Pilotwings is pretty impressive as far as launch games go, and a great technical showcase for the SNES' Mode-7. I was a bit too young at the time to fully appreciate it, but the leap from NES flying games like Top Gun to the far more believable 3D space of Pilotwings must've been incredible.

I've talked recently about getting a Super Famicom and buying games I'm confident I can play without knowing the Japanese language, but I might've underestimated the amount of reading you have to do in Pilotwings, because the majority of my playthrough was more-or-less spent flipping through my Japanese-only flight manual in a panic while "SINK RATE - PULL UP" blared from the console. Not that I'm good at this game to begin with. Even when I play the English version, I feel like I don't have a handle on things. I know I'm supposed to hit this draft and climb to 500 meters, but I can't even figure out how to keep my hang glider in the air and not accidentally dive-bomb the crowded stands of the USO show.

Unfortunately, I don't know if I'll ever get to play those late-game levels where Pilotwings suddenly morphs into a military shooter, but at least I got a cool looking box to put on my shelf.

Ultimately I think Pilotwings 64 is better, both in controls, variety, and fairness, but I think this is pretty fun. I think the use of Mode 7 in this game is still impressive, there were times it managed to trick me into thinking it was actual 3D, but no vehicle besides the light plane and helicopter ever feel completely right. I have no idea how to stop drifting in the rocketbelt, and both skydiving and hand gliding are fine until the arduous process of landing begins. One thing that I thought I was gonna hate was having to do all of the missions in a row for each lesson, but I actually think the idea works, since missions are short and it encourages getting really good at each one. Would still prefer the ability to retry any mission over and over like in 64, but I thought this game's loop was neat. If you like Pilotwings 64, you will enjoy this, but you'll also see how much that game improves on this one. Also, the last mission is bullshit, but the last missions in 64 were also kind of bullshit so I guess it's just series tradition.

One of the Super Nintendo's launch titles, and a showcase for Mode 7 graphics. This really feels like one of the first games of its kind, described by Wikipedia as an "amateur flight simulation" game.
It can get quite hard in later levels, and there's an Expert mode for you to play after you beat the normal difficulty, which... admittedly I haven't played, but it does unlock the true ending and credits, so there's that.
The variety of vehicles is pretty decent for the time, and they all control generally how you would expect them to control in real life. Some of them, like the Rocketbelt, do take a bit getting used to, but I think that adds to the game's uniqueness, especially for the era.
A nice game to try out, if you're interested in Nintendo's lesser-known franchises.

HIIIIIIGHWAY

TOOOOO THE

DANGER ZONE

While the tech presented in this game isn’t exactly impressive anymore, I still had a pretty fun time. The game feels surprisingly satisfying to control, and the five different modes of transportation feel great to perfect. I really wish the game was longer, and the structure was a bit different. I really wanted a whole list of Light Plant courses, and a whole list of Rocket Pack Missions. I could’ve done without the paraglider and skydiving, but they were still fun in their own regards. Helicopters felt underutilized and gimmicky, and the turrets were not fun to deal with. Also the scenes felt out of place, although I honestly might not say that if I had know this was a war game going in. I thought it was just a flight sim, and it definitely exceeded my expectations

Conquest

Dictatorship

Gets boring

What's wrong with me?

I need to find something to do, that's fascinating, guaranteed

Camping? No

Fishing? No

Not as much fun as total tyranny

Bah, what else could there be?

What do I need?

When it comes to the launch title of your video game console, there are two very important factors that said titles have to achieve in order to be deemed successful. The first of these is to attract attention towards themselves, show what this system has to offer and what could lead to other titles of similar quality later down the road, which would incentivise customers to spend their money on them for that holiday season. The second of these factors would be to show off what your console is capable of, showing off the new features it comes with when compared to either the previous console from the company, or other competing consoles on the market, making sure that you can stand out and above the rest. When it comes to Nintendo, they have managed to deliver plenty of launch titles over the years that have managed to succeed in either matching one of these factors, or even both at once, and which have resulted in some high quality titles that either stand on their own or are part of a successful franchise. One franchise in particular from the company consists of nothing but launch titles though, primarily being made to show off what their respective systems could do, and that franchise would happen to be Pilotwings.

Over the years, I had heard plenty about Pilotwings, either from word of mouth or, rarely, from Nintendo themselves, and from what I had heard, it sounded like a pretty neat little series that had some quality titles. However, I myself had never gotten around to playing it, primarily because I am not really a fan of flight simulation games. Not to say that they are bad, but it is just not really the thing I am looking for when it comes to a video games. Either way, after going for this long without touching it, I decided I may as well go ahead and give this series a shot, of course starting with the original game, and I gotta say…. yeeeeep. This is a flight sim alright. For what it is, the game is good, and it does its job very well, showing off just what the Super Nintendo was capable of when it came out, but this is definitely something that I probably won’t be going back to anytime soon, or at all.

