Genre: Shooter
Developer: SME Dynamic Systems
Publisher: 1C Company

Like all of the games that have carried the IL-2 Sturmovik title over the years, Birds of Prey features beautifully staged backdrops for its combat, with the sole criticism being the lifelessness of the ground during low-altitude flight. Cleanly modelled aircraft exhibit realistic looking flight patterns, and the menus and text are conspicously polished given the notorious lack of quality in previous Sturmovik-engined titles.

Aircraft fire and engine noises are realistic enough for casual observers of World War II's aerial knowledge sphere, and the voice acting that accompanies the missions, in the form of pre-briefings and in-flight commentary, is high quality. Jeremy Soule, of Elder Scrolls and Neverwinter Nights fame, delivers a rousing orchestral soundtrack that conjures appropriate war-time heroic imagery.

It is perhaps not a safe assumption that the handheld market would prefer a "flight sim" with mechanics as absurdly watered down as this PSP adapation of Birds of Prey, yet that is the assumption SME Dynamic Systems made. Simply put, gaining and losing altitude does not cause any change in airspeed, which essentially removes all semblences of realistic aerial combat. Additionally, there is no throttle control, only "speed up" and "slow down" buttons, with airspeed reverting gradually to a baseline when the buttons are released.

This PSP adaptation of Birds of Prey is not a flight sim-- it is a shooter, very similar in nature and mechanics to the 3DO's "Star Fighter", except with World War II planes instead of space ships. As a flight sim, this title is a joke. As a shooter with large, free-roaming 3d stages and a pseudo-realistic World War II setting, the title stacks up reasonably against comparable games.