My wife said if this review gets 50 likes and 5 awards, she will buy a case of beer, guys help me out.

These guys did their homework.
As far as an Ace Combat-like goes, this hits the nail on the head in almost all regards.

A fast paced arcade action game in a faux history setting, constant team banter, superweapons, experimental super planes, complete escalation, non-stop action, phenomenal music, etc. And all of that - feels on point! It's not better than Ace Combat, for that there's too many noticeable budget/time restraints, but it's real close.

Regarding those restraints gets me to some elements of the game I wasn't too keen on:

• There is a lack of novelty missions. (Depending on where you stand, this could be a good thing though.) I'm talking missions that aren't just "shoot all the targets". Like the espionage missions in Ace Combat 5. But admittedly, some ppl didn't like them anyway. Nonetheless, the missions in PW do feel kinda samey overall.
  
• This also means that there is no real fail state or mission stake, other than being shot down or crashing. Which again, makes it feel more like AC's arcade mode at times.
  
• Enemies often don't fly in, but literally spawn in. Often right next to, or even "on" you. This is most noticeable in Mission 19 where a new fleet of ships spawns in right where you destroy the previous one.
  
• The AI is also really simple/player focused. Despite being with a dozen allied planes, enemies in range will simply beeswarm you, completely ignoring the NPCs. And the AI has only 1 maneuver: fly in circles around you.
  
• The difficulty in the story rival's planes is very artificial, with them doing "sidesteps" in midair or going fullstop from mach 2 to 0mph in 0.1 seconds. Not even AC7's drones where this annoying.
  
• No checkpoints and failing means playing a mission from the start again. But it doesnt add tension or difficulty due to the missions' simplicity with everything feeling the same. It simply makes it annoying when you crash into another plane(which will happen).

Yet none of those things are major enough to impact the fun that PW provides. At least for me, they didn't.

One other thing though: Project Wingman introduces a "Wizzo" WSO, or Weapon Systems Operator(meaning the second seat in a figher jet) with the character of "Prez". Prez is amazing and I'm not surprised people love her. But obviously, she's only showing up on two seater planes. Which makes the plane selection pretty slim if you want to take her along. (Unless you use mods to enable her in any plane.)

Apart from all that, I'm crossing my fingers that they're working on a sequel, right now. Namco's Project Aces used to have the slogan "Nothing else comes close". Well... Project Wingman does. Dangerously close. Like "the enemy has a radar lock on you" close.

Would love to recommend this game, based on the fact its extremely enjoyable and scratches that part of my brain that likes plane games, but the exclusivity of dlc on the PS5 is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up :/