Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII

For Nintendo Wii

I’ll get right to the point: this is a fun game.

I’ve flown everything from an F-15 on my old Commodore 64 to a TIE Defender through interstellar space. I’ve been in dogfights against the Red Baron, Japanese Kamikaze, and Darth Vader. I like flying. I’m no connoisseur, but I enjoy a little violence in three-dimensional space on occasion.

Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII for Nintendo Wii, quite frankly, is MY kind of game. It’s challenging, but not too hard. I’m not ashamed to admit I need to restart from a checkpoint every once in awhile. Although most of the time it’s because I tend to fly too low and crash into things. Buildings. Ship masts. The Eiffel Tower. That kind of thing.

There is a nice selection of planes, and plenty of unlockable extras. In addition to the standard Campaign mode, you can jump into immediate action in the Arcade mode, or fly with a buddy in the sweet multi-player mode. A better non-network multiplayer flying experience does not come easily to mind.

Like seemingly all Wii games, the controls take some getting used to. One peek at the game manual and I was instantly overwhelmed with the myriad control options. I left the default, Arcade Nunchuck Sensitive, and hoped for the best. I found the controls very intuitive, just like holding your hand out the window of a moving car and “flying” your extended digits. Using the default control options, the Wii remote becomes almost superfluous, being used only for optional controls. All the good stuff is in the ‘chuck.

True flight enthusiasts and sim heads might not be too pleased. Part of what I like about the game is it’s inattention to realism in the appropriate spots. For the most part, you have unlimited ammunition, including bombs and rockets. You need not be concerned about running out of fuel. Take offs and landings are sparse, and (thankfully) easy. Just remember to put the landing gear down!

I believe the game is trying to be original with a weird target-centered camera view option. I find the thing annoying, and don’t quite see the point. It’s much more useful when approaching a stationary bombing target than tracking a rogue enemy ace, but I prefer to find my foes the old fashioned way.

While this game may lack the more realistic and exciting aspects of say, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, it also lacks the frustration that too much realism can bring to a game. In my opinion, it’s an even trade. Right now I’m having a really good time flying around knocking Jerries out of the sky without giving a thought to my round count, fuel gauge, or whether or not my wings are going to rip off because I’m in too steep a dive.