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Pilot wings has always been synonymous with “Nintendo trying to show what a system can do”, the first Pilot Wings was showing off Mode 7 on the SNES, Pilot Wings 64 showed off its ability to have giant maps, and let’s face it, having a map of the USA that big is still impressive. Now to show off Nintendo’s latest portable’s 3D capabilities is a new Pilot Wings to follow the completely irregular tradition.
Pilot Wings Resort takes place on the Island that Wii Sports Resort took place, all the landmarks are there including the hidden spots. While it is a great location to have a Pilot Wings’ game in, it is sad to say that it’s the only map for players to play in. None of the variety of locations that we’re use to in Pilot Wings 64 is here, just 3 (one big one, and two barely significant ones) islands on one map. Being fair though, the draw distance looks amazing in this world, usually on consoles polygons keep popping up to maintain a constant framerate, and there’s barely any visible popup (if any) in Pilot Wings Resort.
You are given a series of missions and are limited to 3 categories, planes, jetpacks and gliders. eventually you’ll have different forms of flights in rare cases, but they all fall under those 3 and barely have any difference. Pilot Wings 64 was pretty massive for its time and had a good variety of missions for you to follow, Resort on the other hand feels rushed in the missions department and doesn’t have that much variety, it’s usually just popping balloons, shooting targets or hopping on platforms.
While the graphics look great in this game, it definitely has the worst 3D I have seen on a 3DS. In order to have the 3D to work, the 3D dial should be at a very low setting. I never thought the 3D on the 3DS would hurt my eyes as it never did with the past few games, in fact it looked quite gorgeous in Steel Diver. In Pilot Wings Resort, if you set the 3D dial too high and you will see doubles and you won’t be able to see the background very clearly. Kind of understandable since your focus point is between the plane and the background, but it is still very unacceptable.
Putting the mission mode aside, the only other mode in this game is the free fly mode. We all remember how the bird man was the only free fly mode back in Pilot Wings 64. In Resort, you get to use all the aircrafts in the game, except that you have time limit. How is it free form if you’re limited to 2 minutes around the island?
All in all, Pilot Wings Resort is an okay game, it isn’t as fun or as memorable as the one on the Nintendo 64. It’s a little too short and a little too repetitive compared to its predessor.
What we think: Can hardly recommend the game. It isn’t too bad though, but paying full price for a game that has too little to do is a hard sell. Better to borrow it from someone who already has it and save your cash for something bigger, possibly Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The game feels like it could have been a mobile game from the amount of content in it, and isn’t worth it’s price.
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