Unlike most flight sims, Blazing Angels actually looks exciting. You've got fighter planes all around you blasting bullets and missiles everywhere, bursting into flames as they're hit and leaving trails of black smoke as they plummet towards the earth. You don't get that sort of thrilling action in your average plane game - everything's been stripped down to the basics, and it's a lot better for it.

The lush visual detail, where you fly through gorgeous scenery battling huge swarms of enemies, and the rich comic book-style World War II mood, suck you in from the moment you fly out on your first mission. It's all kicking off at ground level too, with tanks, soldiers and anti-aircraft units going for it below amid the massive explosions. Blazing Angels parks itself firmly and unashamedly in the space marked 'action'.

As a result, it's dead easy to play, thanks largely to a cool target-tracking camera system that lets you point the camera directly at your target by simply holding the Left trigger. As well as making buildings or ground units a cinch to find, this camera system also makes dogfights far more enjoyable. If you've ever played a proper flight sim, you'll know how infuriating it is to lose sight of the enemy plane - you spend ages doing circles in search of them, only to get a brief glimpse as they whoosh past your nose-cone and disappear behind you again. In Blazing Angels, you just yank L and you've got them in your sights instantly - your only concern is getting your plane behind them for the shot. And with all steering and altitude control done with the Left stick, manoeuvring your plane couldn't be easier.

The 38 playable aircraft range from nimble fighters to more menacing heavy bombers, but enemy planes aren't your only targets. You can fire missiles at ground units like tanks, drop devastating bombs to destroy bigger land targets like bridges, or even launch torpedoes into the sea to take out huge battleships. One level even sends you out on a reconnaissance mission, armed with nothing but an onboard camera, to take pictures of hidden Nazi base camps.

You've got varied missions, solid controls, and stunning graphics - so why hasn't this game won an Elite badge? There are two main reasons. The first is the lack of speed. Even modern flight sims, where you're flying supersonic jets, can feel slow because of your high altitude - but these 1940s propeller planes fly at a snail's pace. In an effort to create a sense of speed the game blurs the outside of the screen and your pad vibrates when your going flat out. But it doesn't feel fast, more like a clapped-out Fiesta rattling along as it struggles to reach 70mph.

The second problem is repetition. When you're attacking a group of ground units you pass over them while shooting, then turn round and take another pass, repeating the process until they're all dead. After 15 minutes you'll get pretty sick of making repeated passes over the same ground targets. Killing wave after wave of enemy planes in the numerous dogfights is equally monotonous. Although levels like the recon one add a little variety, dogfights and bombing make up the game's majority, and they get tiresome very quickly. You probably won't bother with the separate Ace Duel mode either, which puts you in dull one-on-one battles against the computer. And after all that, would you really want to do even more dogfighting in multiplayer mode? The lack of speed prevents this from having the kind of thrills you'd hope for. You can also play some single-player missions in co-op - but you have to unlock them first, and you probably won't want to play them again after you've finished the solo campaign.

Blazing Angels isn't a bad game. The fantastic visual detail and easy controls make it immersive and challenging, and if you're into flight sims or WWII games will really enjoy its sinister atmosphere, powerful score and deeply satisfying explosions when the bullets hit home. But everyone else will quickly grow tired of the repetitive missions, and once the game's finished there's very little replay value.

1. A brilliant-looking game with some of the most detailed scenery we've seen in a flight sim.
2. Easy controls makes Squadrons Of WWII a breeze to play and also perfect for beginners.
3. The target-tracking camera is so useful that we don't want to play another flight sim without one.

1. The repetitive missions make playing any further than the halfway point a bit of a chore.
2. There's very little illusion of speed, and the added motion blur effect totally fails to make it feel any faster.

An immersive combat flight sim with great controls, let down only by repetitive missions that limit its lifespan.