Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII user review

The best flight game you may ever play.

Review written by
Nova

Let's say that I was stoked when I saw the commercial for Blazing Angels on this site. The gameplay was something I had always been looking for. The very fact that flying on the wii would be different than anything I had ever done intrigued me to a point that I rushed to the nearest EB Games and took my copy.

This may be the only game I can think of on the Wii that may never hit the shelves in Wii's home country. Solely because of the fact that if the Japanese were to play this game, they would be forced to kill their own as you act on the defending side in Pearl Harbor.

I was a little disappointed with the intro movie they show when selecting channels but I'm being stupid. It's just that I was used to the Legend Of Zelda thing. Beginning the game was amazing. There are several control schemes for everyone to enjoy. The usual controls involve using the nunchuck as if you are holding the plane in your hands. You point the nunchuck at the screen and to go up, you point it up. But to move from side to side, you twist the nunchuck, just as the plane rolls.

The next scheme is exactly the same, but using the wiimote as the movement (all other buttons do exactly the same). The third is to do the normal and unWii thing. You use the analog stick to control the movement. The fourth is in case you are playing multiplayer and are short a nunchuck. You hold the remote like you would in the VC and turn it like in Excite Truck, but you tilt the remote forward and back to go up and down.

The gameplay started out sketchy because the controls take a while to get used to. But the tutorial mode makes this easier. The first battle was fun, exciting and difficult. The graphics were some of the best I've seen on the Wii so far.

One thing that I love in flight games is having a squad which you can command. In this case you can. And if you get damaged, one of your squad mates heals you by cleverly giving you advice on maneuvers to patch up problems. This was the perfect cover-up for plain healing yourself out of nothing.

I have to say that there are only 20 missions (I have heard, I haven't beaten it yet) and there are some that are extremely easy and others that are too hard for me to get through. I haven't tried multiplayer, but I always love to dogfight friends and this way of doing it is so much more fun than anything.

Another good thing is the fact that there are three minigames that you can play in case you get bored of playing campaigns. One problem was the sound. I loved the music but the sound effects are lacking. However, they are nearly perfect with the radio comm communication.

The graphics were great except for close detail. When I first started, I was shocked with the lack of clearness as the plane started out on a runway. The ground looks great from far above, but is pixelated up close.

In conclusion, I felt that this was what the wii was made for. There is little getting in the way from having a great time, and I would greatly recommend it to everyone who loves flying games (don't get wing island, get this). Nova out.