Ace Combat 8 Secretly Has the Best Video Game Music of the Year

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is one of the best video games I’ve played in 2026, and there are plenty of reasons why. It has airtight flying controls, features a diversity of thrilling missions, revitalizes a series that’s been silent for years, and happens to be one of the best-looking games of this console generation. But the most astonishing thing about Bandai Namco’s aerial action game is its music. For my money, Ace Combat 8 doesn’t just have the best video game soundtrack of 2026. It may have one of the best video game soundtracks of all time.

That claim will only come as a surprise if you’re not familiar with the Ace Combat series. Long-time fans have always known that the Ace Combat series’ music is one of its best qualities. That’s thanks in part to composer Keiki Kobayashi, whose soaring orchestral compositions give the series’ aerial missions a sense of grandeur. This time around, Kobayashi worked alongside Ryo Watanabe and Mitsuhiro Kitadani to create the series’ best score yet.

Don’t take it from me. Take six minutes to listen to the game’s main theme, “Everflow.” Though be warned that it will make you feel like you can run through a wall.

The word “epic” gets overused a lot in video game culture, but it’s really the only way to describe the compositions in Ace Combat 8. Each one feels enormous in scope, filled with choirs that feel impossibly large and string sections that drag a bow across your heart. They get your blood pumping during tense missions, but they also are emotionally charged enough to add some real weight to the war you’re fighting. It evokes the blockbuster sounds of the Metal Gear Solid soundtrack.

My favorite detail is its excellent use of musical motifs. Throughout the story, you encounter a rival squad from the Sotoan air force, the Lux Lunae. You always know when they’re approaching, because the pilots have a distinct chant that they let out when charging into battle. It’s a little funny at first, like a refrain in an Imagine Dragons song, but the composers seamlessly weave that simple vocal melody into much bigger compositions throughout the game. That culminates in the astonishing “Hortus Regis Alti,” a masterful payoff that brings the entire game together through music.

Arguably, none of what I’m describing is even the best part of Ace Combat 8’s soundtrack. On top of the emotional orchestral pieces, it also features some rock and roll heaters that will get you amped beyond your wildest dreams. A recurring bit throughout the campaign is that your squad is really into a band called Purple Magic. They’re a sort of butt rock outfit in the Ace Combat universe, and your crew loves to throw on their songs during missions to get pumped up. Listen to “Time Are Changing” and you’ll understand why.

Those songs rock, but I especially adore the way the music team seamlessly weaves them into the game’s orchestral elements. It’s that feeling of watching a movie trailer that borrows a modern pop song and builds around it with original score elements, executed to perfection in Ace Combat 8’s soundscape. I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard a video game soundtrack pull that trick off this well.

Even if you don’t have the stomach to play Ace Combat 8, I highly recommend poking through the full soundtrack to get a sense of the musical heights it climbs to. It accurately captures the emotional journey of fighting in the Sotoa-Usea War without all the queasy barrel rolls.