Ace Combat 8 Reviews Officially Make It One of 2026’s Best-Reviewed Games

The critics agree — Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve marks a triumphant return for Bandai Namco’s long-running combat aviation series. With exhilarating dogfights, a heart-pounding soundtrack, and a memorable if soapy storyline, reviewers are besotted with the game’s sky-high thrills.

At the moment, Ace Combat 8′s aggregate rating sits at 88 on Metacritic and 89 on OpenCritic, with nary a hater in the bunch. That makes it the second-best reviewed game in the series, behind 2001’s Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve’s reviews are stellar

Giving the game a provisional score of 9/10 due to a limited amount of time with the multiplayer campaign, IGN’s Will Borger says Wings of Theve “marries exceptional air combat with a melodramatic but moving story, one of the year’s best soundtracks, and incredible visual design to make a war game that never lets you forget how terrible everything happening here is.” Borger particularly highlights the game’s impressive audio design and sound mixing. The cockpit conversations between pilots tell a vivid, emotional story and make your comrades feel worth fighting for. “It’s most effective in its smallest moments – when Tasha confronts the cost of her pacifism, or when Coster gets to meet his musical heroes in the skies,” he wrote.

Destructoid’s Andrej Barovic, a newcomer to the Ace Combat series, was floored by Wings of Theve‘s larger-than-life approach to both its wide-open environments and its storytelling. “I was genuinely surprised, if not shocked, by how good this series actually is,” he wrote. “Ace Combat 8 is one of the best-looking games I’ve ever laid my eyes on, and that extends to both its graphical fidelity and animations and overall art direction.”

While pointing out that lengthy cutscenes can drag down the pacing at times, GamesRadar’s Scott McCrae praises the game’s breakneck mission pace and thrilling sense of progression and mastery. “Despite the stress, by the end of the game I’ve gone from wannabe flyboy to really feeling like the ace pilot I’m purported to be, with mechanical and narrative twists coming together to deliver some of the series’ most bombastic final missions to date which even put the propulsive Top Gun Maverick to shame.” He also calls attention to the brilliant soundtrack, replete with soaring orchestral compositions that enhance the tense dogfighting sequences.

Image: Bandai Namco Aces/Bandai Namco Entertainment

PC Gamer’s Nova Wright had a lot of love for the game’s dynamic weather system, noting that it elevates the aerial gameplay above and beyond previous games in the series. “Some of Wings of Theve‘s best moments were when pursuers boxed me into a dense pocket of cloud cover, forcing me to blindly hammer the throttle and commit to a mach-three, nose-down drag race. I can’t count how many times I leaned in close to my ultrawide monitor in a killing trance, trailing the serpentine contrails like the guiding lines of a racing game,” Wright said, concluding with the high praise that Ace Combat 8 is “one of the best games I’ve played in years.”

For Polygon’s Giovanni Colantonio, the game inhabits a “perfect middle ground between simulation and casual arcade action.” The momentum of the 25 to 30-hour campaign remains high despite a couple repetitive missions in the final stretch, thanks to a “remarkably diverse set of objectives.” He also enjoyed the story’s focus on the perils of blind nationalism, even if it all comes off a bit overly earnest at times. “I’m sure some will rightfully question if a series that makes dogfighting and military operations look as cool as possible can offer any sincere wisdom. But at this moment, where despair is in high supply, I find myself willing to embrace Wings of Theve’s radical optimism,” he wrote.

You’ll be able to take to the skies when Ace Combat 8 launches for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Oct. 2.

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