One of my favorite types of games to play is flight sims and they can be in World War 1, World War 2, Space or Modern Times, I could care less, just as long as the game is good. So I jumped at the chance to play Air Conflicts Aces of World War II by Graffiti Entertainment on the Playstation Portable. I was not expecting it to compete with Blazing Angels or the recent Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. as they were on PC and consoles but I did hope for some quality. Was I let down? Keep reading for your answer.

There are several gameplay problems with Air Conflicts from the very poor controls which are over-reactive for pin point flying when you need to use your guns. The fighters in the game were agile in real life but perform more like a ferret on crystal meth in the game for the first few minutes in the air and then when you become used to the controls they are not much better. Bombing is a poor affair. You can activate a bomb sight which works well but the bombs are so under-powered I hit a truck directly with a bomb and it did not do anything. Flight combat also only has you able to turn and climb and dive. There are no barrel rolls, loops or any other maneuvers which normal games have and the PSP certainly could have handled.

The in game missions are normal flight combat missions from patrols, to dog fights to bombing and that is ok. There are even some interesting missions. Such as one of the Royal Air Force (British) campaign missions had me sink a U-Boat with bombs before it could launch torpedoes and sink allied ships. But there are so few missions in scope, it seems the designers did not play any of the other arcade flight sims on the console or PC market.

The user interface clutters up the PSP’s limited screen real estate and this annoyed me immensely. Especially for the fact there was no altimeter and while a game like this did not need it, especially with the incomplete control scheme adding this would have at least said the developers tried to make a honest game.

If you have a friend who wants to try the game, and I wish more developers would implement this into their PSP titles, you can wirelessly send them a demo copy of the game for multiplayer gaming and one single player mission. This is a great way to try the multiplayer out before hand or if you friends cannot find the game to rent or buy. Overall though the multiplayer did not keep me interested, nor did it keep my nephew interested beyond a few games as there are superior and to be honest more fun multiplayer games on the Playstation Portable. There will be a select few gamers who will enjoy the combat enough to play multiplayer and get their monies worth.

Air Conflicts graphics are sneaky at first they seem to be good with a nice 3D model of your plane but everything else you fight or bomb or fly over is just low quality. The game just comes across as a low quality attempt to cash in on the more fun action flying games out there. Blurry textures are everywhere and in the end it looks very ugly. Audio wise the game is actually good with nice sound effects for engines, music, bombs and more. The sad fact is the audio is the best part of the game and that does not save the game at all.

With a weak single player mode bringing down the game for most people the only real value is in the multiplayer and the developers did a good thing with allowing the person with the game to send a demo version to their friend so they can play multiplayer. The demo version even has a single mission for players to try the actual game before they consider buying it. But the multiplayer does not do enough to make the game a worthwhile purchase or even something to play more than a couple of times. There are just better multiplayer games out there for your PSP.

Alas if you are expecting a World War II version of H.A.W.X. or even just a good action flight sim to play on your PSP you are out of luck. With almost everything in the game so poorly designed and implemented I was left wondering how the game was published in this sorry state. Not a rental and certainly not a buy, just stay away from this and keep walking.