I've been aching for aerial combat on my Xbox 360 for some time now. For months people have been going through my blogs as I've been belly-aching for a home port of Sega's forthcoming arcade opus After Burner Climax, merely because it looked like the kind of heavenly aerial destruction I had been yearning for. But since that prayer hasn't quite been answered (yet), I had to turn to the next best thing- Taito's World Airforce, released here in the US under the odd name Over G Fighters. These games are two worlds apart, what with Burner relying on fast-paced arcade antics and Over G going on more of a technical nature that fans of Ace Combat and real-time flying simulators might appreciate. But even in its technical field, Over G seems to come up slightly short.

It's not in the field of jets that you can choose from. Over G has an impressive field of aircraft that you can pick from, including a few unlockables like the F-22A Raptor stealth bomber and other little giddy rides of joy. At the beginning, though, you start out with a number of fighter jets, each of which have their own advantages and specialities in combat scenarios. However, I did notice that their handling weren't exactly leagues beyond each other, they all felt about the same when it came to the game's controls. I suppose any pilot might say "you flown one, you flown them all", but you can't sit there and tell me that there's not subtle differences between the Su-33 Flanker with its canard wings and the F-15C Eagle with its enlarged wings.

The controls in themselves are nothing horrible, but some people may notice the plodding pace in getting from target to target. You miss the opportunity to lock onto a jet or a ground target, and you have to spin around in order to try and get a lock on them again. It's fairly simple to get into after you get the hang of it, but those who get bored easily by monotony in an aerial action game will unfortunately run into this little hurdle again. It's cool to have access to a real-time camera system that lets you change perspectives on-the-fly or view the terrain around you like a real pilot would, but it's the standard angles, ranging from in-jet to right-behind, so they may seem a bit familiar.

The graphics are somewhat of a mixed bag. There's nothing here that doesn't scream great detail, such as the jets themselves and the awesome "exhaust" effect they give when you kick up the throttle to a default speed and the lighting surrounding them, but most of the terrain doesn't seem to differ from one another, as you seem to spent most of your time flying across vast fields and not more challenging areas. The replays aren't bad, although some angles work better than others. And then there's the interface, which tries to work with a touch of technical jargon but ends up looking a bit undertouched as a result. The still images of generals and other figureheads don't exactly come to life that well either.

As for sound, it's mostly uninspired. The audio reading by the actors on hand just seems to drag along with very little feeling, while the little music that's included in the game seems to try and deviate from the Top Gun soundtrack without directly copying from it. The radio chatter can get downright annoying at times ("Over G! Over G!") and you wish you could just shut it off, especially after the tenth time a pilot asks exactly what you're doing. Bleah.

The game runs into a series of problems during your flight time. For instance, there is a neat little idea where your perspective changes depending on your height in flight, with the screen dimming red or even sometimes black, like to the point that you're blacking out, but it comes across as annoying and takes away from the positive presentation that's there. Also, the missions involved in the game's Scenario and Challenge modes are over a bit too quickly, with no real change in the difficulty level, aside from the AI thinking of the enemies in the air and on the ground. I suppose a higher difficulty will please flyboys looking for a challenge, but it won't change the fact that you and your cohorts are done once you've fired a few missiles and hit your marks. The co-pilot system seems kind of useless, as you don't really see them in action as much as you'd like and instead just put up with that crappy radio banter.

If there is a redeeming factor here that makes Over G Fighters worth the rental, it's the multiplayer mode through Xbox Live, where you can take on seven other pilots in the air in furious mid-air combat. Having actual opponents to fly against is actually kind of a treat, as you actually compete against thinking people instead of an AI that has a tendency to fire missiles at you mindlessly. The combat's pretty solid, although the options provided are limited at best. You can't really go through any co-op missions together, which is a bummer. But, oh, well, you still have Quick Match and Deathmatch to consider, and I suppose that's better than nothing.

I didn't quite hate Over G Fighters, but I couldn't help but be nagged by the flaws that surfaced. The presentation could've used a little cleaning up, the controls would've benefitted from some tightening, the sound could've used a complete overhaul (complete with the firing of those actors), and some more options could've gotten thrown into the modes to give them some longevity. It's still got some good multiplayer, and flyboys will more than appreciate the number of aircraft involved, but it just seems overall that the game's a bit of an undera-G-ver. Heh, sorry for the pun. It was either that or take an example from my cohort Mr. Buffa and say "Why should you suffer like G did?"

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