Blazing Angels is a 2006 video game about a (fictional) World War II American Squadron, who fight for the RAF in the 1st Eagle Squadron at Dunkirk, over London and at Al Alamein, then get transferred to Pearl Harbour to train pilots just before the attack. After taking part in a bunch of Pacific missions, including Midway (twice), Rabaul and New Georgia, they get sent back to Europe for Operation Overlord, taking part in D-Day, the Liberation of Paris, the Battle of the Bulge and a final raid over Berlin.
Later received a sequel the following year, titled Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII. It tells the story of an elite secret American squadron formed before the United State's official entry in the war called "Operation Wildcard", as they assist several allied forces, all that while stealing or facing off the inventions of the Wehrmacht's Secret Weapon division.
This game provides examples of:
- Ace Pilot: Your squadron, of course, basically winning entire battles singlehandedly. Christopher Robinson, the second game's protagonist, was specifically chosen because of the "If it flies..." principle, since he could take pretty much any plane to the sky.
- America Won World War II: Played with. The main squadron does beat the crap out of anything they come across and go on a lot of important missions, but random American NPCs die as often as other allies and they often have support from other allies.
- Anachronism Stew: The final mission of Secret Missions of WWII has the de Havilland Vampire listed as the recommended plane, even thought it wasn't produced until after the end of the war.
- Artistic License – History: The writers of the first game seems to think that "the Desert Rats" refered to Rommel's troops.
- Also, much to the amusement of British players, the game's British pilots would often cry "For the Queen!" as they fly into the fray. Yeah, "Queen"
.
- Also, much to the amusement of British players, the game's British pilots would often cry "For the Queen!" as they fly into the fray. Yeah, "Queen"
- Badass in Distress: In the sequel, Thorpes is shot down and captured by the Japanese, leading to the rest of the squadron attempting to rescue him.
- Bilingual Bonus: In the Playstation 3 and Wii versions of the original game, save the first mission post Pearl Harbour (when a couple of Japanese radio messages are translated) and the final mission (where the German is translated on purpose), the languages are left untranslated, with members of the squad occasionally translating snippets. But for some reason, totally averted in the XBOX 360 version, which is Just a Stupid Accent.
- Blood Knight: Frank. Tom to an extent during the latter part of the game due to Joe's death.
- In the second game, Thorpe.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Frank mostly, but the entire squadron at one point or another.
- Cool Plane: A given, considering this is a World War II game, with various planes being unlocked as you go on, including the Gloster Meteor, the first Allied Jet fighter, which, once unlocked after the final mission is the equivalent of a Flying Brick, being easily the best plane in the game, only almost matched by the ME-262.
- Deadpan Snarker: The player character and Frank. Also some of the other NPCs.PC: *in response to Joe crying out about where all the German planes were coming from* Germany?
- Death Seeker: Frank (sort of. He does say, "Who wants to live forever?" at one point). Tom during and after D-Day after Joe's death.
- Eagle Squadron: The first part of the first game is based on the Trope Namer: the American pilots who flew and fought for the British RAF before America entered the war.
- Featureless Protagonist: The first game's Player Character, reminiscing about his past while you don't learn anything about HIM.
- Flying Brick: The Meteor and ME-262. The Japanese version is just as fast, but with inferior firepower. Most planes become this to one extent or another after being upgraded.
- The sequel features more jets earlier on, so the role is given to the Horten Ho-229.
- Famed In-Story: The titular squadron are known as the Angels of Dunkirk.
- Framing Device: The unnamed captain is talking about his experiences in World War II as an old man. Similarly, Secret Missions of WWII has Robinson reminding himself of his adventures while performing at an air stunt show.
- Gameplay Ally Immortality: Your allies are invulnerable to your attacks. However, at the end of certain missions, you can see that they have a smoke trail behind your plane, indicating that while being hit with eight air to ground rockets and dozens of thirty millimeter bullets (which kills most enemies in the game in less than a second) isn't enough to damage them visibly, a few machinegun rounds fired off by the enemy is enough to set them on fire.
- Improbable Weapon User: Twice in the sequel.
- The first has you testing a recon plane which has a giant lightbulb on its back which can flash brightly. It has no weapons, but when enemies come in, you notice that flash is blinding, and you're in an area full of icebergs...
- Another level has a tesla coil attached to your plane, which can give of flashes of lightning.
-
Manual Misprint: The manual of the sequel implies you can play the skirmish mode in single player (you can't) and describes several multiplayer modes that are not present in the final game. - No Name Given: Despite not being an Heroic Mime or a Featureless Protagonist, the player character in the first game curiously has no name. The credits even just call him "Player". Averted with the sequel, with Captain... Christopher Robinson?
- No Such Agency: The pilots of Operation Wildcard are instructed to fly in secret. Even after the war, they took their feats and accomplishments to the grave.
- Not Quite Dead: The German ace from the blitz mission turns up in the last mission leading the Nowotny Squadron of ME-262s, much to the squadron's surprise.
- Poor Communication Kills: One missions of Secret Missions of WWII end with you blowing up a torpedo launched by a clueless allied submarine toward a POW boat you just captured.
-
Spiritual Successor: Was succeeded by H.A.W.X., another series of unrealistic flight sims developed by Ubisoft Romania (though set in the modern days). - Squad Controls: You have the ability to make your team do things such as repair your plane or fly ahead to attack the enemies. The other buttons are also reserved for the squad's special abilities.
- Frank and Cowboy and temporarily, Max have the ability to blitz an enemy squadron, immediately killing all of them.
- Tom and Teach cover you, taking every plane chasing you off your back.
- Joe can repair your plane to mint condition if you finish a Quick Time Event. Milo instead does this at checkpoints throughout the level.
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Secret Missions of WWII features things like a giant Zeppelin over Caire and an oversized Tesla gun.
- Translation Convention: Only twice, and for plot reasons.
- Trash Talk: No matter what mission it is, your enemies will taunt you, A LOT. Your wingmen, of course, respond in kind.
- Two-Fisted Tales: A secret squadron of elite pilots taking on Nazis as they use AND destroy every one of their deadly doomsday weapons amidst the backdrop of World War 2? The second game is this in spades.
- War Comes Home: A fictional American Fighter Squadron was fighting on covert missions for the allies prior to the war, but a variation of this trope occurs when the player participates in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. From then on, your squadron's role in the war becomes official as you fight both in the Pacific and over Europe.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Frank invokes the trope by name, and Tom's response is, "I do."