The graphics are great for the time, not only providing plenty of bright and varied colors to look at, but also taking full advantage of the SNES’s capabilities to show off what the system could do, and it is pretty impressive for 1990, the music is… well, it is very limited, as there aren’t too many tracks to listen to, I guess because they wanted to make it “realistic”, but for the few tracks that are there, they are a good listen, the control, for the game we are dealing with here, is pretty solid, feeling heavy enough to where it feels realistic enough for the time, while also still having plenty of options to help you out in a tough situation, and the gameplay is extremely basic, and it probably won’t last you that long depending on how much you are willing to tolerate, but it does its job, and a damn good job at that.

The game is a flight simulator, where you take control of some random doofus we know nothing about, take control of a set of vehicles and air related stunts ranging from planes, hang gliders, sky diving, and even a jet pack, complete plenty of training missions involving going through rings, flying to certain points, and making sure to land properly, for god sake, take on several bonus games in the process to garner more points which either involve jumping on a bunch of platforms at once, or diving into a pool while… dressed as a penguin (you know, as one does when trying to get a pilots’ license), and qualify to not only move up to other levels of training, but also take on real flight missions with stakes behind them. It may seem like a lot for those who aren’t familiar with the flight simulator genre, but from what I can gather, this is all pretty basic stuff, so if you are looking for anything too new from this title, you may be disappointed. That being said, it does still manage to accomplish what it sets out to do, which is the most important result at the end of the day.

This game was meant to show off what the SNES was capable of, and it did so almost flawlessly. Not only are the graphics obviously a huge step up from what was seen from every game on the NES, but it also took full advantage of the console’s Mode 7 capabilities, providing plenty of sequences and graphics that, at the time, must’ve looked mind-blowing to consumers. Sure, it wasn’t able to utilize everything that the SNES was capable of, such as hidden features like the Super FX chip, but for being one of peoples’ first impressions to this new piece of hardware, aside from F-Zero, there was nothing else like it at the time. And as for the game itself, it can be a pretty decent time. Yes, there is a HUGE learning curve, especially for someone like me who doesn’t play these kinds of games, but when you get a handle on how to control all of these vehicles and stunts, it does feel fun to pull off a lot of the things you manage to do in this game, and it manages to throw new twists and turns at you as you progress to make sure that the game doesn’t come off as too easy.

With that being said though, if you are a huge flight simulator fan that has played plenty of others, then I’m not sure how you think about this game. Yes, it manages to do a lot for what it has to offer, but what it has to offer is pretty basic stuff that you have probably seen in many other games, and not just ones from the same genre, so there isn’t much the game has to offer here other than the basics. Not to mention, I’m not really a fan of how you technically have to play through the game twice in order to beat it. Granted, the second half of the missions are all somewhat different from the previous ones, and they do have new content and challenge, but considering that it starts you out on the title screen that now says “Pilotwings Expert”, it just feels like padding for the sake of it, and yeah, the game doesn’t last long at all, so this is to be expected, but for me, it isn’t really worth putting more time into just because of a few weather conditions.

Overall, despite being pretty basic and not offering much for the genre as a whole, Pilotwings does manage to fully accomplish what it sets out to do, being a pretty good launch title for the SNES, and as my first true exposure to the flight simulator genre, I can say that I had fun with it, even if I am not too eager to see what else the genre has to offer after this. I would recommend it for those who are fans of flight simulators, as well as those who want to see what the SNES provided at launch, but for others, there are definitely plenty of other games out there that do what this does, and manages to do it much better. Besides, you don’t need to sit there and constantly get scolded by your trainers in this game whenever you fuck up in anyway whatsoever. So what if I crashed your multi-million-dollar aircraft, Tony? You probably did as well too at some point, so SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Game #355

Pilotwings is one of the three Nintendo-published launch titles for the SNES. While I enjoyed the 3DS game, Pilotwings Resort when I was a kid, I never knew there existed pre-existing entries in the series, so I was curious in checking the original out

I like the concept of the game and the use of Mode 7 to mimic 3D graphics by rotating and scaling flat objects is impressive. In Pilotwings, you play through a variety of lessons in light plane flight, skydiving, gliding, and the use of a jet pack. You earn points based on whether you completed or failed an objective and receive comments from the instructors, and earning a specific amount of points can earn you pilot licenses. While I like that the game tries to go for more realism in this flight simulation game, it wasn't long before it started to get a little aggravating

The later levels can be a bit of a pain in the ass when it comes to landing your aircraft and don't even get me started on the helicopter missions. These missions that happen mid to endgame were frustrating as hell, and I couldn't beat them without using save states because dodging the missiles without dying in one hit was annoying. The best part about this game is the music, I quite like it

Pilotwings is not a good SNES launch title in my opinion, but it is an interesting one. I appreciate what it's going for, but the game feels clunky at times, and the irritating levels in the later half strip away the fun for me

This was excellent! All it basically consists of is scoring high in different exercises to get your certification. Not really much else to it but it's damn fun.

