Pilotwings usually falls into the demo category of Nintendo titles. This showcases Mode 7 scaler technology that gives the impression of 3D gameplay with technical wizardry.

Broken into missions using the jet pack, glider, parachuting and piloting both an airplane. Missions are marked on accuracy when running through rings, landing and speed.

You’re given a mark out of 100 with a score to aim for to progress through piloting ranks. On original hardware I’m sure it’s a massive pain, score poorly in a mission means failure of a rank and will require repeated tries to pass. I tended to cheese it by playing individual missions and replaying if I screwed up, instead of restarting the ranks clean.

I’m sitting at a 3 or 3.5 on this. I thought for a early SNES title it’s a great showcase of Mode 7 technology with a charming mission mode it does well - I think the Helicopter missions could be its own game or elements of this could have been made into a full game with more cohesion. Repetitive missions hinder the capacity of the game.

Al igual que F-Zero, Pilotwings se estrenó en 1991, pero este título en vez de velocidad nos ofrece vuelos al aire libre.
El juego cuenta con la ayuda del chip DSP para aplicar las técnicas del modo 7 también a los sprites (aunque que yo sepa solo lo aplica al avión). Usando solo recursos en 2D, el juego es capaz de crear la ilusión de estar volando al aire libre con bastante éxito.
Al principio puede parecer un juego bastante simple, pero los 5 modos de vuelo son muy distintos entre ellos. Además, el juego nos va poniendo unos desafíos y metas, que harán el juego interesante.
En ocasiones la verdad es que apetece dejar la misión como algo secundario y simplemente sobrevolar los distintos escenarios que nos presenta el juego, lo cual es señal del buen trabajo que han hecho aquí.
La banda sonora por su parte no es que sea algo del otro mundo, pero tiene algunos temas ya míticos que seguramente habréis escuchado en los juegos de Smash.
Pilotwings es un juego simple a primera vista pero que es divertido y entretenido, probadlo si tenéis la oportunidad.

I can appreciate the idea behind Pilotwings, but the execution is a bit shit. The game feels more like it was designed to showcase the graphical capabilities of the SNES than to actually be all that fun, but like, F-Zero does a great job at the fake 3D thing while being a ton of fun. A lot of the issue comes with depth, because everything is still 2D regardless of how it looks, so it feels a bit inconsistent. There are five categories of flight to work with and they all feel a bit like a minigame. None feel that bad, but none feel all that great. I'm sure this was cool shit in 1991, but it's nearly 30 years old at this point, and it's painfully obvious. 2/6

Pilotwings, at first glance, maybe doesn’t look like a very impressive game. After all, it merely consists of three visual elements; the sky, the ground, and the player’s avatar, each being flat. However, it is what the game achieves with these visual elements that matters most. And what it achieves, is a sense of freedom.

The structure of the game involves completing set challenges given to you by one of several instructors, with the successful completion of a challenge being required to progress to the next one. This is not freedom, it is a ruleset. But, that doesn’t matter. In fact, nothing matters, once you’re high in the air, soaring the pixellated skies, almost feeling the wind rushing past you… nothing holding you down. Just you, your hang-glider, and the infinite sea stretching to the horizon…

Occasionally, there are some helicopter combat sections.

In any case, for me, the challenges and “missions” are inconsequential. While my first complete play-through of the game was wrought with frustration, subsequent revisits have proven much more relaxing. The bi-plane, skydiving, and jet pack challenges are a breeze to get through, while the hang-glider challenges do still offer some difficulty. That said, swooping down in a perfectly executed arc, flipping the glider up and landing dead center on the target, once achieved, is a glorious feeling, well worth any aggravation that it took to get there.

But, the completion of a challenge, no matter how successfully, is always bittersweet. What it means is the end of another blissful jaunt through the skies. A return to the cold earth, or in some cases, a splashdown in the water. I feel most at peace in Pilotwings when I’m just moving from place to place, unrestricted by earthly tethers, and cushioned in the air… maybe even soaring on an updraft high into the sky.

I don’t get the same feeling from any of the game’s sequels. The higher fidelity they offer just exposes the limitation of their worlds, the edges that can be clearly discerned. Pilotwings has no edges. It looks almost as if you could just choose a direction, leave your little starting island, and fly out to the ends of the Earth… or to the point where your bi-plane runs out of fuel.

There’s a feeling I get out of this game that isn’t replicated anywhere else. For that reason it’s usually the Super Nintendo game I revisit the most, and stands far ahead of its limited number of sequels. There is just an inexplicable joy in flying through its skies, doing its little challenges, soaking in the sights. Truly a game I can lose myself in.