The problem these days with WWII games is there's too many of them and they're mostly first person shooters, so I was very happy when I discovered IR Gurus' Heroes of the Pacific. This extremely entertaining aerial combat game provides short, quick bursts of fun while presenting a different side of the war, that being the brutal battles in the South Pacific.

Heroes succeeds because it never tries to be anything more than what it is; a ultimately mindless shooting gallery where you can use innumerable amounts of bullets to make bad guys explode. The developers offer two flight schemes to use, one that's pure arcade goodness and another that's a bit more technical, yet regardless of what you choose this title doesn't become as detail specific as a standard flight sim. It's all about shooting first, then shooting some more, and then watching your enemies plummet to their doom.

You play as the fictitious American pilot William Crowe, a warm hearted fellow who's just lost his brother during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which is the game's opening mission. Fueled by revenge and a desire to serve his country, William graciously accepts the opportunity to embark upon a South Pacific trek across dangerous territory and in the process becomes a Luke Skywalker type character. In other words, you'll be accompanied by wingmen during your adventure but when it comes down to obliterating the proverbial Death Star or wiping out an entire fleet of evil doers it's all in your blood stained hands. This is where I can see Heroes of the Pacific pissing some of you off, only because at times it's a bit unrealistic even though its developers have worked hard to make everything else (graphics, music, locations, battles) as authentic as possible, though not having to order people around felt good for a change.

After the Pearl Harbor incident you'll ship out to such locations as Wake Island, the Coral Sea, and Iwo Jima, all of which will be teeming with angry Japanese pilots. Like most games, battles are broken up into smaller missions, so at one point you might have to save a sputtering plane from a few enemy fighters and as soon as you complete that you'll be sinking ships and hunting for submarines. IR Gurus has managed to keep things fairly varied, and while some of the missions have steep learning curves and the result leads to an unbalancing issue, for the most part the objectives are as clear cut as a potato chip and just as crispy. I was never flying blind wondering what the hell I was supposed to be doing. Actually, it's rather difficult to become lost since one the game's strengths is blitzing the player with a multitude of enemies at a time. You won't be charged with blowing up three wimpy ships. It's more like 20, and to make things even sweeter you can actually zoom in to get a better shot.

The single player campaign contains over 25 missions and is therefore fairly huge, and while it'll definitely keep you busy for several days it's by no means the only scrumptious morsel in Heroe's desirable buffet. Instant Action plunges you into a battle without all of the story mumbo jumbo and there's a strong multiplayer component that lets you dogfight with friends and enemies. Then there's the business of unlocking the numerous and authentic fighters, bombers, and other sorts of aircraft, all of which behave as they should.

The in game visuals aren't the best that I've seen but Heroes of the Pacific is far from being ugly. The planes are well detailed and absorb the sun's glow, the explosions are satisfying to watch, and the water effects are quite impressive. The same cannot be said of the land, but the developers have done a nice job creating strips of sand/islands in the middle of the ocean. Besides, at several thousand feet, no one should care how detailed the buildings are.

Far exceeding the graphical quality are the old school paintings that adorn this game's menus. Typical of the art style seen during the time period, they really instill Heroes with a unique presentation that makes it stand out from its competition.

The absolute worst thing about Heroes of the Pacific is it doesn't appear to have a strong advertising campaign supporting its release, so it kind of just snuck out while everyone was busy playing Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks and Burnout Revenge. That's definitely a shame because this game is quite good and it comes highly recommended. It's just a cool adrenaline charged shooter that doesn't do anything that hasn't been done before, but considering the lack of games like this on Xbox, it doesn't have to.