You start with flying a light plane which was difficult to me but a good challenge. Then they have you skydive which had some fun with free falling through rings and landing just right. Then there's a FUCKING JETPACK section which rules and I aced every time holy shit it felt so good. There's also hang gliding which I'm dogshit at and I hated it. It also has some bonus mini type things like a high dive into a pool and flying over water in bird wings.

The game ends with most of your different instructors kidnapped by the EVIL Syndicate and you pilot a goddamn helicopter over their base which is heavily fortified with AA guns and you shoot them up with rockets. Game goes to mellow rookie training exercises to HOLY FUCK EVERYONE IS DEAD UNLESS WE SEND YOU THE ROOKIE INTO A CHANCE COMBAT SCENARIO. It's wild.

After all that you do everything again but with WIND and other intense weather conditions and the variables of the training are more demanding. Once you do that you get ANOTHER FUCKING HELICOPTER MISSION?? It's basically the same but you're saving one guy and they don't even change the ending scene. Then credits roll and you are the best pilot in [country].

Real fun and challenging. Short and sweet too. I think it took me two three hour sittings? and I sucked at half the training exercises. Still a great time and something everyone should try just to experience NINTENDO HISTORY so yeah do that.

Good for a first game and good for a launch title to show off the system's capabilities, but sadly not too much more. I thought it was pretty charming and fun indeed, but there was quite a lot more trial and error than I'd hoped for. That's likely because the game is extremely short, so it uses its repetitive nature as a way to lengthen itself. It took a bit to get used to the flight controls, but I thought they were decently intuitive, especially for a flight sim on an early-90s console. Fun game, but hopefully its sequel is better. Having played the third game first, it's still cool to see where a lot of its ideas came from (e.g. the vehicles and general controls). The music's fucking great too, but that's to be expected from Nintendo.

The mission of the gaming tech demo is to convince the anticipative player of the next-gen hardware’s capabilities; a proof of concept, if you will. With how often the term’s lobbed as a dismissive pejorative, I find this descriptor something of a disservice to the Pilotwings games, what with how all three games still endure in players’ memories. In the case of the original, it’s not hard to see why: the Super Nintendo’s Mode 7 innovation is the perfect playground for aviation, as rotating maps masterfully craft the illusion of three-dimensional movement in our planes and hang gliders swirling around overwhelming landmasses and oceans. The stitched 16-bit steams have long since eroded with the industry’s evolution, but even now, as the sky-diver’s helicopter slowly ascends aloft over their landing grounds – anticipation funneling chills down our spines at the shrinking, pixelated earth below, awaiting our latest aerial stunt -- does the wistful enchantment of "how did they do that?” still escape our lips.

This isn’t to play revisionist history and depict Pilotwings as a visionary title inventing a new form of play -- flight sims were well already a thing in the 80’s, not the least in the ever-popular Microsoft Flight Simulator – yet it’s the application of Nintendo’s Golden Rule that makes it soar: anyone can gravitate towards its visuals and concept, but everyone will conform to Pilotwings’ demands of knifepoint precision. The pressure of achieving a good landing is as stressful as it is addictive, for woe is the player that undoes all their hard work with a crash landing. (Those revisiting it via Nintendo Switch Online will thank their lucky stars for the rewind feature)

Even so, Pilotwings is careful not to betray its serene nature. Yes, not every vehicle is intuitive -- impressive as it may be, I still can’t figure out the flux and motion behind skydiving – but the game’s scoring system allows enough wiggle worm for players to focus on their respective strengths; a subtle, innate form of encouragement symbolic of the treasured flexibility in Nintendo’s best offerings.

(It helps that Nintendo laced a fun layer of character beating beneath Pilotwings’ threadbare context – the exaggerated exasperations of your flight instructors are a hard-won achievement, yet the non-sequitur absurdity of the post-mission mini-games are as delightful as they are befuddling.)

Flown to the tune of Soyo Oka’s soundtrack – some of her finest during her Nintendo tenure, what with its combination of airy nostalgia and groovy jazz (as Smash Bros. has proven, the Light Plane theme is an underrated masterpiece) – and you have a launch game that earns its stripes. This progenitor may lack the freedom of its successors, but as players watch our planes take off into the wild blue rotary yonder, we realize we’re witnessing the maiden flight of Nintendo’s most legendary console.