Wii

Pilotwings

Genre: Flight
Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo

Release Date(s): US: 2009-12-28

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Pilotwings Review

by Lucas M. Thomas - IGN.com | 03 February 2010 12:00

Take to the skies.

You could get three different games on Day 1 of the SNES launch. Super Mario World, the classic sequel to Nintendo's flagship run-and-jump platformer series. F-Zero, the high-octane debut of an all-new racing franchise for the company. And this game, Pilotwings -- which wasn't much like a game at all. Super Mario World and F-Zero were pretty straightforward in what they offered potential players, as platforming games and racers were already well defined by 1991. Pilotwings, though, went an entirely different direction -- it presented a package of low-impact, untraditional training sessions with a handful of different pieces of flight equipment. There were no princesses to save or finish lines to cross, just an open, aeronautic world that simply encouraged you to play around up in the air. It was, perhaps, an early sign pointing toward the free-flowing, open-world exploration that later Nintendo games would be entirely built around. Emphasis on early, though. Pilotwings on the SNES didn't actually let you just take off and fly around anywhere you please, as your freedom in flight was always limited to the time constraints imposed by whatever challenge you're currently undertaking.

Coming in for a landing.

Starting off in Pilotwings, you're presented with a flight instructor who offers you a lesson in piloting and parachuting. You take the controls of a biplane and attempt to land it safely on a runway, then you skydive through a set of rings and try to come to rest right in the middle of a target zone. If you're successful in these events and earn enough points for speed and accuracy, the instructor will certify your skill and you'll move on to the next lesson. Lesson 2 will then up the ante with more difficult plane and parachute segments, while adding in a third piece of equipment to test you on -- the experimental rocketbelt. Then Lesson 3 will offer all those again, and add in the thermal-riding hang glider. It's those four methods of sailing through the clouds that form the foundation of Pilotwings, and each one is fun to try -- Nintendo's expertise in control is easily felt in each event. The fun just doesn't last as long as you'd like. Since you're timed and given specific goals to try to achieve every time you pick a vehicle to command, you feel reigned in and restricted -- you'll want to just soar and explore, but you won't be able to. Later games Nintendo developed that built on Pilotwings' foundation -- like the sequel Pilotwings 64 and even the very recent flight segments of Wii Sports Resort -- let you feel a bit more free and open to go wherever you want. Going back to this original game, then, is a difficult step backward in time. There are a few other events to ultimately unlock, like an expert mode, a couple of wacky mini-games where you control a man with wings and even a kind of out-of-place helicopter rescue mission, but all the while you'll just be reminded of this game's age and how more modern releases have done a better job achieving what this first attempt first set out to do. Ultimately, though, that's got to be a compliment to Pilotwings. Though it may not have held up perfectly as a standalone game over these past twenty years, the legacy left by its spirit of adventure and willingness to present a very non-game type of experience right in the middle of a new system's launch line-up assure that it will always have a fondly remembered place in Nintendo's history.

Closing Comments
For an investment of eight dollars, downloading Pilotwings in its new Virtual Console re-release will net you an interesting piece of Nintendo's past. Those wanting a fuller, less restricted exploration experience, though, might be better off saving that money for the eventual re-release of Pilotwings 64, the sequel that fleshed out this game's concepts into a more robust experience -- or just keep the cash unspent entirely and go back to look at Wii Sports Resort's flight segments, which represent the 2009 advancement of what started back in 1991.

Supplied by IGN.com

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