Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (Xbox 360)

Blazing Angels is an air combat arcade game putting the player at the command of a fighter squadron in the Second World War. It’s a pick-up-and-play type of game, with easy-to-grasp controls and an almost non existent learning curve.

The action covers the most important moments of the WWII, from the Battle for England to the bombing raids over Berlin, but also warps a bit the history to make for some entertaining if fictitious moments (i.e. you get to fly over Normandy on D-Day, save the day at Pearl Harbor, etc). The gameplay is quite varied, with about 18 flyable planes during the SP campaign (fighters, recon planes, dive, torpedo and level bombers) and diverse tasks and locations that prevent the game from being overly repetitive, despite a general dogfighting approach. The basic squadron command system and the specific abilities of the wingmen lend a bit of a tactical flavor to the game.

There are a dozen multiplayer game modes available: solo (Dogfight, Seek and Destroy & Aces High), co-op (Dogfight, Onslaught, Bombing Run, Kamikaze and Historical Missions) and squad-based (Dogfight, Capture the Base, Bombing Run and Kamikaze).