Airforce Delta Strike blends sharp 3D aerodynamic graphics with that of anime style cartoon characters in a strange, storytelling take on flight sims. The images you get when you are soaring through the air are the antithesis of what you see on the ground. The 3D gameplay draws you into feeling a sense of realism (to an extent), and the over exaggerated animated characters readily detach you from that feeling during downtime. The actual quality of the 3D graphics my be lacking a bit in the detail department, but the contrast between polygons and animated still frames of characters is enough to give Airforce Delta Strike a sense of uniqueness.

The flying portion of the game is permeated with explosions, gunfire and radio chatter, the last of which will have you at your wits end. The characters' voices are what you might expect to hear from a low rate anime flick. They are slightly on the poor side, and hearing the constant jabbering of them in your cockpit may be enough to make you turn the sound down, but the action is usually intense enough and over quickly, so the dialogue doesn't pose a serious threat. On the other hand, there is no hope for the music. The score in Airforce Delta Strike is 100 percent Japanese rock and roll with some soothing downtime music for when the action lulls. If that's you're kind of thing, enjoy. If not, it will only make the experience worse.

Airforce Delta Strike is caught in limbo somewhere between a hardcore flight sim and an arcade style plane shooter. As a member of a fictitious air force in a fictitious world, you fly sortie after sortie in a number of different missions that include air to ground, air to air, and even missions in space.

The game progresses in a mostly linear fashion, but at times it does let you pick and choose between a couple of missions and the order in which you want to complete them. When you embark upon one of these missions, you also get to choose which pilot you want to play as (there are eight in total). This adds some depth to the gameplay, as each pilot flies different planes and will always play a different role in each mission. It doesn't single-handedly make the game great, but it does add for some depth and replay value.

After completing a mission, you will be directed to the debriefing upon which you will find out the sum of money you have earned. Completing objectives and killing bad guys all add up to the grand total of credits you will receive after the mission. With this sum of money you can go and buy new planes (which come to a hefty total exceeding 100), upgrade planes, repair planes and acquire new weapons.

The story actually unfolds in the air as well as the ground, but the main plot exposition happens while you are on the ground. Airforce Delta Strike takes a page from Wing Commander in this respect in that you are actually able to converse with your fellow pilots between missions. It may not be as in depth as Wing Commander, but it does add a little bit of immersiveness to it all.

Airforce Delta Strike varies the difficulty with different control schemes instead of upping the challenge in the actual gameplay. Each scheme does make a big difference, and it seems that the Novice control setting is harder than the Ace setting. Things also get a little sticky when you are in the mission and your objectives are relayed to you via in flight dialogue, which is easy to miss amongst all the turmoil.

Airforce Delta Strike's attempt to combine flight sim elements with quick and easy gameplay falls a little short of the mark. Of the three different views you can switch through, only the 'over the shoulder' view is worth anything. All the readouts and gauges on the screen are practically worthless and just take up precious space. Apart from that, the only weapons you'll ever really be using are missiles and since you have an unrealistic number of them, you never have to worry about peppering your target with too many of the things. While this makes killing targets a bit easier, it takes away from what little strategy there is in the game.

Aside from the single player experience, there is not much else to do. You can go back and play any mission you've beaten, or you can watch any replay of a mission you've saved. The choices here are thin, folks. Airforce Delta Strike doesn't have quite a solid core, and any extra goodies are weak additions at best. Unless you really like watching annoying anime characters talk about the most insipid things, this game is not for you.