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
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