The latest Ace Combat game feels like a polished, punchy airborne adventure -- unapologetically anime in its storytelling and a joy to play.

Up in the digital skies, I sortie with my squad (sortie, that was the word), staying quiet as they sound off over comms. A stalwart lecturer, a daredevil peacenik and a stoic rocker drifted off the edges of my wings (they’ll back you up if you bring them home). We cruise ahead, lighthearted bickering layered over views of the clearest blue over blankets of puffy white. A contact hits the edge of our radar, orders come spilling in from below, and as one, we peel off to find our enemy in the air (I can almost feel the wind).

The prologue kicking off Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, the latest game in the fighter jet combat franchise that debuted in 1995, is riddled with voiceovers loftily espousing the aviator’s philosophy of communing with the skies. It’s a little much, I thought, as I struggled to adjust to the game’s controls. By the time I rolled credits around 25 hours later, the aircraft in my hangar were extensions of my digital body. I was up in the clouds alongside my nameless pilot and their squadmates.

As my first Ace Combat game, it’s unclear to me how much Wings of Theve retains and how much it innovates on its predecessors. That fresh perspective, and especially my inexperience with flight simulator games of all stripes, makes my wholehearted embrace of Ace Combat 8 all the more special.

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