Written by: Alex

 

 

 

As one of the release titles for Nintendo’s new glasses-less 3D handheld, the Monster Games developed "PilotWings Resort" once again sets players the task of learning to fly. Given a range of aircraft and relaxing island to explore, the aerial acrobatics of the game offer an ideal opportunity to really show off just what the 3DS’s stereoscopic screen can do.

 

 

The original Pilotwings was released close to twenty years ago for the SNES (1992). Back then it was in many ways a tech-demo to show off Mode-7, a technique used by the SNES to scale sprites and create a sense of depth and scale.

 

Now, with some fifteen years since the last N64 instalment, the series returns with Pilotwings Resort this time for the 3DS but once again showing off Nintendo’s technical ingenuity.

 

 

Nintendos’ faux flight simulator always had an air of the comical about it and Pilotwings Resort is no exception. Returning to Wuhu Island (from Wii Sports Resort) the aim is to complete challenges to gain a flight licence in the mission mode, or just fly around and collect items in free fly mode.

 

 

There are three standard craft available from the very start of the game: hand glider, plane and rocket belt make. These make up the bulk of the missions but these are occasionally spiced up with a little variation that offer some customisation to the existing vehicle classes, but they always remain fairly close to their categories archetypes. But to their credit when new/altered aircraft appear they are genuinely exciting because of the differences in their control. For example speed of the jet (the plane upgrade) may make very few changes to the input, but the required finesse at the higher speeds makes a difference to the way it must be played as the turning circle grows dramatically.

 

Of these craft variations my favourite was the squirrel suit which allowed me to freefall hundred of meters to the ground. I think the reason it was my favourite of the missions was that it was the closest to the frivolity of the original game, and the skydiving that was once my favourite part of the series. But my time with the suit was brief as it made up only one level of the many other missions that at times became quite repetitive.

 

 

Over the course of the seven levels of flying licence that make up Pilotwings Resort’s missions mode I was asked repeat the same tasks innumerable times. Flying along dotted flight paths and through rings did at times wear thin but for the most part just as it was getting too much something new was thrown in for one mission to brake it up. Be it taking photos, bursting balloons, stunts or shooting targets, the variation these twists offer in later missions becomes a welcome relief to the more seasoned player.

 

 

It is a far cry from the earlier Pilotwings which saw birdmen, penguins, skydiving and helicopter mission along side the same core that Pilotwings Resort has, but the pace and challenge are well balanced through out to ensure there is always something to bring you back.