Fly With the Blazing Angels

Of all the neat things you can do with motion sensing controllers, few things are as cool as flying. The controls are fun for boxing and swinging baseball bats but where they truly shine is when they are used in a game that makes you feel like you are really flying a plane. Blazing Angels gives you that experience much better than someo of the other flight sim games out there. I've also played Wing Island and while its off-beat characters and cartoony visuals are nice, it doesn't have near the depth nor the excitement of this game.

One of the best things about the game is that UbiSoft allows you to choose how you control the planes. You can use the Wii Remote by itself, the Wii Remote with the Nunchuk being motion sensitive, the Wii Remote being motion sensitive and the Nunchuk not, Classic Mode (where neither controller is motion sensitive) and Inverted Classic which is like Classic except pressing up on the thumb stick of the Nunchuk makes the plane dive instead of climb. Each of these modes also comes in two flavors: Arcade and Simulation. If you prefer to focus on shooting things up and find having other things to concentrate on too distracting, use the Arcade Mode. If you find just shooting and steering not enough of a challenge, switch to Simulation Mode. Sim mode feels more like piloting a real airplane since you roll the plane on it's side a bit to turn instead of turning more like a car does in Arcade mode. Doing barrel rolls looks cool but it can get you killed if you aren't used to it yet and you are in a dog fight. I have tried playing the game using each of the different control modes and I find that I enjoy the Nunchuk Sensitive Simulation mode the best. With this mode, you tilt the Nunchuk forward to dive, back to climb and side to side to roll. The trigger button on the Nunchuk is your machine guns while the smaller button above it is for your secondary fire which is usually bombs. The thumbstick controlls speed with pressing up on the stick making you go faster and down being the breaks. Tapping the thumbstick to the right targets the next enemy and to the left targets the closest enemy. You use the Remote to send your Wingman commands, change camera options and lower the landing gear.

Using the Nunchuk to pilot the plane makes you feel like you are using a real joystick and is quite intuitive for anyone who has played flight sims before. As you make progress through the missions, new planes are unlocked. Each plane responds really well to commands from the Nunchuck. Some planes are faster and more manuverable but not as well armoured whild others are slower but can take more hits. The slower ones also carry more bombs and are better for missions with ground targets.

It's pretty satisfying to mow down a German Luftwaffe or Japanese Zero with the machine gun. The sound effects are pretty impressive and the damage you inflict on your enemy is visible. It's quite a sight to watch them auger into the ground while engulfed in smoke and flames. The machine gun isn't you only weapon though. As you progress, you also get to drop bombs which blow things up rather nicely. The bombing system is pretty easy to use. A red bulls eye appears on the ground below your plane so that you can tell what your bombs will hit when you drop them. Like real bombs, there's a bit of a delay from when you drop them until they hit the target so you have to learn how much to lead your target depending on how fast you are flying and how fast they are moving (in the case of tanks and other mobile ground targets). The interface helps you out a bit with finding targets by having a radar in the lower right of the screen that shows where enemys and friendlies are. Your wingman will also warn you when you have incoming targets.

Speaking of Wingmen, the ones in this game are actually a pleasure to fly with. In some games, they are so annoying you wish you could get rid of them. In this game, your fellow Blazing Angels are pretty helpful. There are three other guys in your Squadron. Each has his own strengths and weaknesses. In missions where you are flying with them, you almost feel like you are in a multiplayer game, their AI is that good. You use the D pad on the Wii Remote to issue them orders. They'll protect you pretty well on their own, but sometimes, it helps to give them specific orders. Pressing up on the D pad toggles through different Rules of Engagement or combat attitudes for them to follow. Offensive makes them attack more agressively and they will take out the closest and/or most important targets at will. Defensive makes them stay closer to you and protect you and each other. Formation makes them stay in squadron formation and will only attack those who fire at them. Pressing right on the Dpad Tells Frank to attack using his Ace dogfighting skill. Pressing left tells Joe to repair a damaged plane. Pressing down tells Tom to taunt the enemy which will make all the enemies attacking you switch to attacking him (very handy when you are surrounded). Each of these special abilities needs to be used sparingly since they last a short time and need to be "refilled" before you can use them again. Sounds weird, but it keeps the gameplay balanced so they don't feel like game cheats.

Switching camera views is actually important in this game. In a lot of games that let you switch, using the third person view is the only way to go. In this game, it depends on the situation. When you are bombing, third person is much better. When you are using the machine gun, it's better to use first person as you can tell what you are shooting at better. However, if you are engaging a lot of planes, it's good to switch to third person now and then to help you target the right planes first.

Doing loop the loops and barrel rolls isn't just a blast to do. It's also very important. You have to fly pretty fancy to keep the tougher enemies from getting on your Six and shooting you up. You wingmen will help a lot but when you are up against a lot of planes, sooner or later, one will get the drop on you if you just fly straight ahead all the time.

Unlike some flying games where the computer takes over when you take off and land, you actually have to do it yourself in this game. Taking off, you have to tilt back with the Nunchuk at the right time to get off the ground and avoid hitting anything. Landing requires putting down the landing gear with the 2 button (raising them while flying seems to make your plane steer better) and breaking and tipping the Nunchuck down at the right times so you land instead of crashing. This is especially tough on the missions when you are using planes on an aircraft carrier. This aspect makes the game tougher than your average console flying game, but it also makes it more satisfying once you get it down pat.

A lot of people gripe about the graphics in Wii games, but there isn't much to complain about here. The ground looks photo-realistic, even the 3-D buildings and targets. The detail on the planes is amazing even close up. When you push up on the thumbstick and fly faster, everything blurs a bit to give you an added sense of speed. The sun flares in your face. It really is a good looking game. The sound effects are good too. Different planes have different sounding engines. If you have the sound turned up, you can tell if an enemy plane is coming up on you by the sound of his engines. The explosions sound great. Your wingmen have some pretty good voice acting even though they say the same things over again occasionally. Joe the mechanic is even kind of funny in the beginning tutorial.

You get to fly in some of the most famous aerial battles of WWII like Dunkirk, Battle of Brittian, Pearl Harbor, Battle of Midway and the Liberation of Paris. I've seen my share of WWII documentaries and these and other campaigns seem pretty realistic for a console game. In addition to the main missions, you can also unlock mini campaigns that are dogfights or bombing runs thoughout the game. These add a lot of replay to the game since you need to progress through the bigger missions to unlock the mini ones. You can also play any mission over again to see if you can do better the next time. There is also an Arcade mode which is like a coin-op game in that you fly by youself under time pressure against waves of enemies. It's great fun for guys who like these games mainly for the shooting and blowing things up. You can also fight Ace Duels which pit you against an enemy who is flying the same kind of plane you are. You can fight either the AI or another person who is using another set of controlls. If you beat them, you get a special Ace paint job for your plane showing your number of kills on it.