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Though Pearl Harbor grants only a wedge of aircraft to pick from, the nine planes take to the air nicely and the game's control templates only emboss it further as a flight sim that's taking an accessible, arcadey approach. We had a chance to try all three in San Francisco, using mouse and keyboard, a flight stick, and the Xbox 360 controller to pitch our planes through stages. Each setup behaved well; though the mouse offered more precision in terms of maneuverability, we liked how well the 360's pad warmed up with the gameplay. What matters most is that you'll rarely encounter frustration from the controls -- an oddity among flight sims.

Visually, Pearl Harbor doesn't paint a picture-perfect landscape, but Legendo did lay down a good coat or two go give the graphics some luster. The lack of detail in damage modeling is definitely the most noticeable omission. Trailing smoke-tails are practically the only way you can tell if an enemy's hurting, and we would've liked to see some fragmentation of the aircraft itself when a bogey spirals down. A few stylistic elements help save this -- shell casings spit into the sea like groups of brassy cut grass, while the yellow tracers they produce etch dotted lines across the sky. When viewed from a distance, seeing the various streaks and vapor trails intersect is a real treat.

Will Pearl be a gem? In terms of visual variety and depth, the game probably won't compete with top-tier action titles, but its raw appeal should carry it above other WWII releases that tend to carpet-bomb retailers. Refined where it counts, look for Attack on Pearl Harbor to fly high if Legendo can craft a single-player campaign with staying power through waves of repetition. The developer's definitely got the multiplayer down, and the addition of an instant action mode boosts the replay value, but we hope Pearl can continue to be engaging through its half-hundred, relatively generic missions. Either way, at a $30MSRP, Pearl won't represent too great a risk to gamers when it dive-bombs shelves in early July.