Over G Fighters is one of the sleekest aerial combat games this year for the Xbox 360. We wrote a preview about it back in March 2006 talking about its grueling air-to-air, air-to-ground super sonic speed action. In the finished version, Over G Fighters is a remarkable feat, featuring excellent controls and realistic sounds. The only drawback of the game is the presentation, which isn’t as detailed as it should be, but the incredible combat experience more than makes up for it. Starting with the game’s storyline, Over G Fighters takes you into a long series of well-structured combat missions that involve subjugating the continuous threats of global terrorism throughout the different parts of Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America. From the main menu, you’ll choose your wingman and one of several world-class jet fighters, including the F-22A Raptor, the F-15E Strike Eagle, the F/A-18C Hornet and the MiG-29A Fulcrum.

The fighting sequence is relatively easy, which is perfect for arcade enthusiasts but hardly satisying for those sim players. The technique to acing your opponent couldn’t be simpler in this game. With the HUD exhibiting “Shoot”, during the lock-on, you just press A to fire your missiles. Then watch your enemy explode into chunks of debris that fritter away into the Earth’s atmosphere. You can increase the difficulty to expert mode if you want additional challenge. In this mode, you'll deal with several more incoming projectiles but it doesn’t mean that the artificial intelligence has anyway improved. In fact, your enemies are as just as gullible as they are in any other difficulty setting. Nevertheless, the real challenge comes in the multiplayer aspect of the game, where you'll face all human players. Playing against other humans is fun. It keeps you on your highest alert as everyone’s skills are tested. It also offers a decent number of exciting features such as cooperative play, versus mode, and the ever-popular deathmatch.

Unfortunately, the multiplayer portion of Over G Fighters can only be enjoyed playing online and there seems to be a lack of people participating in this experience. To compensate for the game’s lack of offline multiplayer modes, Over G Fighters has added the ability to create you own levels such as the control to redesign pre-existing maps and to manipulate the number of enemy fighters to make the missions more compelling. This is somewhat a resolution to pad out the game’s replay value and to try to keep gamers happy for now. Perhaps, the developer did not want to go all out with their ideas for multiplayer and are saving them for the sequel. Still, an offline one-on-one versus mode for a flight-based action of this type should come standard.

Graphically, the game looks good for the most part. Over G Fighters boasts some decent textures; however, the resolution does not measure up to the high definition quality that is relative to the Xbox 360. Most of the general layouts for the environments and building structures are comparable to the 128-bit format that is common to the Playstation 2 and the original Xbox. Needless to say, the particle explosions give off some fairly nice visual effects, and the design models for the aircrafts are quite realistic. The main highlight of the game’s presentation is the intro that truly entices you to join the patriotic stand to help put an end to the terrorist organization. Also, the game did an incredible job with the character representation used for the dialogues that is interesting, including the interface for menus, which are all well animated.
 
In the audio front, the game is livelier only if you’re using a surround sound system, particularly with 6.1 channels. You’ll hear the launching of missiles accurately represented and sounds of a roaring jet engine that feels like a bit too close for comfort. You’ll also hear waves of mid-air explosions with impressive acoustics. Not to mention the rock-based soundtrack adds a bit of adrenaline charge to the dog-fighting experience. In terms of voice over work, Over G Fighters did a solid job delivering a decent script. As for the rest of the audio like radio chatting, the game has kept the clamors to a more reasonable level, which avoids those extra background commotions that could interfere with your focus to the game’s flow of action.

Overall, Over G Fighters is a good flight-based action game. It plays great but the presentation is not what you would expect for the Xbox 360--except for the intro, which features some nice theatrical pitch. Moving your jet fighter is really easy and taking down enemies is quite simple. The fun part is going up against other humans in multiplayer either cooperatively or against each other. Unfortunately, the game does not support for this experience offline. The single-player missions are also fun but the downside is that nearly all the campaigns end very briefly.  Still, the game offers you relatively exciting combat action. Over G Fighters might look like a flight simulation with its detailed cockpit views and complex sensor equipments, but the handling is definitely arcade. If you’re looking into a relatively casual air combat experience, Over G Fighters is a good choice. However, if you’re seeking something far more intricate in terms of missions and strategies, then you definitely need to look elsewhere.