Secret Weapons Over Normandy

This game has been out since the fall of 2003, but I still play it fairly regularly. It’s an arcade shooter with sim elements to it. It’s not intended to have accurace physics, but it’s purely all about flying and blowing up as much stuff as possible, and it does a bang up job in my opinion. I have it for the PlayStation 2 console, but I believe it is available for Xbox and PC as well. In any case, it’s produced by LucasArts, the same company that’s famous for all the tons of Star Wars games out there. It follows pretty closely many of the major events of World War II, but it has a rather fictitious twist. You are an American pilot by the name of James Chase, and you join the Royal Air Force. You are assigned to a top notch RAF figher squadron called the Battlehawks. As the game progresses you will see combat during the Battle of Britain, North Africa, the Pacific, and deep in the heartland of Germany. On the way you encounter a highly trained Luftwaffe fighter squadron named Nemesis, and you must stop their sinister plans. It’s a very fun game, and the storyline is very engaging. For anyone who hasn’t tried it and you want a flying game that isn’t focused on realism then this is the game for you. It’s got plenty of missions, and a nice selection of airplanes to choose from. The mission types you’ll fly are varied as well, and the game becomes fairly challenging as you progress. It’s got a two player mode that features a few rather fun co-op misisons (most of which are competitive, but one of which is strictly about teamwork) as well as the usual instant action mode for one or two players where you simply dogfight either the computer or a human player. I thought I’d list the planes available in case anyone is curious.

Fighters

Hawker Hurricane Mk.I
Supermarine Spitfire Mk.V
Curtiss P-40B Warhawk
Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat
Messerschmitt Bf-109E-1
Focke-Wulf Fw-190A-1
Lockheed P-38F Lightning
Mitsubishi A6M2 “Zeke” (Zero)
North American P-51D Mustang
Curtiss XP-55 Ascender
Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet
Messerschmitt Me-262A-1a
Gloster Meteor Mk.III
Chance-Vought XF5U-1 Flying Pancake
Me-163 Komet
Do-335 Pfeil (Arrow)
Heinkel P.1078a

Attackers (Torpedo Planes Included)

Fairey Swordfish Mk.I
Douglas TBD-1 Devastator
Ilyushin Il-2M3 Sturmovik
Junkers Ju-87B Stuka
DeHavilland Mosquito Mk.IV
Junkers Ju-88A-4
SBD Dauntless

Bonus

X-Wing
TIE Fighter

Note: The X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Ju-87, P-40B, P.1078, Do-335, and Me-163 are only available in instant action and two-player modes.

The Wildcat, Dauntless, Devastator, and Ju-88 are all used at least once or twice in some of the single player missions, but aside from that they are only available in instant action and two-player modes.

The rest of the list is available for instant action, two-player, and all single-player campaign missions.

I believe if you have an Xbox and the Live online service you can download the MC.202 Folgore, F4U-1 Corsair, P-40E Warhawk, He-162 Salamander, and Ki-61 Hien (Tony) plus a few extra single and two player missions.

All in all and solid little World War II shooter. For anyone who’s interested you can probably get it at a very good price by now. Just thought I’d share.