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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.