The Ace Fight sequence is driving excessive on the tailwind of its seventh entry’s success, and October will see Ace Fight 8: Wings of Theve take off. To date, we have seen fairly a bit about its single-player marketing campaign, however now, the Mission Aces crew is unveiling its multiplayer facet.
For gamers like myself, Ace Fight has incessantly been a single-player affair, centered on the marketing campaign and missions. The choices to play with pals had been at all times there, however I not often spent a lot time exploring them. Ace Fight 8: Wings of Theve is attempting to vary that. Talking to the builders at Gamescom 2026, they cited the response to Ace Fight 7: Skies Unknown as a cause why they needed to boost the multiplayer providing this time round.
“As a result of Ace Fight 7 was actually profitable and have become a long-tail title, we additionally recognized that it is actually important for the gamers to have the ability to play for the long run,” mentioned producer Manabu Shimomoto, by way of translator. “So for that, to allow that, the net mode and environmental platform must be very strong.”
Ace Fight 8: Wings of Theve is planning 100-player on-line lobbies the place you’ll be able to customise a pilot avatar and stroll round, hanging out with different fliers. Extra choices will open up as you full missions and construct up your hangar. I am each cautious and curious in regards to the beauty side. Bandai Namco confirms there might be a battle go – Ace Cross – with free and premium choices, and there is additionally a provide store the place you’ll be able to get hold of gadgets which have a crate-opening aesthetic.
After all, the primary attraction is definitely flying and preventing. Co-Op Assault and Co-Op Warfare are the 2 large pillars of Ace Fight 8’s multiplayer, permitting gamers to dip into PvE or PvP, respectively. Co-Op Assault will launch two groups of 4 into missions competing for the best rating, with dwell gamers as your wingmen.
In Co-Op Warfare, groups of 4 battle in opposition to one another alongside allied land, air, and sea items. As soon as once more, you compete for prime scores, with escalating scores rising risk stage and netting you a rating multiplier. Larger risk additionally means the enemy will get extra factors for taking pictures you down, although, so large swings can occur in the midst of a match.
“There are some gamers who are usually not actually large followers of enjoying in opposition to individuals, so PvE is actually important for these gamers,” Shimomoto tells me. “Whereas some gamers actually get pleasure from a aggressive surroundings, so [options for both players] is actually important.”
Each modes will permit a number of plane roles as nicely, starting from Fighters and Attackers to Multirole all-rounders and support-driven Digital Warfare plane. You can progress alongside tracks to your chosen plane, constructing them up as you’d throughout the single-player marketing campaign. There are additionally online-exclusive choices and visible customization.
Moreover, Mission Aces has some particular modes, dubbed Scramble and Emergency Sortie, that may pop up within the multiplayer foyer. Scramble pits groups of 4 in opposition to a troublesome rival NPC squad, whereas Emergency Sortie hosts particular fights in opposition to iconic Ace Fight bosses and superweapons.
All of this circles again to the foyer, the place a jukebox with music from previous video games and an arcade with a number of Namco classics awaits as nicely. The crew would not affirm which video games are being chosen for inclusion exterior of Pac-Man, which you’ll see within the reveal trailer, however did say we’ll see some video games from Namco’s historical past in there.
It is definitely thrilling to see the Aces crew construct out such a big multiplayer providing. The PvPvE and particular sorties seem like cool causes to revisit Ace Fight and to get different pals into the sequence as nicely. Hopefully this provides to an already impressive-looking Ace Fight.
If you wish to be taught extra in regards to the upcoming entry in Bandai Namco’s flying-shooter sequence, check out our preview from Issue 379 of Game Informer.