You can fight an epic air war over a clone of Toronto in soon-to-drop video game

The Snowbirds may have made their last flight over Toronto in September, but that doesn't mean you can't experience the roar of military jet engines over the city this year: a hotly anticipated new video game where you can dogfight above Toronto in fighter jets is about to drop.

In just a few days, you'll be able to carve across Toronto skies with the upcoming video game, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, set to release on October 2, 2026 for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.

The latest instalment of the beloved combat flight simulator franchise from Bandai Namco Entertainment prominently features a cloned version of Toronto, and while the city isn't explicitly mentioned, it's beyond apparent that the 416 was used as a template for the fictional city depicted in the game.

The Ace Combat series is set in the fictional universe of Strangereal, which, as the name implies, blends real-world elements of our world like aircraft with places and events loosely inspired by our world's timeline, geography, and geopolitical landscapes.

While there is no clear analogue to Canada in this universe, in the game, Toronto portrays Theve, the capital city of the fictional Federation of Central Usea. 

And despite the name change, Toronto's landmarks and geography are prominently featured in the game as the stage for a great battle.

In gameplay trailers of the new game, Toronto is the scene of a decisive battle between warplanes and a "land battleship," an imagined superweapon (a common theme in Ace Combat lore) that tears through the streets of a city very clearly modelled on the '6ix.

Some iconic local landmarks like the CN Tower, Rogers Centre, and Billy Bishop Airport have been reimagined with different designs, but their unchanged locations and obvious similarities aren't exactly fooling anyone.

Other landmarks like Marina Quay West and the Union Station rail corridor are basically unchanged from their real-life versions.

This isn't Toronto's first appearance in the Ace Combat franchise. The CN Tower is present in the skyline of the fictional November City, while satellite imagery and building models of the city were used to depict the in-game universe's city of Farbanti.

Outside of Ace Combat, Toronto has long been used as a video game setting, and there is a growing trend of locally produced indie games based on the city.