Ace Combat Joint Assault

Also known as Ace Combat X 2 prior to its release, Joint Assault is the eleventh game in the Ace Combat series and the first one to be set on our familiar Earth, rather than the Constructed World of Strangereal. Released in 2010.

The year is some unspecified number in 20XX, some years after the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis. It is your first day on the job as Antares One, a rookie pilot in the private military company, Martinez Security. The company is hired to participate in a joint exercise between the American 7th Fleet and the Japanese Self-Defense Force but is waylaid by fighter planes from a terrorist group calling themselves the Valahia.

The Valahia proceed to attack Tokyo, followed by one of their Orgoi flying fortresses, as a prelude to declaring war against the entire world. Meanwhile, Martinez Security aligns with the nations of the world to form the International Union Peacekeeping Force (IUPF) with Antares One leading the charge.

Tropes used in Ace Combat Joint Assault include:

• America Saves the Day: Not necessary. Even though game info hints that Martinez is a US-based PMC, the staff is a combination of American and foreign PMC members. You also have allied PMC soldiers with you from other countries.
• Award Bait Song: "For us All".
• Bald of Evil: Andre Oliveri.
• Beyond the Impossible: Final Sulejmani in his second phase uses a missile-dodging roll maneuver no one else can pull. No one. Not his teammates using the same plane. Not you, either.
• Bilingual Bonus: Varcolac is named after a Romanian word.
• Blood Knight: Rigel Varcolac Squadron, particularly Kiriakov.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: AEGIS ships look like normal Cruisers but their twin SAMs have much greater lock-on range than the norm. To add insult to injury, the first time you meet them you usually won't have long-range missiles yet.
• Boss Rush/Bonus Boss: This title ups the series' ante by sicking many of these at you in this order Scarface One and the Z.O.E Commander from AC2, Dision from AC3, Mobius One and Yellow 13 from AC4, Blaze and Zipang from AC5, Galm One from AC Zero, Gryphus One from ACX and Strigon Leader from AC6
• Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive: Andre Oliveri.
• Didn't Need Those Anyway: Sulejmani's Varcolac and its PD gun.
• Escort Mission: One misssion plays with this, by having Player One be the Escorted (under a strict 1000 Altitude limit, and a very harrowing path), and Players Two, Three and Four protecting Player One's six.
• Face Heel Turn: Everyone in Rigel Squadron. As you go near the end of the game, you need to shoot them down.
• Four Is Death: Rigel Varcolac Squadron.
• Honest Axe: Referenced in the naming of the Golden Axe Plan.
• Joke Plane: The WWII A6M Zero and F6F Hellcat fighters. Better hope your skill with guns is up to snuff, 'cause no air-to-air missiles for you!
  • They make a return in Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy, and they've been promoted to Lethal Joke Plane thanks to the Tactical Maneuver Command system present.
• Lethal Joke Plane: Those planes mentioned above? A duo of them took on the Ace of Aces mission and WON.
• Lightning Gun: The Electrolaser.
• Magnetic Weapons: The Balaurs.
• Multinational Team: The Martinez Securities staff.
• NGO Superpower: The enemy, Valahaia, is supposedly a terrorist group. Nevertheless they have access to flying battleships, a massive railgun and lots of conventional forces in all three mediums.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Subverted; a properly-tuned plane can possibly take multiple missile hits and still fly, even on Ace difficulty.
• Parental Abandonment: The Freudian Excuse of Sulejmani is that his parents sold him off as a Child Soldiers.
• Path of Most Resistance: The mission where you fly a 747 in a ravine offers you a long path with flak and proximity-triggered mines or a short one with AAA and missiles. Choose your poison.
• Private Military Contractors: Return in here, with the player(s) employed by Martinez Security.
• Real Men Fly Pink Raptors: One of the unlockable paint schemes for the X-02 Wyvern is pink.
• Real Life
• Story-Driven Invulnerability: Varcolac have the same deal as Yellow from 4.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: A milder version of this is present, where the track played during the level where the Spiridus goes down is a freaking piano orchestra. Yet it somehow fits.
  • It also qualifies in the same way Ace Combat 2 does, due to reusing a few tracks from 2.
• The Voice: You can choose a male American and British combat operator, a female Japanese and Swedish combat operator.
• With This Herring: This game gives you the option of flying either the F 6 F Hellcat or the A 6 M Zero, both propeller planes used in WWII.