
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thearmchairem-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	Platform Dreamcast Genre Flight Sim Publisher Crave Entertainment Developer CRI ESRB E (Everyone) Released Q4 2000

- Get to do fancy maneuvers - A nice challenge

- Hideous music - Gets old pretty quick

- Sky Odyssey Review (PS2) - Star Wars Starfighter Special Edition Review (XBox)
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Aerowings 2: Airstrike

Score: 7/10

The first Aerowings game on the Dreamcast was a very different experience than what most gamers are used to when it comes to flying games. We’ve seen a lot of flight sims pass through the annuls of gaming history, but they've been pretty much exclusive to PCs where the abundance of keys have proven to be quite handy considering how much there is to control on a plane. Console controllers just have too few buttons to make flight sims practical on a given platform. Aerowings changed that by having streamlined controls, promoting the fundamentals of a flight sim. As a result the game was fun without becoming overwhelming, but gamers had one problem with the title, there wasn’t anything to blow up. Now we have Aerowings II that indeed does allow for dogfighting, but it is still the technique that is emphasized like its predecessor, except now in the form of flight combat.

Because there is so much stress being put on technical merit the game moves at a fairly slow pace requiring a lot more patience than the average console-based flying game. There are a number of missions that need to be flown that can be as simple as a roll, or as complicated as landing a fighter jet. The fun in this game comes in trying to perfect each maneuver. This is one of those games that really push players to score a perfect 100/100, because 90 just won’t do. Once you get up to some of the latter combat missions things get very tricky, but all in all the game provides a level of challenge that we simple don’t see enough of these days. Thankfully the controls are rock solid, so there’s no need to worry about a lack of responsiveness when trying to do these moves. There are about a half dozen different game modes to play here, but the only ones really worth playing are the two series of challenges, be it learning the basics or doing the complex combat maneuvers. The rest of the modes wear thin very quickly.

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Unfortunately, the game goes on a bit of a nosedive when it comes to its presentation. The visuals are crisp, but there isn’t a whole lot of detail nor scenery to look at. There are some nice touches, like a vapor trail following your jet when taking a sharp turn. By and large though, there just isn’t a lot to look at except the sky and a small spec that is the occasional plane you’ll chase. The landmass is very non-descript with low-poly buildings speckled across the ground. Sound is where

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things get really bad. The sound effects are decent, sounding reasonably realistic, but the music is just terrible. The tunes are a collection of wretched 80s metal that is way too reminiscent of Top Gun (that’s bad).

Areowings 2 is a decent game. It makes for a nice little console flight sim, but it’s by no means a "must buy" title. With the legions of other titles like Jet Grind Radio and Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast, this title quickly gets bumped down in the food chain. If your looking for something a little more serious with a simulation flavor to it though, this is a game worth checking out.

Reviewed by Mr. Nash

(November 17, 2000)