It's not as if the world needed another arcade-styled flight game. It's not as if we needed another game set in World War II either. However, this is a World War II arcade-styled flight game on the Wii, and that makes a difference.
Blazing Angels does little to challenge the player, something important to know immediately. The 18-mission campaign is brief because of it. This is also affected by a complete lack of online play, which crushes the replay value aside from the title’s enjoyable mechanics that make it worth playing through a few times.
Set inside an alternate spin on WWII, Angels follows the well-known conflicts and inserts its own along the way. Most of the missions use the actual events to increase the intensity, or provide a new perspective. The D-Day battle in particular becomes a fresh way to experience the war's most overused entertainment set piece by bombing bunkers or silencing troops trying to make the advance on beached allied soldiers.
That's one of numerous unforgettable moments. A fight above Paris involves taking out AA guns perched atop the Eiffel Tower and sweeping in between buildings at low altitudes to take out approaching tanks. This event is lessened on the Wii by a poorly done port. Muddy textures and low-grade models even when in progressive scan make it difficult to tell the difference between things on the ground.
As is probably expected, not all of the game's missions are that thrilling. An early outing sticking the player with the task of flying blind in a sandstorm to find German encampments should forever be outcast by those who are patient enough to deal with it. Another forcing sharp turns through a London river (with the city banking both sides) with limited altitude is one of the (unfairly) toughest in the game.
A key complaint when the title found its home on the Xbox 360 was the atrocious and nearly offensive voice acting. That’s all been changed for this Wii port. All of the dialogue has been re-recorded, deleting almost all enemy taunts and adding to the story post-mission. While this forces the player to fly aimlessly as a narrator adds the necessary character development, it’s a wonderful touch that expands Blazing Angels' universe.
Flight is difficult to separate in video games. Angels offers a few options to differentiate itself to stand out. The majority of missions offer wingmen who are at your command. While not always the brightest pilots to take command, they do help when a request is made for their specific talents, and will actually shoot down enemy planes regularly. It's something that's sorely lacking from flight titles for years.
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