Isn't this just Ace Combat Zero though? That was literally pretty much "Area 88: The Game:" already what with you being some uber merc who is apparently the only guy in the entire war that can do anything against the enemy that has a magically unending supply of fighter planes for you to destroy by the bucket load.
This is a great idea. And let's have the high Mach 2 speeds of Ace Combat X, instead of the dreaded sluggish physics of Joint Assault. Pretty cool that they included the aircraft from the anime in Infinity too.