Furball

In aviation, a furball is a large engagement of fighter aircraft. Furballs are featured intermittently throughout the Ace Combat series where the player is faced with a larger-than-usual amount of enemy pilots, sometimes overwhelming the player until an in-game event occurs to allow the player room to breathe. Furballs are rarely referred to as such within the games.

Ace Combat 04
During the mission "Shattered Skies" in Ace Combat 04, a large amount of ISAF pilots and Erusian pilots engage over the Comona Islands rocket base while ISAF attempts to launch a satellite. At some point, a squadron of B-2 bombers approach the facility, forcing the player to leave the engagement temporarily.

Ace Combat 5
A couple of furballs occur within Ace Combat 5. The first takes place during the mission "Journey Home". The game slowly spawns aircraft for the player to shoot down, but the rate of spawn begins to increase until there are a large number of enemy planes to shoot down. In the middle of the engagement, Gorizont Squadron (a squadron of stealth fighters) enters the fray to destroy the November City stadium, forcing the player to concentrate on them. After Chopper crashes his plane into the stadium, the enemy pilots lower in difficulty and number, allowing the player to shoot them down more easily.

The second furball takes place during the mission "8492 (mission)". This furball is optional, since the objective of the mission is to escape, but the player can shoot down all of the numerous planes to complete the mission as well.

Ace Combat Zero
The sole furball in Ace Combat Zero takes place during "Mayhem", where the player is faced with a large amount of enemy pilots in Airspace B7R, along with an enemy ace squadron (squadron depends on Ace Style).

Ace Combat 6
The only furball that takes place during Ace Combat 6 is during the latter half of "Weapons of Mass Destruction". An entire battalion of enemy fighters is sent to shoot down the player, who is solo with Shamrock. Once the player manages to shoot down a certain number of planes, however, allied squadrons come in and the player has access to Allied Support to take care of the furball with ease.

Assault Horizon
Due to the mechanics of Assault Horizon, various missions could be classified as furballs. However, the only instances where an abnormal amount of enemy pilots are on the map at once occur during "Home Front" (where the player is ambushed by a large number of TGT aircraft) and "Akula" (where a large number of aircraft are engaged with friendly forces, but this furball is cut short when the USS Anzio is sunk).

Trivia

 * The only time a furball is referred to as such is in Ace Combat 04, when a friendly pilot radios: "This is the biggest furball I've seen so far."