YMMV / Carrier Airwing

• Anti-Climax Boss: In a meta-sense, [[spoiler:Country X in the Japanese version, as for some reason their participation in the whole plot stops at the almost the end of the game and you have to face Rabu (in this version, a terrorist organization/weapons dealer group, rather than a country like the English version) in the last stages.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The plot of the game, which involves an armed conflict with a Middle Eastern country may come off as uncomfortable after the Iraq War. Not to mention Rabu sounds an AWFUL lot like Iran.
• Spiritual Successor: To Capcom's earlier U.N. Squadron. Both are horizontal shumps with realistic aircraft. It was developed as an official sequel until the rights to Area 88 lapsed.