Over G Fighters

"Don't bother sending an SOS to the world, the Over G Fighters are here."

Over G Fighters is game in a genre rarely seen on consoles, the Flight Sim. While the game is not nearly as complex as PC Flight Sims, it is considerably more realistic than Ace Combat which this game is often compared to despite it being an Arcade Flying game, not a flight sim.

Gameplay: 9/10
This is as close to realistic flying as console gaming may ever get. You won't be turning on a dime at 1000 knots, and holding a high G maneuver for too long will damage your plane. Your engines can stop if you fly through the debris of an enemy you shot down. Despite that, if you know how to control a plane, and you change to Real controls (Arcade controls only make the game harder) you can make these planes do some beautiful things. The only really difficult thing in this game is evading missiles. They're at least as hard to avoid as missiles in the real world if not harder. It may seem impossible at first, but they are avoidable. The missions are basic, shoot down X amount of enemy planes, shoot down X amount of enemy ground targets, and escort these planes. There are a few unique ones that throw a curve, but you won't be shooting down any spaceships or flying into large fortresses (there is a canyon run though). Challenge mode lets you sortie with any plane you've unlocked so far and shoot down random enemies as well as encounter the Big Boss planes.

The online element has two modes, Arena and Versus. Arena pits up to 8 players against each other in teams 2. The objective here is to eliminate the other teams, by attacking their HQ. Versus pits up to 8 players against each other on 2 teams, the only objective here is to destroy the enemy planes and survive.

Graphics: 9/10
It's an X-box 360 game, if you've got in 720p or 1080i it's beautiful, the planes are well detailed and the water's pretty and since this is a flying game that's about all you'll really be noticing. The clouds are nice though they look a bit sparse from afar, and the view of the earth you get as you reach high altitudes is almost breath taking. The cockpits are incredibly well detailed featuring all the gauges the aircraft has in real life, as well as each HUD being that aircraft's proper HUD.

Story: 5/10
It's the basic fight the bad guys for the good of the world storyline. The characters are bland and there's no real development with them other than a few lines after important missions which vary depending on how well you did.

Sound: 9/10
Some people have complained that there's no music during most of the missions... and there shouldn't be. This is a flight sim, pilots in real life aren't blasting "Highway to the Danger Zone" while carrying out a mission that could change the course of a war. Everything that should make noise does, and its sounds like it should. Of note is that each plane has its own warnings, for example the Su-27's are in Russian.

Replay: 8/10
Over G Fighter's has considerable replay value. You'll need to play through the game multiple times, at least once on each difficulty, and shoot down several "Big Bosses" in challenge mode as well defeat them in a one on one dogfight to unlock every plane. The final difficulty, Hell mode, is sure to add a challenge back to the game for anyone who breezed through expert mode, forcing you to use only one poorly armed plane for every mission.

Overall: 9/10
This is definitely not a game for everyone, but for those who are fans of flying, and want a bit more realism than most other console games have given them, Over G Fighters will be a smart addition to their gaming library.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/06, Updated 10/02/06