JASF: Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters

JASF: Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters is an arcade styled flight simulator developed by Trickstar Games and published by Maximum Family Games.^[1] Released in October 2011,^[1] it was the first game to have the Jane's title in over a decade. Unlike the previous games in the Jane's Combat Simulations line, JASF does not feature realistic gameplay and instead focuses more on arcade-style action.^[2]

Story

For ten long years, the small island nation of Azbaristan has been rent by a disastrous civil war. Two factions of the government―the Northern People's Republic of Azbaristan and the Southern Azbaristan Democratic Front―have fought over resources and thousands have died in the struggle. When the cease-fire was negotiated, the North controlled everything except the Southern capital city of Talvade. Knowing that the North's fiery leader, Chairman Kropanin Borzai, could order his forces to resume the war at any moment, the SADF wasted no time in petitioning the Western Democratic Alliance in a desperate plea for support. In exchange for exclusive trade rights to South Azbaristan's vast oil and natural gas reserves, the WDA sent help in the form of military advisors and hardware.

One exceptional individual is a fighter pilot known only by his callsign, Razor, who served in the Second Gulf War and the War on Terror and has extensive experience in both air-to-air and air-to-ground operations with almost any fixed-wing combat aircraft. The skill and ability of this one pilot rivals that of an entire squadron, North or South, and can hold his own even when outnumbered ten to one.

There are fifteen combat aircraft of four profiles to choose from―ground attack, multirole, fighter and air superiority―each with two versions. They're divided by generation and range from classics like the F-4 Phantom II and MiG-21 Fishbed to the most advanced stealth aircraft like the F-22 Raptor and Su-50 PAK-FA, armed with a variety of air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions. Some are more specialized to one mission profile than others, with armament weighted toward that specialization, but all carry a cannon.

Reception

When Trickstar Studios and Maximum Family Games announced the release of JASF, hopes were high for the game's reception. The air combat flight simulation craze was at its peak and games of the theme were experiencing record sales. The Ace Combat series was ultra-popular, the Blazing Angels were getting older but still maintaining a fan base among historical fiction nuts and Tom Clancy's HAWX games were on the rise. It was assumed that this one was destined to take its place in the air combat flight simulator community.

The game garnered a mixed reaction from the players, however. While the graphics were impressive, the game was plagued by a weak storyline, jumpy mechanics, a repetitive score, poor AI and some very frustrating rendering issues. It also lacked a choice mechanic, which applied rewards and consequences to choices the player made in-game. This made the experience very linear and locked players in a brain-melting "same-darn-thing-every-time" routine. With these shortcomings, the game experienced a brief life and met an abrupt end.

Reviews on aggregator Metacritic have been generally negative and below 50 points.^[3]

References