This seems to be the season for classic themed war games, doesn't it? Electronic Arts already has their effort out the door with Medal of Honor: Rising Sun; Activision's striking with their own effort, Call of Duty; and that's not even counting some of the past games that have come down the pike, ripped from the headlines of some of the world's bloodiest wars. Now enter LucasArts, who have their own historical offering with Secret Weapons Over Normandy, courtesy of the same development team that brought us the TIE Fighter and X-Wing games on the PC. This time, though, the action takes mostly to the air, in a variety of old-school 1940's war planes, as you take on the Third Reich in a number of missions.

The story reflects the theme nicely, as cinemas set up each mission with detail. Headlines that look like they're straight out of newspapers flash on the screen, and then you're briefed and handed a number of team members to help you out, including co-pilots and other cohorts dedicated to bringing down Hitler's men. You can skip past them if it gets boring and get right into the missions, or even take on some tutorials to get the hang of wingman calling, shooting down targets, and going on bombing runs.

The bombing engine is impressive, but takes time to get used to. The camera follows your plane from an aerial angle and paints a bullseye on the ground showing where your bombs will go. You'll have to be careful as they're in limited supply and some timing is necessary. The ground missions work great as well, allowing you to pinpoint targets nicely and then take them down with rattling shots that rip apart their precious armor. But the game's meat and potatoes lie in its aerial combat, and it absolutely rocks. The game has control mechanisms that allow you to lock on to targets, do aerial tricks, and get involved in some slick combat with run-n-gunners and typical pilots. It's easy to get into, but if you're still afraid, the tutorials help. Having wingmen on hand to call commands upon (a wink to the Rogue Squadron games) is nice.

The game's got a sweet presentation overall. The voice work is faithful, the music is perfect for the theme, and the game looks the part, with beautiful terrain to fly across and great little things, like the way planes smoke and damn near disintegrate once you take them apart with your gunfire. The frame rate can be an issue at times, slowing the game down ever so slightly, but the flow never really drops to the point of frustration. There's plenty of challenge within the 30 plus missions, and you can even change the difficulty if you feel like a top gun.

Secret Weapons Over Normandy also has a cool two-player mode, where you can challenge a friend to dogfighting action. In addition, it has the advantage of Xbox Live downloads, where you can snag new aircraft that are released in a timely manner through LucasArts. You can also unlock two really cool crafts upon the game's completion; a TIE Fighter and an X-Wing. Hey, you've got to admit, hunting down German aircraft with the Force on your side is a great benefit. One big question still remains...if Xbox Live downloading was included, then why not Xbox Live play itself? With a little more effort, this would have been a stellar addition to the product and put it on par with Crimson Skies.

Nevertheless, Secret Weapons Over Normandy still stands as one of the better sleeper hits for the Xbox this season; filled with the kind of exciting combat that Rising Sun wished it possessed. It's not as smooth sailing as Crimson Skies, but it's close. In this day and age when quality development should count for something, that's close enough.