As an owner of about 4 ace combats...I can safely say that pretty much ALL of the ace combats have a tunnel run mission of some sort, sometimes 2-3 of them.... (some can be pretty fustrating though). Thats why I've always thought that big-west (or whoever owns the macross rights) should simply approach the group that make the ace combats and get them to do a macross game (...or two (...or three)).
I honestly think that they would do a great job, and it would be relatively easy for them as well, simply use the existing game dynamics, add a few space missions, a few atmosphere ones, a few with both, simply create some new models to cover the macross world & all it's enemies and there you have it.
Familiar ACE COMBAT missions:
Take down a giant plane(s)
Take out a giant submarine.
Take out some sort of super weapon.
Chase and destroy a cruise missile.
Escort choppers.
Fly inside some sort of superstructure mission.
Sink ships.
Mid air refuelling.
Runway & Carrier landings.
Loads of *excellent* dogfights against enemy aces.
Loads of bombing runs.
Oh...and the ability to fly back to base to resupply mid mission.
AND most of all...try to evade way too many missiles in every mission.
Now, it's not too hard to replace the above with familar macross 'missions'.
Big west! (if your reading)... YOU CAN DO IT!
ninja edit: oh yeah...one more thing. most have HANGARS where you buy and sell planes, so they already have the facility where you could mix and match fighters...and when you pass through the games a few times, you get extras like the ability to choose different colours schemes and stuff.