The sequel to Airforce Delta soars over to the Microsoft camp in Airforce Delta Storm, a decent, albeit generic, shooter for the Xbox. Despite heavy draw-in and fog, Airforce Delta Storm looks great, with exact plane models, smooth animation, and natural, realistic environments, while the cacophony of roaring engines and pounding explosions almost make up for the abysmal 1980s rock soundtrack.

Konami has provided two control configurations—novice and expert. The novice setting is designed for the pick-up-and-play gamer, while the expert controls enable sharper banks and rolls along with a more dynamic range of movement. Both modes suffer from awkward button mapping, but once you reconfigure them into a more intuitive control scheme, you’ll find the controls to be easy and precise.

The gameplay, however, isn’t anything that hasn’t been done already, and the paint-by-numbers seek-and-destroy missions can get pretty dull after a couple of hours. Delta’s a worthy sortie for rookies, but combat vets should study the intel before committing to this mission.