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Nintendo: Wii Reviews

Eledees ^WII

Metal Slug Anthology ^WII

Review

Blazing Angels: Squadrons Of WWII

70%

Format Nintendo Wii

Developer Ubisoft

Publisher Ubisoft

Genre Action

8-Jan-2008 The only blazing squad that's allowed to kill people

2 Comments

If you're a fan of flying games, the Wii's going to be the console for you. With Wing Island and Heatseeker taking care of cartoony and high-speed action respectively, it's time for a Wii version of Blazing Angels, the WWII action game previously released on the Xbox and PC. If you've played other versions of the game then you should skip to the bit where we talk about the controls, because this is identical in every other respect.

Graphically, Blazing Angels is a strange one. When you're flying around at a normal speed everything's pretty detailed, particularly the city levels. But as soon as you speed up, a blur effect is added which is one of the worst we've seen. It makes everything look extremely ugly and certainly doesn't give the illusion of speed, more the illusion that your pilot's had one too many gins.

Another mixed bag is the voice acting. The guy voicing the main character is extremely believable and his little monologues at the end of each mission are great, but the rest of the characters are woefully stereotypical. From the hillbilly farm boy who tells the English pilots that "y'alls needs ta learn proper English" to the tally-ho style British accents of the other characters ("blimey, this one's a right blighter!"), most of the dialogue is cheesier than an Edam maker's hands.

Reach For The Skies
But it all comes down to gameplay, and on that front Blazing Angels is decent. The controls aren't as reactive as we'd like, as you have to move the Remote or Nunchuk (depending on your chosen control style) a long way up or down to make the plane rise and fall, but once you get used to it it's not so bad. There's also a camera lock that keeps the camera focused on the enemy, allowing you to plan your moves based on their position.

Overall, Blazing Angels is pretty unremarkable - the controls are initially frustrating but you'll have fun if you stick with it. If you're not too fussed about the era your flying games are set in then you should get Heatseeker before this, but if you fancy a bit of old-school WWII action then this is your best bet for now.

Tom East