Pilotwings 64

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your memories and opinions of Pilotwings 64 for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

[The Baboon Baron]

I missed the first Pilotwings- I was very young when the SNES was at its heyday, and I had thrown my stock behind Sega’s Mega Drive. However, the N64 later won me over with its 3D worlds and soon after, I purchased a copy of Pilot wings 64 from my local games exchange.

I’m so glad I did too, as it was my first experience of what could be called a flight sim, and as the Cane and Rinse team so accurately pointed out, Pilotwings makes for a wonder palette cleanser. Many wistful hours were spent soaring through the sky. At the time, the places you could fly around seemed truly massive, full of secrets and treats to be found. Modern sandbox games often boast of allowing the player to climb anything they can see, voyage to any mountain or just fly off into the sunset. But Pilotwings 64 was the first example of this to my mind, allowing the player to be limited by only their imagination and their fuel tank.

Sure, looking back now the roads had no cars, the fields no trees, and there weren’t that many secrets to find. Though discovering that Mario could be turned into Wario with a well-placed rocket was pretty mind blowing! But never the less, it was a joy to fly around and attempt the increasingly difficult challenges.

Back in Nineties in the UK there was a magazine unimaginatively titled ‘N64 magazine’, at the back of each issue they had the “Skill Club” were a set of challenges were listed, and if you completed them and sent in proof (film-based photography of CRT TV’s… a nightmare) you could be printed in the magazine as a bronze, silver or gold Skill club member. Seems silly now, but I worked ridiculously hard to obtain my Gold membership, and one such headache to complete was Pilotwings.

Make no mistake, this pleasant flight school game is really hard! Hand-gliding alone took me hours to get the hang of, requiring millimetre- perfect control of the analogue stick, and remember to not stick the landing! Several of the challenges (particularly the later ones) required significant practice and not to mention luck to score that 100/100 pts. But it was all worth it, as replays had that rare, but much sought after “just one more go” quality, that so many games don’t have but wish they did.

I never had a 3DS, so I missed out on Resort, though from what I can gather it wasn’t all that. Shame that the IP hasn’t continued, as particularly on the Wii U, the duel screen element could have been used so well to make a cockpit-esque environment. Perhaps there will be another one day, but until then I have nothing but positive memories of Pilot Wings 64.

3WR- Perfect Landing Precision.

[Alex79]

I tried this game and never liked it as much as the original. No plane, no game.

THREE WORD REVIEW: Series got worse.

[Iain[Ian]Ianson]

I couldn’t believe how good this game looked when it was first revealed. There was a VHS included in an issue of N64 magazine, containing a short snippet of bird-man gameplay on the snowy level. I watched it over and over as a young teenager, while I desperately tried to save for the console I would only get years later.

It’s a fine game that still holds up. It’s incredibly easy to parse and understand. The difficulty scales really well over it’s total play time. You feel like you’re really mastering something as each hour pleasantly drifts by.

[Simonsloth]

I’ve missed the boat here I think.

Quick thoughts. I bought an N64 for the first time this year for this game as not available legitimately elsewhere. Playing it on my flatscreen revealed an incredible fuzzy washed out experience completely at odds with the screenshots I had seen so I then went out and bought a cute little CRT tv.

It looked phenomenal. By comparison it was like a painting in motion with incredibly deep vibrant colours. The N64 controller itself is also perfectly tuned for playing this game and offered a level of precision I had not experienced in the original on virtual console.

My two main criticisms are lack of multiplayer and the fact the best mode from the original was stripped. There are in fact fewer wings on this game not the 64 I was promised. It’s still a light hearted loveable game which nowadays would be lost on an online store somewhere rather than given the limelight as a physical hardware exclusive.

I’m glad I played it and if it had a competitive mode I would be going back again.

[ratsoalbion]

You’re in time.