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Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies

Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies
Ac04box.jpg
Developer(s) Namco
Publisher(s) Namco
Distributor(s)
Director(s) Atsushi Shiozawa
Hiroyuki Ichiyanagi
Producer(s) Shigeru Yokoyama
Composer(s) Tetsukazu Nakanishi
Keiki Kobayashi
Hiroshi Okubo
Katsuro Tajima
Series Ace Combat
Platform(s) PlayStation 2
Release date(s)
  • JP: September 13, 2001
  • NA: November 1, 2001
  • EU: February 8, 2002
Genre(s) Combat flight simulator
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Aggregate score
Aggregator Score
Metacritic 89/100
Review scores
Publication Score
GameSpot 8.8/10
IGN 9.1/10

Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (エースコンバット04 シャッタード・スカイ Ēsu Konbatto Zero Yon Shattādo Sukai?) (Ace Combat: Distant Thunder in Europe) is a semi-realistic flight simulation developed by Namco for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first in the Ace Combat series to be released for the PlayStation 2 and the fourth installment in the Ace Combat series.

During the course of the game, the player has the opportunity to purchase 21 different planes, from models that actually exist to prototypes or relatively new aircraft that were in development (at the time of game production) and their weaponry. Every plane has two alternate paint schemes, gained by achieving a superior, or S, ranking on a stage in normal difficulty mode, by shooting down the ace pilots on each stage, or by completing the challenge modes.

The difficulty mode determines the number of enemies per stage, their AI skill and damage threshold, and how much damage the player's aircraft can sustain in total. On the hardest difficulty level, a single enemy missile can down the player's aircraft, whereas on the easiest level it would take several missile hits.

The player must purchase all aircraft and extra weapons they want to use, but only once. Identical weapons for different types of planes cannot be used interchangeably. Players gain money by destroying enemies, or selling aircraft/weapons between missions. Only the default aircraft, the F-4E Phantom, cannot be sold. It is sometimes advantageous to buy/sell different combinations of planes & weapons depending on the mission requirements outlined in the briefing, as some planes are more suitable than others for certain missions. Once all of the mission objectives are complete, the player is awarded bonus money for performing above and beyond the requirements of the mission objectives (neutralizing extra targets and assorted enemy fighters, etc.). In order to purchase all planes and weapons available in the game, the game must be completed several times.


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