are simply "Extra Powerful Cruise Missiles" and not nukes.
26	* OptionalStealth: In the mission "Dead End", you're ''supposed'' to stay low to avoid radar contact, but you don't fail the mission immediately if you fly too high. The upside to staying stealthy until you reach the base is that you catch them off-guard and can kill some of the enemy planes before they can, or as they're attempting to, take off, including a pair of cargo planes that lead you to an alternate mission if you shoot them down.
27	* ShoutOut: The cast of named enemy aces the player encounters are named after various grindhouse and genre films:
28	** Two of the enemy aces early on are [[Film/{{Phantasm}} "Tallman" and "Metal Sphere"]].
29	** Another two are [[Film/MadMax "Max" and "Goose"]].
30	** Another squadron of aces are named after ''Film/DeathRace2000''.
31	** The very first ace encountered in the game is named after ''Film/{{Superfly}}''.
32	** Another is named "{{Film/Ricochet}}".
33	** A trio of aces that appear in one mission are named "Dao", "Jian" and "Xiao", referring to the 1994 Hong Kong wuxia film ''Dāo Jiàn Xiào'' (also known as ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Swordsmen The Three Swordsmen]]'').
34	** A group of four aces are named "Fox Force Four", which recalls the [[ShowWithinAShow "Fox Force Five"]] mentioned in ''Film/PulpFiction''.
35	*** Additionally, the group all have a shared pattern for their paint scheme, but differing colors for the individual planes, green, yellow, red and blue - all of which match up to the colors associated with the ''VideoGame/StarFox'' team (this game releasing just a month after ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' did).
36	** The semi-fictional F-15S in the game bears a noticeable resemblance to the F-15J Kai+ from ''Anime/Patlabor2TheMovie''.
37	* SoundtrackDissonance: Some of the songs qualify, though not intentionally. It's still an arcade game through and through, but some of the mission's music sound a little too cheerful and peppy for the situation. Almost JPop type music.
38	** On a meta level, several of the games tracks do not line up with the missions which they are named for. For example, the songs "Bear Tracks" and "Rising High" do not play over the missions they share their names with in-game.
39	* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified: Averted. You're fighting ''for'' the government.
40	* VideoGameRemake: ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizonLegacy''.

Context VideoGame / AceCombat2